Automaton clock in the form of a lion

Automaton clock in the form of a lion

Karl Schmidt

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The rampant lion, an animal with strong heraldic connotations, must have been a successful model for several types of automata, to judge from the number of surviving examples. The eyes and mouth of this automaton are set in motion when the clock strikes the hour. The piece was in use long enough to have been fitted with a short pendulum sometime after its invention in the second half of the seventeenth century.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Automaton clock in the form of a lionAutomaton clock in the form of a lionAutomaton clock in the form of a lionAutomaton clock in the form of a lionAutomaton clock in the form of a lion

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.