Detail of the Automaton Clock with Diana in her Chariot in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2020

Title: Automaton Clock in the Form of Diana on her Chariot

Date: ca. 1610

Culture: Southern German, probably Augsburg

Medium: Case: ebony, bronze (gilded); dials: silver (partly enameled);
movement: iron, brass

Dimensions: base: 5 1/8 × 11 5/8 × 17 1/2 in. (13 × 29.5 × 44.5 cm)
11 3/8 × 6 1/8 × 13 5/8 in. (28.9 × 15.6 × 34.6 cm)

Classification: Horology

Credit Line: Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Gift of Mrs. Laird S. Goldsborough in memory of Mr. Laird Shields Goldsborough, B.A., 1924


One specialty of Augsburg clockmakers was the combining of timepieces with silver sculpture to create automata. Diana, goddess of the moon and hunt, was a popular subject among European nobility because hunting was a privilege and a pastime of rulers. The two harnessed leopards drawing the chariot here refer to Diana’s reputed ability to command wild animals.

Video: Automata played a role in drinking games at courtly banquets. The effects that can be seen and heard here—the chimes sounding the quarter hour, the chariot’s operation, the animals’ action, and the steady movement of Diana’s eyes—are all generated by one mechanism inside the ebony base. When the contraption stops, the goddess shoots her arrow: the guest nearest its landing place must drain his or her cup of liquor.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/789101