Turtle Automaton with Neptune in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2020

Turtle Automaton with Neptune as Vintner
1626

Leodegar Grimaldo


Object Details

Title: Turtle Automaton with Neptune as Vintner

Artist: Leodegar Grimaldo (1601–1638)

Date: 1626

Culture: German, Stuttgart

Medium: Wood (painted), silver (gilded), iron, tortoiseshell

Dimensions: 9 1/16 × 4 5/16 × 7 7/8 in., 400.667oz. (23 × 11 × 20 cm, 11360g)

Classification: Horology

Credit Line: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Leodegar Grimaldo created amusements that merged natural materials and man-made sculpture. This hybrid was a wedding present from Eberhard III, Duke of Württemberg, to a courtier in 1631. It would have scuttled across a table to deliver wine to a guest, who was then obliged to empty the cup shaped like a pack on Neptune’s back before winding the piece up and setting it on its way toward another guest.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/774551