This is a bronze medal made probably in Italy in about 1495. The obverse of this medal shows KIng Charles VIII of France and the reverse shows Hercules and the Nemean lion.
This legend reflects Hercules’ first labour set to him by Eurystheus, where he had to bring the skin of an unvulnerable lion, which terrorised the hills around the city of Nemea.
The medal was bought from the Soulages collection. Jules Soulages (1812-1856) was a collector of French and Italian Renaissance art. After his death his collection was acquired by the Museum. Born in Toulouse in 1803, Jules Soulages practised as a lawyer in Paris and was founding member of the Société Archeologique du Midi de la France. He created an extensive collection of French and Italian Renaissance decorative art from 1825, comprising around 750 objects, including furniture, glass, ceramics, bronzes, enamels and ivories. In the late 1840s Soulages moved back to Toulouse, where Henry Cole viewed his collection in 1855. Subsequent sale negotiations led to the production of a catalogue and two exhibitions in England at the Museum of Ornamental Art at Marlborough House, and at the Manchester Art Treasures exhibition respectively, both enhancing the celebrity of the collection, and resulting in its acquisition for the South Kensington Museum. Soulages died on 13 October 1857, aged 54.