Plaquettes are small plaques made of bronze, brass, lead or precious metals. They originated in the 1440s with the desire to reproduce coins and hardstone engravings from ancient Greece and Rome. Some were made as collector’s pieces, to be viewed and displayed in private, and others for practical purposes. They also inspired designs in other media, from architecture to bookbindings. This plaquette is almost certainly based on the centrepiece of a fireplace carved by Gaspare Pedone in 1502 for the house of Eliseo Raimondi in Cremona. It is a rare example of architecture preceding a plaquette design.