Plaquette with Hercules and Diomedes

The central part of this ornamental boss depicts Hercules fighting the carnivorous mares of Diomedes in a landscape suggested by trees and a castle on the left. This scene is copied from an original composition found on a circular plaquette by Moderno (Galeazzo Mondella) dated 1508 showing the Death of Hippolytus, son of Theseus. Hercules and a fifth horse were added to Moderno’s scene, which shows four horses and Hippolytus at the bottom falling from his chariot, to transform it into Hercules and Diomedes (Hippolytus being reinterpreted as Diomedes killed by his own horses).

German bronze founders would regularly use Italian medals or plaquettes as models for their works, including decorative elements, like this one, for various objects like powder flasks or pistols (a use suggested by the four holes on the rim). They also produced similar bosses for decorating the sides of horse bits.

This scene seems to have been a common design for bit bosses and plaquettes made in Southern Germany in the second half of the 16th century (see also 42.50.161).