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David Roentgen's Automaton of Queen Marie Antoinette, The Dulcimer Player (La Joueuse de Tympanon)

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Art Object
Program Information

David Roentgen's Automaton of Queen Marie Antoinette, The Dulcimer Player (La Joueuse de Tympanon)

Program information

Watch this surprising video of an automaton play the dulcimer.

David Roentgen (1743–1807) took his royal patron by surprise when he delivered this beautiful automaton to King Louis XVI for his queen, Marie Antoinette, in 1784. The cabinetry for this piece is very much a neoclassical masterwork, and the mechanism behind it is truly extraordinary: the figure strikes the strings in perfect rhythm with two small metal hammers held in her hands, which move with great precision.

This object, from the Musée des arts et métiers de Paris, is featured in the exhibition Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens (on view October 30, 2012–January 27, 2013).

See the full video: http://www.cerimes.fr/le-catalogue/la-joueuse-de-tympanon.html

Footage courtesy of CERIMES.

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Minerva

Clodion (Claude Michel)  (French, Nancy 1738–1814 Paris)

Date:
1765–66
Culture:
French
Medium:
Terracotta
Dimensions:
H. 18-3/4 in. (47.6 cm)
Classification:
Sculpture
Credit Line:
Purchase, Charles Ulrick and Josephine Bay Foundation Inc. Gift, 1975
Accession Number:
1975.312.6

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 552

120022404

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