An Italian bronze pax with a 'Crucifixion' plaquette after a design by Moderno, ca. 1500

Dim.: 12,5 x 8,5 cm

Ref.: The Ashmolean Museum, WA 1888.CDEF.B616, for a nearly identical plaquette with a slighty larger border, published in Warren, Medieval and Renaissance sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, vol. 3, no. 298. Another nearly identical is slightly smaller as it has no border, and is shown under no. 299. Here, the author states: 'One of Moderno's mosot complex compostions whiich was also immensely successful, to judge from the large number of surviving examples.

Moderno (Galeazzo Mondella) (1467-1528) is the pseudonym of a goldsmith and medallist active in North Italy and later in Rome. He signed certain pieces of his work with OPUS MODERNI (opus is the Latin term for 'work' - which then means 'work of the modern'). The modern here is referring to the Ancient World, in contrary to the Naturalism of the Gothic. His earliest works may date around 1485-1490, and his earliest dated work is 1490.
Moderno specialised in small bronze plaquettes exploring religious or antique themes, and catered for a clientele of learned humanists.