The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Art Object

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

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.

David Roentgen: Long-Case Clock
(00:00:52)

The Roentgens' Berlin Secretary Cabinet
(00:02:20) 10613 views

Rolltop Desk by David Roentgen: Demonstration
(00:02:17) 16640 views

Rolltop Desk by David Roentgen: Animation
(00:01:00) 3015 views

Chasuble

Date:: late 15th–early 16th century
Culture:: Italian
Medium:: Silk
Dimensions:: L. 46 inches (116.8 cm)
Classification:: Textiles
Credit Line:: Gift of Ann Payne Blumenthal, 1941
Accession Number:: 41.87

This artwork is not on display

Provenance

Count and Countess De Kermaingant (until 1926; sale, American Art Association, November 1926) ; Ann Payne Blumenthal (until 1941; to MMA)
See also
What
Costume (41,678)

Silk (32,922)

Textiles (32,752)

Vestments (280)

Chasubles (142)
Where
Europe (148,586)

France (52,276)

Rouen (4,081)
When
A.D. 1400-1600 (20,545)
In the Museum
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts (43,257)
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
Renaissance Velvet Textiles