Automaton Clock with Bacchus Figure in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2020

Automaton Clock with Bacchus Figure and Case
late 16th century

German, Augsburg


Object Details

Title: Automaton Clock with Bacchus Figure and Case

Date: late 16th century

Culture: German, Augsburg

Medium: Iron, brass, copper (gilded), cold painting, opals, glass stones, leather

Dimensions: 20 1/16 × 22 7/16 × 9 13/16 in. (51 × 57 × 25 cm)

Classifications: Metalwork, Horology

Credit Line: Esterhazy Privatstiftung, Burg Forchtenstein - Esterházy Schatzkammer


Prince Paul I Esterházy personally led his guests through his Kunstkammer, operating lavish mechanical marvels like this one for their amazement. Once this curious conveyance is set in motion, the wine god toasts the astonished observers with his cup, rolls his eyes, and sticks out his tongue, while the birds on his head excitedly flap their wings. The maker synchronized the movements of Bacchus and the other figures to a chiming mechanism inside the chariot that marks the quarter hours. A separate drive propels the six-wheeled car forward on its own. The clock, which came to Forchtenstein Castle in the second half of the seventeenth century, still has its original traveling and storage case.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/759719