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.
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New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Northern European Clocks in New York Collections," January 4–March 28, 1972.
Washington D.C. National Gallery of Art. "The Splendor of Dresden: Five Centuries of Art Collecting," June 1, 1978–September 4, 1978.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Splendor of Dresden: Five Centuries of Art Collecting," October 21, 1978–January 4, 1979.
San Francisco. Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "The Splendor of Dresden: Five Centuries of Art Collecting," February 18–May 26, 1979.
New York. Jewish Museum, New York. "From Court Jews to the Rothschilds: Art, Patronage and Power 1600–1800," September 8, 1996–January 19, 1997.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art of Time: European Clocks and Watches from the Collection," December 18, 2007–April 27, 2008.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Luxury of Time: European Clocks and Watches," November 16, 2015–March 27, 2016.
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The Met's comprehensive 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.
