Hercule

An Italian Renaissance plaque depicting Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra, this brooch preserves the memory of an object closely bound to conjugal life in the Renaissance: the marriage casket.

Decorated with a scene from the Twelve Labours of Hercules, the plaque depicts the hero’s confrontation with the Lernaean Hydra, a monster with nine serpent heads. Hercules appears clad in the skin of the Nemean Lion, armed with his club, engaged in the combat that affirms his strength and valour.

If, as seems probable, the casket from which this plaque comes was intended as a nuptial gift, then the choice of Hercules takes on a moral significance. Here, the myth celebrates masculine virtue, while another iconographic narrative may well have served, in counterpart, to extol the feminine qualities expected within the union.

A fragment of heroic virtue now rests upon the body.
Hercule is a Love Jewel.