Mirror clock

Master CR

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Known as a mirror clock for its form’s similarity to a looking glass, this has also been called a monstrance clock because it resembles the receptacle for the consecrated host. Religious references in early clocks reflect the Renaissance linking of science and the cosmos to the idea of divine order. This clock displays the hours, days, and a wealth of celestial information. Though not accurate timekeepers, early clocks were valued for their craftsmanship and technical ingenuity: luxury items designed to educate and impress. In addition to showing the hours, the astrolabe dial of this clock (parts of which are now missing) was made to indicate the apparent motions of twenty-three stars in the northern hemisphere, the position of the sun and the moon in the zodiac, and the age and phase of the moon in its monthly cycle. The recessed ring encircling the chapter of hours gives the day of the year, saints’ days, and other calendrical information for the period beginning in 1570 and ending in 1610. The dial on top is for setting the alarm. The late Mannerist ornament of the case is characteristic of Nürnberg clocks. The finial is a nineteenth-century addition.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art