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NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

The Machinations of German Court Culture:


Early Modern Automata

A DISSERTATION

SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL


IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

for the degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Field of Art History

By

Jessica Keating

EVANSTON, ILLINOIS
December 2010

UMI Number: 3433589

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ABSTRACT
The Machinations of German Court Culture:
Early Modern Automata
Jessica Keating
Although rarely studied by art historians today, automata, or self-propelled mimetic
objects, were among the most important art forms of the sixteenth century; created by artisans
and commissioned and collected by the most prominent patrons in early modern Europe. The
majority of these objects were collected by German princes who ruled the Holy Roman Empire.
Courts in the Holy Roman Empire were major centers of artistic patronage, particularly
associated by their contemporaries with expansive Kunstkammern, or cabinets of curiosity, and
the successful integration of art within the political sphere. Early modern automata are today
accessible to us through extant objects, verbal descriptions, and payment records. In the course
of four chapter-long case studies this dissertation analyzes in detail five automata: The London
Nef (a ship) (ca. 1586, The British Museum, London) and The couen Nef (also a ship) (ca.
1587, Muse de la Renaissance, couen); The Christmas Crib Automaton (ca. 1588,
Mathematische and Physicalische Salon, Dresden); The Verkehrte Welt Automaton (whose theme
is the world upside-down) (ca. 1560, Residenz Schatzkammer, Munich); and The Sultan on
Horseback (ca. 1580, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna). These objects and the circumstances
of their collection, circulation, and display are used to uncover anxieties about the shifting
global, social, and religious landscape in the early modern period.
Based on this evidence, a new picture emerges of Renaissance artistic culture. This
dissertation makes clear that attention to political, familial, diplomatic, and religious discord was
central to fostering artistic and technological developments in the period and that automata were

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integral to political theater and self-display. Moreover, the collection and circulation of
automata challenges modern assumptions about the nature of early modern mimesis, crosscultural exchange, communication, gift economies, and political ritual as well as the place of
time-based and performance media in the history of art.
Chapter one considers the London and couen Nefs and argues that Holy Roman
Emperor Rudolph II commissioned them to link his reign with his grandfathers, Charles V.
Chapter two examines The Christmas Crib Automaton, and demonstrates that the objects
temporal and ocular dynamic helped mediate a tense marriage between a crypto-Calvinist Elector
and his dogmatically Lutheran wife. Chapter three focuses on The Verkehrte Welt Automaton
and makes clear that it was displayed at the counterreformation court in Munich to mock the
Protestant belief that meaningful communication could occur between a Protestant minister and
his congregation. Chapter four considers The Sultan on Horseback and several other automata
that formed part of tribute payments from Holy Roman Emperors to Ottoman rulers. This
chapter argues that these objects were not merely luxury goods that helped maintain the status
quo, but agentive objects that redefined the diplomatic encounter between the Ottoman and Holy
Roman Empires.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This dissertation would not be before you without the help of others. Most of all, I am
indebted to my dissertation advisor, Claudia Swan, who tended to this dissertation for seven
years. Her patience, and meticulous attention to my arguments and writing never failed to make
everything I produced simply better. I am also grateful to the four other members of my
dissertation committee, Christopher Pinney, Jess Escobar, Ann Gunter, and David van Zanten.
I thank Chris Pinney for encouraging me to read scholarship in far-flung fields and for spending
countless hours discussing it with me. David van Zanten must be thanked for his undying
support and pointed questions. I thank Ann Gunter for her thoughtful responses to my ideas. I
am beholden to Jess Escobar for sharing his boundless knowledge on early modern Spain and
the Hapsburgs with me, as well as his careful comments on the project. Rebecca Zorach was an
unofficial member of the committee. Rebeccas fortitude and advice were crucial at all stages of
the project. I also greatly benefited from comments and criticism from other Northwestern
University faculty members, namely Hannah Feldman, Lawrence Lipking, and Marco Ruffini.
I wish to thank various institutions for their financial support. A Northwestern University
Fellowship allowed me to complete the writing of this dissertation in Cologne and Chicago. A
Samuel H. Kress Fellowship in the History of Art provided me with an incredible two-year
period of research and writing in Munich. A Graduate Research Grant from Northwestern
University helped finance research trips to Vienna, Innsbruck, and Dresden. The Shanley Travel
Fellowship from the Art History Department at Northwestern University funded my first short
research trip to Germany and Austria for this project. I am also grateful to the Art History
Department and the Graduate School at Northwestern for their aid over the years.

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Thanks also go to the faculty and staff at the Zentralinstitut fr Kunstgeschichte in
Munich. Dr. Iris Lauterbach helped acquaint me with the vibrant community of art historians in
Munich as well as provided daily encouragement. Special thanks goes to Peter and Dorothea
Diemer who taught me how to read early modern inventories, guided me through Altbayerische,
and introduced me to intimidating sixteenth-century German hands on Friday afternoons in the
Geheimes Hausarchiv. Kris Neville and Heidi Gearhart, my fellow Kress Stipendiaten, shared
insight, lunch, and tea with me everyday in Munich and made being far away from home
delightful.
I have profited from comments and criticism from many friends over the years. Keen
comments on various chapters came from Christina Normore and Lia Markey. Katie
Chenoweths careful reading of chapter three has proven invaluable. And a simple observation
from Torrey Shanks changed the direction of the project. Other friends in Chicago and New
York who provided unending moral support include, Mandy Gagel, Allison Hawkins, Laura
Reagan, Alison Fisher, Lily Woodruff, Julia Ng, Markus Hardtmann, Jason Leddington, Todd
Heddrick, Sebastian Rand, Jill Bugajski, Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, Maureen Warren, Rainbow
Porth, Irene Backus, and Justin Steinberg.
Most importantly, I thank my family. I am thankful everyday for the love and support
that the Keatings, Freedmans, Fines, and Brauns have given me. I want to especially thank my
mother, Lisa Keating, for her friendship and undying advocacy throughout graduate school.
Last, but far from least, my gratitude must go to my husband, Helge Braun, whose enthusiasm
for my work never ceases. Finally, this dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my father,
Edward Keating.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES


HKA
HStA
SLUB
BHStA
GHA

Hofkammerarchiv, Vienna
Schsiches Hauptstaatarchiv, Dresden
Schsisches Landesbibliothek Staats- und Universittbibliothek, Dresden
Bayerisches Haupstaatarchiv, Munich
Geheimes Hausarchiv, Munich

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION

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I. SHIPS OF STATE: THE LONDON AND COUEN NEFS

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II. THE GIFTS THAT KEEP ON GIVING: THE CHRISTMAS CRIB


AUTOMATON AND THE LNEBURGER SPIEGEL

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III. VERBUM DOMINI MANET IN AETERNUM: THE VERKEHRTE WELT


AUTOMATON

88

IV. HAPSBURG-OTTOMAN DIPLOMATIC MACHINERY: AUTOMATA


AND THE TRKENVERERHRUNG

116

V. ILLUSTRATIONS

152

VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY

219

VII. APPENDIX: INVENTORY ENTRIES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF


AUTOMATA IN PRINCELY KUNSTKAMMERN

238

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Hans Schlotheim, London Nef, The British Museum, London (Photo: Ces Curieux Navires)
2. Hans Schlotheim, couen Nef, Muse National de la Renaissance, couen (Photo: Ces
Curieux Navires)
3. Hans Schlotheim, Christmas Crib Automaton. Formerly in the Mathematische- Physicalische
Salon, Dresden (Photo: Royal Music Making Machines)
4. Hans Schlotheim, Christmas Crib Automaton. Formerly in the Mathematische and
Physicalische Salon, Dresden (Photo: Royal Music Making Machines)
5. The Verkehrte Welt Automaton, Residenz Schatzkammer, Munich (Photo: Author)
6. Sultan on Horseback with Attendants, ca. 1590, Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum (Photo:
Die Deutsche Rderuhr)
7. The Burghley Nef, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Photo: Medieval Silver Nefs)
8. Limbourg Brothers, January: New Years Reception of Duke Jean de Berry, Trs Riches
Heures, Muse Cond, Chantilly, Ms. 65, Fol. 2 (detail), (Photo: Artstor)
9. London Nef (detail), The British Museum, London (Photo: Ces Curieuz Naivres)
10. couen Neff (detail), Muse National de la Renaissance, couen (Photo: Ces Curieuz
Naivres)
11. London Nef (detail), The British Museum, London (Photo: Ces Curieux Naivres)
12. Hans Weiditz, Holzschnitt zu einer viersietigen Schrift ber Einzug und Krnung Karls V. in
Aachen 1520 mit Darstellung Karls V. und den drei geistlichen und vier weltlichen Kurfrsten
mit Symbolen ihrer Krnungsmters, Aachen, Aachen Stadtarchiv (Photo: Krnungen. Knige in
Aachen-Geschichte und Mythos)
13. Christusmantel, Weltliche Schatzkammer, Vienna (Photo: Die Schatzkammer in Wien)
14. Trumpeter Automaton. Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna (Photo: Royal Music Making
Machines)
15. Wenzel Jamnitzer. Prunkkasette. Grnes Gewolbe, Dresden (Photo: Schatzkunst der
Renaissance und des Barock: Das Grne Gewlbe zu Dresden)
16. Luleff Meyer and Dirch Utermarke, The Lneburger Spiegel, detail Grnes Gewolbe,
Dresden (Photo: Dirch Utermarke ein Hamburger Goldschmied der Renaissance)

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17. Map of Saxony. (Photo: Princely Splendor: The Dresden Court 1500-1620)
18. Ernestine and Albertine Lines of the House of Wetting. (Photo: Princely Splendor: The
Dresden Court 1500-1620)
19. Hans Schlotheim. Christmas Crib Automaton, detail. Formerly in the Mathematische und
Physicalische Salon, Dresden (Photo: Royal Music Making Machines)
20. Hans Schlotheim. Christmas Crib Automaton, detail. Formerly in the Mathematische und
Physicalische Salon, Dresden (Photo: Royal Music Making Machines)
21. Hans Schlotheim. London Nef, detail. The British Museum, London (Photo: Royal Music
Making Machines)
22. Kreibitz School. The Electors Tankard. Grnes Gewolbe, Dresden (Photo: Princely
Splendor: The Dresden Court 1500-1620)
23. Persepolis, Eastern Stairway. (Photo: Past Presents: New Years Gifts at the Valois
Courts)
24. Chronicle of John of Skylitzes. (Photo: Constructing a Byzantine Augusta: A Greek Book
for a French Bride)
25. Presentation Scene with Duke Charles of Orlans, from Justinian, Institutions, BNF, Paris
(Photo: Past Schatzkunst der Renaissance und des Barock: Das Grne Gewlbe zu Dresden)
26. Epitaph for Heinrich von Schnberg, in Gottfried Michaeliss Dresdinisch Inscriptiones und
Epitaphia, welche auf denen. . .in und auer der Kirche zu unser Lieben Frauen. . .zu finden,
Kuperstich Kabinette, Dresden (Photo: Epitaphe in der Alten Dresdner Frauenkirche: Eine
Untersuchung nach Zeichnungen im Kupferstich-Kabinette der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen
Dresden,)
27. Luleff Meyer and Dirch Utermark, The Lneburger Spiegel, detail, Grnes Gewolbe,
Dresden (Photo: Res publica bene Ordinata, Regentenspiegle und Bilder vom guten Regiment:
Rathausdekoration in der Frhen Neuzeit)
28. Anatomia Statuae Danielis, Frontispiece from Lorenz Fausts Anatomia Statuae Danielis
(Photo: Res publica bene Ordinata, Regentenspiegle und Bilder vom guten Regiment:
Rathausdekoration in der Frhen Neuzeit)
29. Swiss Tapestry Cushion with Renart the Fox, Burrel Collection, Glasgow (Photo: Reynard,
Renart, Reinaert and Other Foxes in Medieval England)

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30. Pilgrims Badge of Renart the Fox, South Wiltshire Museum, Salisbury (Photo: Reynard,
Renart, Reinaert and Other Foxes in Medieval England)
31. Grey-Fitzpayn Hours, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Photo: Images in the Margins of
Gothic Manuscripts)
32. Minnekstchen, Munich, Bayerisches National Museum (Photo: Minnekstchen im
Mittelalter)
33. Franco-Flemish Book of Hours, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, (Photo: Images in the
Margins of Gothic Manuscripts)
34. Misericord of Farrier Shoeing a Goose, Hoogstraten Cathedral, Hoogstraten (Photo: The
World Upside-Down: English Misericords)
35. Abraham Gessner, Verkehrte Welt Platter, Schweizertisches Landesmuseum,
Zurich (Photo: Virtuoso Goldsmiths and Triumph of Mannerism)
36. Phyllis Riding Aristotle, Germanisches National Museum, Nuremburg (Photo: Die Welt des
Hans Sachs)
37. Isreal van Meckenem, The Hares Revenge, Kupferstich Kabinett, Dresden (Photo: Israel
van Meckenem)
38. Hares Revenge Fresco, Anisitz Thun-Martini, Revo (Photo: Tyrolian Schlosser)
39. Ewot Mller (publisher), Verkehrte Welt Broadsheet (Photo: The World Upside Down:
The Iconography of a European Broadsheet Type)
40. Misericord of Horse Pulling a Horse, Beverly Minster, East Riding of Yorkshire (Photo: The
World Upside-Down: English Misericords)
41. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Hallowed be thy Name, (Photo: The German Single Leaf Woodcut
1500-1550)
42. Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Third Commandment, (Photo: The German Single Leaf
Woodcut 1500-1550)
43. Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Last Supper of Protestants and the Popes Descent to Hell,
(Photo: The German Single Leaf Woodcut 1500-1550)
44. Georg Pencz, Content of Two Sermons, (Photo: The German Single Leaf Woodcut 15001550)

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45. Pancratz Kemp, The Difference between the True Religion of Christ and the False
Idolatrous Teachings of the Antichrist, (Photo: The German Single Leaf Woodcut 1500-1550)
46. Hans Brosamer, The Seven Heads of Martin Luther, (Photo: The Reformation of the Image)
47. The Turkish Automaton, ca. 1580-1590 Innsbruck-Ambras, Kunsthistorisches Museum
Sammlungen Schloss Ambras (Photo: The Clockwork Universe)
48. Sultan on Horseback Automaton, ca. 1580, Dresden: Staatliche MathematischPhysicalischer Salon (Photo: Die Deutsche Rderuhr)
49. Sultan on Horseback, ca. 1580, Moskow: Staatliche Kremlin Museum (Photo: Die Deutsche
Rderuhr)
50. Pashas on Horseback, ca. 1580-1590, Newark: Newark Museum of Art, (Photo: Die
Deutsche Rderuhr)
51. Map of Europe ca. 1550, (Photo: Kaiser Ferdinand I. 1503-1564: Das Werden der
Habsburgermonarchie)
52. Rechnungen von Wiener Hofzahlamt, 1556, Vienna: Hofkammer Archiv (Photo: Kaiser
Ferdinand I. 1503-1564: Das Werden der Habsburgermonarchie)
53. Oswald Khayser, Pattern Drawing for Clock to be in Augsburg for Grand Vizier Mohammed
Sokolly, 1576. Vienna, Hofkammerarchiv (Photo: The Clockwork Universe)
54. Pattern Drawing for Clock to be in Augsburg for Grand Vizier Mohammed Sokolly, 1576.
Vienna, Hofkammerarchiv (Photo: The Clockwork Universe)
55. Pieter Cocke van Aelst, Sleyman I zu Pferd, Vienna: Graphische Sammlungen Albertina
(Photo: Kaiser Ferdinand I, 1503-1564: Das Werden der Habsburgermonarchie)
56. Jan Swart Groningen, Reiterportrt Sleimans des Grossen mit Gefolge, Vienna: Graphische
Sammlungen Albertina (Photo: Kaiser Ferdinand I, 1503-1564: Das Werden der
Habsburgermonarchie)
57. Murad III in a boat on the Bosphorus, Lewenklau Album, ca. 1585, MS. Wien,
sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 8615. fol. 122, (Photo: Architecture, Ceremonial, and
Power: Topkapi Palace in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries)
58. Murad II in a boat along the Golden Horn, Travelers Picture Book with Scenes of Life in
Istanbul, 1588, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodl. Or. 430 fol. 2r (Photo: Architecture,
Ceremonial, and Power: Topkapi Palace in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries)

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59. Donatello, Equestrian Portrait of Galtamelata, Padua (Photo: Italian Renaissance
Sculpture)
60. Tomb of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. Innsbruck: Hofkirche (Photo: Forgery,
Replica, Fiction)
61. The Last Supper. Sacro Monte: Varallo (Photo: Testori a Varallo)
62. Nicolas de Nicolay, Delly, London: British Library (Photo: The World in Venice)
63. Francesco Sansovino, Informatione, London: The British Library (Photo: The World
inVenice)
64. Anonymous, Selim, London: British Library (Photo: The World in Venice)
65. Pietro Bertelli, Mahometto Imp. IX, London: British Library (Photo: The World in Venice)
66. Haidar Reiss Nigari, Portrait of Admiral Haireddin, Istanbul: Topkapi Sarayi Msezi,
(Photo: Venice and the Islamic World 828-1797)
67. Anonymous, Portrait of Sultan Ahmed I, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, (Photo:
Google Images)

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INTRODUCTION: EARLY MODERN AUTOMATA

In the middle of the sixteenth century German rulers began commissioning, collecting,
and gifting small clockwork automata. These golden, silver, enameled, and bejeweled selfpropelled mimetic objects were ingeniously crafted by clockmakers in the free imperial cities of
Augsburg and Nuremberg. Such little engines, as Robert Hooke (1635-1703) would later refer
to them, set a wide variety of figures and events in motion, from an emaciated Saint Jerome
beating his chest, the flagellation of Christ, and hares hunting dogs to Atlas bearing the weight of
the world on his shoulders and peacocks fanning tails of iridescent feathers.1 Over two hundred
such automata are recorded in inventories and other historical sources from the late Renaissance
period, but unfortunately the majority were lost or dispatched to the forge during the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries.2 Once familiar to German courts and now exceptional, automata have
long occupied the margins of a traditional order of art and of conventional art historical exegesis.
This dissertation examines five major examples of sixteenth-century automata that
survive and that were displayed and/or gifted at pivotal political moments or on the occasion of
key cross-cultural encounters in the second half of the sixteenth century. The subjects of Chapter
1, the London Nef (fig. 1) and couen Nef (fig. 2), sizable and very complex figurations of ships
in gilded silver presumably commissioned by Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II (1552-1612),
depict the coronation of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500-1558). The Christmas Crib
1

Hooke quoted in Martin Kemp, Taking it on Trust: Form and Meaning in Naturalistic Representation,
Archives of Natural History, Vol. 17 No. 2 (Spring 1990), 132.
2

For a discussion of the fate of several automata see, Peter Plameyer, Churfrst August zu Sachen etc.
Seligen selbsten gemacht: Weltmodelle und wisssenschaftliche Instrumente in der Kunstkammer der schsischen
Kurfrsten August und Christian I, in Barbara Marx, ed., Kunst und Reprsentation am Dresdner Hof (Munich:
Deutsche Kunstverlag, 2005), 156-159.

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Automaton (fig. 3 and 4) that is the primary focus of Chapter 2 is an elaborate silver automaton
commissioned by Sophie of Brandenburg (1568-1622) for her husband, the Elector of Saxony,
Christian I (1560-1591) and placed in the Dresden Kunstkammer; it portrays the Magi and an
elctor of the Holy Roman Empire bestowing gifts on the Christ child. The Verkehrte Welt (fig.
5) (the world upside-down) Automaton, which was commissioned by the Bavarian Duke
Albrecht V (15281579) and displayed in the Kunstkammer at his Residence in Munich, features
a golden monkey preaching to a group of deer; it is analyzed in Chapter 3. Finally, in Chapter 4,
we turn to the Sultan on Horseback (fig.6), one of hundreds of automata commissioned by Holy
Roman Emperors Ferdinand I (1503-1564), Maximilian II (1527-1576), and Rudolph II that
served as part of an annual tribute payment to Ottoman Sultans from 1547 to 1593; this
mechanism figures an Ottoman sultan in ceremonial procession.
Automata are distinguished by their three-dimensionality, mechanical ability to alter and
fragment the point of view of the beholder, and their capacity to perform seamlessly multiple and
sequential moments in time. This unification of temporal process, spatial progress, and
lifelikeness amounts to a mimetic mode distinct from and in a sense more complete than that
proposed by early modern art theory and art historians who study the early modern period.
Rather than relying wholly on naturalism, descriptive specificity, or illusionism (as painting did),
or threatening to plunge into real time (as sculpture did), automata engaged the actual flow of
experienced time.3 The fluid action and mimetic potency of all five automata under discussion is
noteworthy: carefully simulated stately pomp, liturgical rites, biblical narratives, and gestures of
communication belie the material makeup of precious metals and enamel.

On objects and their engagment with time in the German Renaissance, see Christopher S. Wood, Forgery,
Replica, Fiction: Temporalities in German Renaissance Art (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), passim.

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Scholarship on early modern European mimetic representation remains preoccupied with
painting, sculpture, prints, and drawings. In analyzing such diverse media, scholars have focused
on shifts in standards of pictorial accuracy, new practices of firsthand observation of the world,
and the implications of artists claims of portraying the world ad vivum, or from the life.4 The
wide-ranging social, cultural, and scientific effects of an early modern interest in objectivity have
received much attention in recent decades, as have artists false claims of objectivity and the
fabrication of lifelikeness. In charting the emergence of pictorial techniques that created a
reality effect or rhetoric of reality, relevant studies have focused on an excess of information
in images and sculpture that attempts to persuade the viewer of the images analogic relationship
to its modela model the artist may not have witnessed.5
Like most art objects, automata derived their significance from the imagery, composition,
and material makeup of preexisting visual and material culturefrom monumental sculpture and
retable altarpieces to colossal prints, coins, jewelry, and printed broadsheets. Often, however,
the relationship between sixteenth-century automata and the objects that preceded them is
exceptionally closeso close that one could say that early modern automata are objects that
animate other objects.

In other words, they are, to borrow George Kublers term, meta-

objects.6 This exceptional property of automata raises crucial questions about the relation of the

The literature is vast. Several of the key texts are: E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion: a study in the
psychology of pictorial representation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), Lorraine Daston, Marvelous
Fact and Miraculous Evidence in early modern Europe, Critical Inquiry, Vol. 18 (1991), 93-124, Peter Parshall,
Imago Contrafacta: images and facts in the Northern Renaissance, Art History Vol. 16 (December 1993), 554-79,
and Claudia Swan, Ad vivum, near het leven, from the life: considerations on a mode of representation, Word and
Image Vol. 11 (October-December 1995), 353-372.
5

Most notably, Alessandro Nova, Popular Art in Renaissance Italy: Early Response to the Holy Mountain
at Varallo, in Claire Farago, ed., Reframing the Renaissance: Visual Culture in Europe and Latin America 14501650 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 113-126 and Wood (2008):109-184.
6
George Kubler, The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1962).

representation to its prototype. What do such objects really depict?

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One of the aims of this

dissertation is to show that early modern automata reveal a much more complex relationship
between mimetic objects and their referents than is usually credited to mimesis in the early
modern period.
In addition to shedding light on the ways automata betray a permeation of representations
and prototypes, this dissertation attends to the ways these objects blur the boundaries between
object and subject. To put it another way, it elucidates the contexts and circumstances under
which historical human actors and automata mutually controlled one another.7 It accomplishes
this in two ways. First, by way of extensive archival research, it charts the biographies of the
five automata, through their commission, collection, display, and circulation.8 Second, by way of
extended description of the works, it considers how these objects functioned for specific

Although the foundational texts for art historians on the agentive properties of objects are David
Freedbergs The Power of Images: Studies in the history theory of response (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1989) and Alfred Gells Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory (New York: Clarendon Press, 1998) this study
looks to more recent scholarship on the turn toward things. See Bill Brown, Thing Theory, Critical Inquiry, Vol.
28 No. 1 (2001), 1-22, B. Olsen, Material Culture after Text: re-membering things, Norwegian Archaeological
Review, Vol. 36 No. 3 (2003), 87-104, Alex Preda, The Turn to Things: arguments for a sociological theory of
things, The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 40 No. 2 (1999), 347-366, Patricia Spyer, ed. Border Fetishisms: Material
Objects in Unstable Spaces (New York: Routledge, 1998), and Christopher Pinney and Nicholas Thomas, Beyond
Aesthetics: Art and the Technologies of Enchantment (Oxford: Berg, 2001).
8
My analysis of the social lives of five automata under consideration is largely based on routinely generated
courtly documents. These documents include Inventories (Inventare), of art collections (Kunstkammern) personal
chambers (Schlaffkammern and Frauenzimmern), libraries (Bibliotheken), armor collections (Rustkammern), silver
repositories (Silberkammern), and collections of Jewels and Treasure (Schatzkammern). Often these documents
identify the location of the objects; the means by which the objects were acquired; and, at times, the objects' use and
worth. In addition to these sources I have scrutinized Court Calendars (Hofkalendern) and Court Registers
(Hofbcher). These annually produced documents account for all of the members at court, their positions, and their
duties. Furthermore, these courtly compilations record courtly festivities, such as banquets, weddings, funerals and
religious celebrationsevents at which automata were seen and given as gifts. Finally, I have examined money
ledgers (Rechnungen) and determined when payments for particular automata were made and compared the costs to
other objects that were commissioned or purchased at the same time. The result of this archival work is not only a
careful reconstruction of the context and circumstances of the acquisition, collection and use of early modern
automata, but a discussion of the distinct and powerful status of these mechanical objects in early modern courtly
society as well. On the importance of social lives of objects see, Arjun Appadurai, Introduction: commodities and
the politics of value, in Arjun Appadurai ed., The Social Life of Things: commodities in cultural perspective
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 3-63 and Igor Kopytoff, The Cultural biography of things:
commoditization as process, ed., The Social Life of Things: commodities in cultural perspective (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1986), 64-94.

viewers.

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Thus, instead of attempting to explain what an automaton means, this dissertation

shows how an automaton, through its movement, repetition, and intrinsic engagement of time,
opens itself up to interpretation.10
This dissertation neither provides a catalogue of automata in sixteenth-century German
collections, nor does it endeavor to situate automata in relation to other forms of artistic
patronage and displays of magnificence at early modern courts. It addresses the question: why
were these objects deemed useful in political and cross-cultural encounters? Certainly the
automata commissioned and displayed at key political moments served specific functions. They
were actively sought after by German rulers who valued a type of object distinct from the
contents of their collections of painting and sculpture. In automata, this dissertation argues,
German rulers found objects capable of annulling the historical and cultural distance of the
represented eventsuch as the coronation of a deceased emperor or the procession of an
Ottoman Sultan.

To be clear, this dissertation does not argue that automata are the same as

real processions or coronations in material terms. It is, however, arguing that, so far as their
intended audience was concerned, an equivalency between representation and event did pertain.
Until now, early modern automata have largely been studied by historians of science and
technologywho have tended to construe automata as manifestations of, or predecessors to,
early modern theories of a mechanistic universe. Examples of this sort of work include Silvio

There is, of course, a gap that exists between the experience of the beholder and its mediation in text. And
the notion that a description, with an interpretive dimension, can divulge the viewing experience of a historical actor
has not been adequately theorized. Perhaps, though, the study of automata is a starting point for such an endeavor.
Because the temporal dimension of these objects, the programmed movement that takes place in a clearly defined
span of time, is something experienced by everyone and is not dependent on a sophisticated form of visual literacy.
10

For a discussion on how images enable certain interpretations of themselves see, Joseph Leo Koerner,
The Mortification of the Image: Death as a Hermeneutic in Hans Baldung Grien, Representations, Vol. 10 (1985),
52-101.

18
Bedinis The Role of Automata in the History of Technology; Derek de Solla Prices
Automata and the Origins of Mechanism and Mechanistic Philosophy; Otto Mayr and Klaus
Maurices The Clockwork Universe: German Clocks and Automata 1550-1600; Peter Dears A
Mechanical Microcosm: Bodily Passions, Good Manners, and Cartesian Mechanism; and
Jessica Riskins Machines in the Garden.11 What these accounts occlude, though, and what this
project provides, is an analysis of the close relationship that holds between automatas
production aesthetics and other contemporaneous artistic developments. This project is
motivated by the concern to introduce a more elastic understanding of these objects roles in
early modern Europe than has been put forth by the art historian Horst Bredekamp, who stresses
that automata were the crowning point of a universal history of matter which Kunstkammern
embodied.12

This dissertation focuses instead on how automata functioned within the broader

spectrum of court culture. In this way, my project is also partly informed by the work of
Christina Normore and Marina Berlozerskaya, who study the sumptuous works of art amassed at
fifteenth-century Burgundian courts.13 Normore and Berlozerskayas scholarship stresses the
intertwining of courtly artistic endeavors and the self-display of rulers. Insofar as this project
uncovers the role of automata at early modern German courts, it does not view them, as does
Alexander Marr, as evidence of a reassessment of curiosity, wonder, and the mechanical arts
11

Silvio A. Bedini, The Role of Automata in the History of Technology, Technology and Culture, Vol. 5
(Winter, 1964), 24-42, Derek de Solla Price, Automata and the Origins of Mechanism and Mechanistic
Philosophy, Technology and Culture, Vol. 5 (Winter, 1964), 9-23, Otto Mayr and Klaus Maurice, eds. The
Clockwork Universe: German Clocks and Automata 1500=1600 (Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institute, 1980),
Peter Dear, A Mechanical Microcosm: Bodily Passions, Good Manners, and Cartesian Mechanism, in Science
Incarnate, C. Lawrence and S. Shapin eds. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 51-82, and Jessica Riskin,
Machines in the Garden, Chapter Two of Mind out of Matter (forthcoming). I would like to thank Professor
Riskin for providing me with a draft of this chapter prior to its publication.
12
Horst Bredekamp, The Lure of Antiquity and the Cult of the Machine: The Kunstkammer and the
Evolution of Nature, Art and Technology, trans. Allison Brown (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
13

Marina Berlozerskaya, Rethinking the Renaissance: Burgundian Arts Across Europe (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2002) and Christina Normore, Feasting the Eye in Valois Burgundy (PhD diss,
University of Chicago, 2008).

19
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For Marr, sixteenth-century princely interest in
automata was only a product of popular intellectual currents.14 Throughout this dissertation I
question whether, when seen as part of the actual practices of German courts, what appear to
modern viewers to be curiosities can be said to embody consciously developed strategies of
persuasion and manipulation.
The five automata discussed here form a coherent group for several reasons. First, they
represent the finest and best-documented automata created during the second half of the
sixteenth century. Together they demonstrate how the pursuit of collecting was a multifaceted
endeavor. Certainly the formation of Kunstkammern was inextricable from the representation of
power, proof of the princely collectors access to far-flung lands, and a means to portray
magnificence. Yet, as my reading of the London and couen Nefs suggests, collecting and
displaying automata was a means for Rudolph II to alter the foundation legend of his reign. For
Sophie of Brandenburg, the purchase and display of the Christmas Crib Automaton was tied to
the confessional tensions between herself, a dogmatic Lutheran, and Christian I, a cryptoCalvinist. Albrecht V exhibited his automatonthe Verkehrte Welt Automaton, to denounce the
new practices of the reformed church in his territorial state of Bavaria. And in the case of the
Sultan on Horseback, its imagery signaled the Hapsburgs diplomatic ties to the Ottoman court.
In short, the examination of automata reveals that the practice of collecting in early modern
German-speaking lands was deeply connected to concrete domestic, dynastic, and international
political ambitions.

14

Alexander Marr, Gentille Curiosit: wonder-working and the culture of automata in the late
Renaissance, in R.J.W. Evans and Alexander Marr eds., Curiosity and Wonder from the Renaissance to
Enlightenment (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006) 149-170.

20
By pointing to these objects pervasiveness, their crucial role in the machinations of
early modern German court culture, their unique form of mimesis, and their function for
particular observers, this dissertation also engages ongoing debates about the status of sixteenthcentury German art after the Reformation. The notion of Lutherana tragoedia artis, which had
already been formulated by Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) in the second quarter of the
sixteenth century, has plagued the German imagination and art historical scholarship.15 From
Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853) to Hans Belting, the Reformation has been construed as a religious,
social, and political movement that stifled artistic creativity and drained German painting and
sculpture of their visual seductiveness and emotional charge. No longer valued for its magical
efficacy, German art of the second half of the sixteenth century, according to such views, became
didactic or, worse yet, mundane.16
Several excellent studies have attempted to explain why the flowering of German art
around 1500, cultivated by the likes of Albrecht Drer, Matthias Grnewald, Lucas Cranach,
Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Baldung Grien, Hans Holbein, Tilman Riemenschneider, Veit Stoss,
and Hans Leinberger, did not continue into the second half of the century. In his excellent and
monumental study Die Kunst im heiligen rmischen Reich deutscher Nation, Wolfgang
Braunfels looked to the political and social makeup of the Holy Roman Empire, rather than
exclusively to Luther, to understand why art after Drers generation sparked, in the words of the
German expressionist poet Gottfried Benn, a centuries-old German malaise.17

Braunfels

15

Alexander Rstow, Lutherana Tragoedia Artis, Schweizer Monatshefte, Vol. 39 (1959), 891-906.

16

On the notion of the Reformations negative effect on German art in art historical scholarship see, Joseph
Leo Koerner, A Tragedy for Art, in The Reformation of the Image (London: Reaktion Books, 2004), 27-37.
17

Gottfried Benn, Briefe an F.W. Oelze 1932-1945 (Wiesbaden: Limes-Verlag, 1977), 88 cited in Serguisz
Michalski, The Reformation and the Visual Arts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 1.

21
indicated a number of contributing factors: the decline of importance of landlocked urban artistic
centers, such as Augsburg and Nuremberg; the breakdown of the Reich into quasi-independent
territories that ignited a regionalism in German style; a marked lull in the patronage of the Latin
Church; and Rudolph IIs cosmopolitan court on the periphery of the Empire in Prague, where
painters and sculptors from Italy, Holland, and Spain were valued over those from Germanspeaking lands.18
Alongside this shift in the production and function of German painting and sculpture,
however, there existed a confluence of artistic enterprise, technological development, and
princely patronage in what we now refer to as the applied arts. Up until now the literature on
the fate of sixteenth-century German art has failed to account sufficiently for how the restrictions
imposed on German artists and artisans after the Reformation fostered production in metalwork,
clockwork, glass, textiles, ceramics, and enamel and new artistic developments. To restrict our
understanding of late sixteenth-century German art production to works by Jost Amman (15391591), Hans von Aachen (1552-1615), Dietrich Schro (1545-1568), and Benedikt Wurzelbauer
(1548-1628) would be to omit scores of objects commissioned and designed with concerns for
mimetic potency and religious, political, and social efficacy. We risk also bypassing the
opportunity to acknowledge how the study of objects such as automata can uncover alternative
histories of the development of realism, the codification of Art, patronage, collecting, crosscultural encounters, religious reform, and imperial politics, to name but a few. By focusing on
automata, then, this dissertation not only attempts to illuminate the role and function of a
heretofore unrecognized mode of mimetic representation; it is also a starting point to begin

18

Wolfgang Braunfels, Die Kunst in heiligen rmischen Reich deutscher Nation, Vol. 3 (Mnchen: C.H. Beck
1979-1989), 238-252.

22
charting a different history of German artone that reformulates the status of objects and images
in the late German Renaissance.

SHIPS OF STATE: THE LONDON AND COUEN NEFS

The 1587 inventory of the Dresden Kunstkammer painstakingly describes over ten
thousand objects conspicuously exhibited in the Elector August Is (1526-1586) Art
Chamber.19 Among lavishly ornamented mirrors, masterfully designed pietra dura table tops,
and the bones of a giant discovered outside Dresden, the chronicler lists a mechanized, gilded
silver ship. Its deck contained trumpeters heralding the Holy Roman Emperor, who was
enthroned, and surrounded by seven electors and heralds of empire processing in a circle. Each
of the three masts is described as supporting crows nests, in which sailors (Buknechte) sounded
out the hours with small hammers.20 In 1593 the French traveler Jacques Esprinchard (1573-

19

Joachim Menzhausen, Krfurst Augusts Kunstkammer Eine Analyse des Inventars von 1587, Jahrbuch der
Stattlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Vol. 17 (1985 ), 21-29.
20

Vorguldt kunstreich Schiff oder nave mit einer virtel und stunden schlagenden Uhr, welch alle 24 Stunden
mu aufgetzogen werden, oben mit dreyen mastbaumen, uf welchen die Buknechte im Mastkrben umbgehen, und
die Viertel und Stunden auf den glcklein mit hammern schlagen. Inwendigk die Rom. Key. Mayt. auf den
Keyserlichen stul sitzendt, und vor deselben die sieben Churfrsten und Herolden mit erzeigung ihrer Reverenz zu
endtfalunge der lehen umgehendt, Degleichen zehen Trommeter und ein Heerpauker, die da Wechselweise zu tisch
blasen, auch ein Drommelschleger und drey Trabandten sambt 16 kleinen stucklein, deren man II. Laden Khan, und
von sich selbsten abgehen, darbey ein Futter, stehet auf einer grnen langen tafel mit tuch behengt. HStA Inventare
Nr. 1, Folio 254r.
The 1595 Inventory of the collection lists the following: Kunstlich men und vorguldt schieff oder Nave, mit
einer virtel und stunden schlagen: den Uhr, welch alle 24. Stunden mu ufgezogen werden, oben mit drey
mastbeument, auf welchen die Bleuchte im Mast-Korben umbgehen, und die viertel und stunden uf den Glcklein
mit Hammern schlagen, Inwendigk die Rom. Key. Mayt: auf dem Keyserlichen stull sitzend und vor derselben die
siben Churfrsten und Herolden mit erzeigung ihrer Rerentz zu entfahlunge der lehen umbgehendt, Degleichen 10
Trommetter und ein Heer: Bauker, auch ein Trommelschlager und sieben trabanten, samt 16. Kleinen stuckhen so

1604) encountered a similar object in a private collection in Augsburg.

21

23
In this instance, the

horologue, whose inventor Georg Roll is identified by name and which is said to have been in
the works for sixteen years already, was not crafted from precious metal. Instead, it was
manufactured from exotic and costly ebony. Like the ship recorded in Dresden, the object in
Augsburg was propelled by a clockwork mechanism and functioned as a moving base for the
seated emperor and his electoral princes, described by Esprinchard as paying him a grand
reverance.

In an inventory compiled three years later, in 1596, of the possessions of

Archduke Ferdinand II (1529-1595), yet another object was recorded that bears comparison to
the Dresden and Augsburg pieces. Notably, this automaton was a gift from the Bishop of
Augsburg, Otto von Truchse (1514-1573), and it was stored in the Silberkammer (Silver
Chamber). According to the inventory the automaton adorned the lid of a silver vessel, on which
the seven electors of empire processed in a circle before the enthroned emperor, who was placed
beneath a baldachino.22 Despite their differences, all three automata featured the most powerful
man alle lobrennen und abschlieen kann, und von sich selbst lo gehen, Darzu ein futter gehrigk. HStA
Inventare Nr. 2, Folio 121r.
Ain Schiff, so auf ainer tafel etliche bootsleuth darinnen forttreiben, wan es still stehet, aine thr sich
aufthut, siben Churfursten des Reichs heraugehen, Reverenz fr Ka. Ma bezeugen, Ka. Ma. mit dem
scepter und haupt gleichsam die lehen gibt, etlich trommeter wechselweisse blasen, ain heerpaucker auf
den Kesselbauken schlegt in dem Mastbaum die Schlaguhren, und sonsten anderen bewegung vil zu sehen,
vom Johann Schlothaimer zu Augsburg gemacht ist worden. This is how Philip Hainhofer described the
ship on his visit to the Dresden Kunstkammer in 1629. Oscar Doering, ed. Des Augsburger Patricier
Phillip Hainfhofer Reisen nach Innsbruck und Dresden, in Quellenschrift fur Kunstgeschichte und
Kunsttechnik des Mittelalter und der Neuzeit (Wien: Verlag Von Carl Graser and Co., 1901), 168.

21

nous allasmes voir en la maison dun particulier, un horologue admirablement beau, auquel on
travaille il I a desja seize ans [] Le maistre ouvrier inventeur diciuy, nomm Georg Roll, mourut il I a trois ans
[en 1592], et i a maintenant un autre maistre qui le parachere. La boite de Cest horlogue est de beau bois dbaine,
et est environ haute comme un picque, et I au bout dicelle un coq. Que nous veismes chanter lors que lheure
sonnoit, i ayant au mesme instant un viellard fait de bronze, qui tourne un horologue []. Entre plusieurs figures
dhommes qui jouent leur personage en sait ouvrage, par le moyen des rouses et des resorts, on i voit lEmpereur en
une chaire qui baisse la teste, devant les sept electeurs, qui luy vienent faire une grand reverance. Lopold
Chatenay, Vie de Jacques Esprinchard, Rochelais, et Journal des ses voyages au XVI sicle (Paris: S.E.V.P.E.N.,
1957), 147-148.

24
political figures in the Heiliges rmisches Reich deutscher Nation (Holy Roman Empire of the
German Nation)the Emperor and his electoral princes (Krfursten).23
These automata, as described by these late sixteenth-century accounts, correspond
significantly to the only two surviving mechanized table ships, or nefs, which display the
coronation of a Holy Roman Emperor. One, housed in the British Museum and believed to have
been crafted by the Augsburg clockmaker Hans Schlotheim, is commonly referred to as the
London Nef (fig.1) (ca. 1586 London, The British Museum). The second, also attributed to
Schlotheim, is housed in the Muse National de la Renaissance in couen and known as the
couen Nef (fig. 2) (ca. 1587 couen, Muse National de la Renaissance).24 Schlotheim, named
in an early description of the Dresden nef, is thought to have produced numerous such vessels.
22

Ain hoches schnes alts gschirr, auf dem luckh siczt ain Kaiser in seinem tron under aim gwelb auf
seiln, darunder ain uhrwerch, unden herumb die siben curfrsten, so da, wann uhrwerck gericht ist, im crcl
umbgeen und sich vor dem Kaiser naigen, kombt her von Cardinal Otto von Augsburg, wigt 39 marckh 6 lot.
Inventar des Nachlass Erzherzog Ferdinand II. In Ruhelust, Innsbruck und Ambras vom 30 Mai 1596. in ed.
Wendelin Boeheim, Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhchsten Kaiserhauses. Vol. 7, 1888
xci-ccxxvi.
23

Until 1512 the Empire was referred to as the Sacrum Romanum Imperium. Craig Koslofsky, Holy
Roman Empire, in Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History, ed. Jonathon Dewald, Vol. 3
(New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 2004 ), 183.
24

London Nef, Location: The British Museum, London, Inv. N. 1866, 1030.1. couen Nef, Location:
Muse National de la Renaissance, couen, Inv. N. ECL 2739. Literature: J.J.L. Haspels, Royal Music Machines
(Utrecht: National Museum from Musical Clock to Street Organ, 2006), 197-199, Julia Fritsch, Histoire, destine,
signification, in Julia Fritsch ed., Ces Curieux navires: Trois automates de la Renaissance (Paris: Runion des
Muse Nationaux, 2000), 1-34. J.H. Leopold, La Construction des Nefs de Schlottheim, in Ces Curieux navires:
Trois automates de la Renaissance (Paris: Editions de la Runion des muses nationaux, 1999), 61-74. Eric Rieth,
Lhorloge automate dite Nef de Charles Qunit au regard de larchitecture navale du XVI sicle, in Ces Curieux
navires: Trois automates de la Renaissance (Paris: Runion des Muse Nationaux, 2000 ), 99-111, Maximilian
Bobinger, Der Augsburger Uhrmacher Hans Schlothaim, Schriften der Freunde alter Uhren, No. XI (19711972), 4-31, Klaus Maurice, Die Deutsche Rderuhr Vol. 2 (Munich: Beck, 1976), 229-230, Friedrich Streng,
Augsburger Meister der Schmiedgasse um 1600, Blatter des Bayersischen Landesverein fr Familienkunde, No. 1
(1963), 260-261. All two nefs are relatively the same size and made from gilded silver. Each has a clock
mechanism that strikes on the hour and quarter hour. All three have a sizable spring mechanism that drove the
wheel with the music program and the wind supply for the trumpeters. Each of the ships also has an independent
apparatus that enabled the ship to move forward. And each features a representation of the emperor surrounded by
the seven electors in addition to trumpeters and kettle drum players. An eighteenth-century source claims that
Schlotheim also made a similar automaton for Sultan Slyeman the Magnificent, but this has never been
corroborated. See, Paul von Stetten d. J., Kunstgewerbe- und Handwerksgeschichte der Reichsstadt Augsburg
(Augsburg, 1779), 184.

25
The function, movement and imagery of the surviving Schlotheim nefs, immodest in scale and
opulent, make clear the prominent roles the emperors and electors representations played at
feasts.
In an excellent exhibition catalogue, Ces Curieux Navires, Julia Fritsch has demonstrated
that the seated emperor on both the London Nef and the couen Nef is Charles V (1500-1558).25
In addition to deciphering the identity of the emperor, Ces Curieux Navires also examines the
complexities of the nefs mechanisms, their relationship to sixteenth-century nautical
engineering, and their evocation of New World exploration.26 Fritsch and her co-authors assess
these objects significance strictly in terms of Charles Vs expansion of the Holy Roman Empire
beyond the Straits of Gibraltar to Mexico and Peru.27 Although the growth of the empire was a
principal achievement of Charles Vs reign this account overlooks the ritual act these automata
animate: the coronation of Charles V. Additionally, the catalogue does not account for the fact
that they were crafted almost thirty years after Charles Vs death and very likely conceived under
the auspices of Charles Vs great-nephew/grandson, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II (15521612).
This chapter attempts to demonstrate that the iconography of the London and couen nefs
fulfilled a specific political and ideological function bearing on dynastic sucession.
Supplementing Fritschs thorough documentation, this chapter offers additional visual and
historical evidence and proposes a more motivated account of the nefs significance from an
imperial point of view. After discussing the patronage for the nefs and the objects imperial and

25
26

Fritsch (2000): 34.

Nadja Zweigler, La Nef de Vienne, in Ces Curieux navires: Trois automates de la Renaissance (Paris:
Runion des Muse Nationaux, 2000), 43-59, Rieth (2000): 99-111.
27
Fritsch (2000): 34-39.

26
dynastic message, I conclude with a discussion of how the animation of a ritual event increased
the objects potential to reconstruct and perpetuate a mythological past while enacting the
legitimacy and authority for Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II.

PREDECESSORS
The London and couen Nefs are unique surviving examples of festive, mechanical
objects that promoted an ideal of magnificence. Both automata are vestiges of a late-medieval
tradition of crafting nautical vessels to function as votive offerings, reliquaries, drinking vessels
and status symbols. In order fully to appreciate how Schlotheim transformed this tradition to
imbue these objects with majesty and a specific political and dynastic significance, it is useful to
examine earlier nefs, which were also commissioned and utilized by the highest echelons of
European nobility.
In the mid to late thirteenth century silver nefs were often given as votive offerings to
churches or saints. For instance, Queen Marguerite of Provence (1221-1295), the wife of King
Louis IX (later Saint Louis) (1214-1270), bequeathed a small silver nef to the Church of Saint
Nicolas de Port in Lorraine. According to Sieur de Joinville, in 1254 the entire royal family was
caught in a horrific storm returning, by ship, from the Holy Land. During the storm, the Queen
vowed that if her family was returned safely to France she would present the Saint Nicholas de
Port with a nef valued at five marks of silver. The family arrived home safely and Marguerite
was true to her word. Joinville tells us:
When the Queen (whom God absolve!) had returned to France she had the silver ship
made in Paris. And there were in the ship the King, the Queen, and three children, all of

27
silver; the sailors, the mast, the tillers and the ropes all of silver; and the sails all sown
with silver wire. And the Queen told me the making had cost a hundred livres.28

We also know of instances where table nefs were transformed into reliquaries. Notably, Joanna
of Castille (1479-1555), mother of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, owned a nef set on wheels
which she had converted into a reliquary to house and display the relics of Santa Leocadia in
Toledo.29
Not only did nobility present nefs to churches; they also owned and incorporated them
into their collections. Pope Gregory XI owned a cup decorated with waves made in the form of
a silver ship, gilt inside.30 An inventory compiled on September 16, 1380 of the belongings of
Charles V, King of France, itemizes two nefs which were given to the King by the city of Paris.31
One served as a seat marker for the King at courtly feasts, while the other also functioned as a
saltcellar or saleria.
The Burghley Nef

(fig. 7) (1482-1483, London, Victoria and Albert Museum),

diminutive in size (35 centimeters tall and 20.5 centimeters wide) yet lavishly decorated, is a
pristine surviving example of a nef that served as a saltcellar.32 Like several other nefs crafted in
this period, The Burghley Nef stands atop an elaborate base. Six disembodied griffin talons

28

As quoted in Charles Oman, Silver Nefs (London: Her Majestys Stationary Office, 1963), 1.

29

Ibid: 28.

30

Hermann Hoberg, Die Inventare des ppstlicher Schatzes in Avignon, 1314-76 (Citt del Vatincano:
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944), 411.
31

Item, la grant salire dor, en facon dune nef, que la ville de Paris donna au Roy, et est pareille a la grant
nef dont cy-dessus est faicte mencion; pesant quninze marcs six onces dor, and Item, la grant nef du Roy, que la
ville Paris luy donna, toute plaine; pesant VI xx V marcs dor. J. Labarte, Inventaire du mobilier de Charles V, roi
de France (Paris: Impr. Nationale, 1879 ), 64 and 77.
32

Carsten-Peter Warnke, Cellinis Saliera: der Triumph des Goldschmieds, Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 21
No. 42 (2000), 49.

28
support the gilded silver substructure, which was carefully wrought to mimic a calm sea.
Swimming atop the waves is a n oversize mermaid, whose tail cradles a nautilus shell that has
been overturned to resemble the hull of ship. Several sailors populate the deck of this fantastical
vessel (one even climbs the twisted silver ropes rigging the polished silver sails), while two
figures play chess on the forecastle.

However, due to the objects small size and lack of

mobility, only individuals seated in close proximity to the nef could view the complex
arrangement of the silver ropes, the billowing sails that emit and reflect light, and the finely
wrought and active figures. Unlike The Burghley Nef, both the couen and London Nefs were
designed to be seen by every individual seated at the table, and others in the room.
Nefs such as The Burghley Nef were placed on tables for major events. For instance, a
nef was present at the coronation banquet for Charles VII at Rheims on May 30, 1484.33 An
image that captures the grandeur of such a sumptuous royal event is the calendar miniature for
the month of January in the Limbourg Brothers Trs Riches Heures (1411-12, Chantilly, Muse
Cond, Ms. 65 fol. 2) (fig. 8).34 The miniature depicts the luster of a New Years reception held
at the court of Jean, Duc de Berry (1340-1460).

Robed in a blue brocaded, fur-trimmed

houppelande, the duke sits at a banquet table, while his courtiers surround him and tend to his
wishes. The trestle banquet table is crowded with vessels crafted of exceptional materials. The
largest and, arguably, the most important object on the table is the golden nef situated to the

33

Oman (1963), 13.

34

Much ink has been spilled in discussing this miniature. See Brigitte Buettner, Past Presents: New Years
Gifts at the Valios Courts ca. 1400, Art Bulletin, Vol. 83 No. 4 (December, 2001 ), 612 and Jean Pierre van Rijen,
Precious Metalwork in Gold Leaf: Everyday Lustre at the Court of Jean de Berry as Depicted by the Limbourg
Brother, in Rob Dckers and Pieter Roelofs eds., The Limbourg Brothers: Nijmegen Masters at the French Court
1400-1416 (Gent [u.a]: Ludion, 2005 ), 165-175.

29
dukes left. The Duc de Berrys nef stands on an elaborately ornamented hexagonal base and is
crowned on the forecastles with a bear and a swan. The bear and swan, two of the dukes
heraldic animals, are echoed in the red silk textile, which hangs from the chimney directly
behind. In addition to calling attention to the dukes prominent position at the table, the nef
appears to hold tableware, possibly the dukes personal utensils. This miniature makes clear and
emphasizes the link between the ruler and the nef. In a sense, the nef functions as a literal
representation of the ruler, for it would stand in his place when he was absent.
Like the nef owned by Joanna of Castille, the London and couen Nefs also rest on wheel
carriages, but instead of being pushed down the table by an external force, these objects moved
themselves--a noteworthy distinction. Furthermore, the London and couen Nefs were without
utilitarian functions. Neither contained spaces to hold salt, spices, utensils or personal services.
Despite these differences, the London and couen automata pertain to a courtly tradition of
commissioning nefs and displaying and them at courtly feasts. Schlotheims innovations are
significant, extending to modifications in scale, imagery, and function, which together
transformed these objects in to vessels for claims about the transcendental dynastic continuity of
the House of Hapsburg.

HANS SCHLOTHEIM AND THE IMPERIAL COURT IN PRAGUE


The son of a clockmaker, Hans Schlotheim was born in Naumbourg, Saxony sometime
between 1544 and 1547.35 In his early to mid-twenties, between 1567 and 1573, he left his
fathers workshop and moved to Augsburg.36 Upon his arrival he trained under the master

35

Bobinger (1971-1972): 8.

30
clockmaker Jeremias Metzger and in 1573 married Ursula Geiger, the widow of master
locksmith Hans Schitterer.37 Schlotheim obtained his Schmiedergerechtigkeit (right to forge) the
same year.

Three years later, in 1576, he presented his Meisterwerk (masterpiece) to the

geschworene Geschaumeister (sworn inspection masters) in Augsburg and was awarded the title
of Meister (master). In 1577 he installed a large clock on the faade of his housean ingenious
form of advertising.38 Schlotheims self-promotion paid off. He bought a second house on the
famed Schmiedgasse in 1579, placing himself at the epicenter of clock making in the Holy
Roman Empire.39 The absence in archival documents of any mention of Schlotheim for seven
years, between 1579 and 1586 is marked. Despite the lacuna, we may deduce that the 1582 visit
of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to Augsburgto convene the Diet of Augsburgplayed a
pivotal role in Schlotheims career and his relations with the imperial court. As scholars have
suggested, it was during Rudolph IIs stay in the Free Imperial City that he came in contact with
Schlotheims work.40 This is even more likely given that in 1586 Schlotheim requested and
received permission from the city of Augsburg and the clockmakers guild to leave the city and
work at the Imperial court in Prague. Schlotheim remained in Prague until 1589. From 1589
36

The history of clockmaking Augsburg starts very early. Archival documents from the late fourteenth
century begin to mention the payment of individuals to repair public clocks in the Free Imperial city. See, Eva
Groiss, The Augsburg Clockmakers Craft, in The Clockwork Universe: German Clocks and Automata, eds. Klaus
Maurice and Otto Mayr (New York: Neale Watson Academic Publications, 1980), 57-58.
37

Little is known about Jeremias Metzger one of his pieces survives in the Victoria and Albert Museum in
London. It was signed by Metzger and has been dated to 1564. The marriage to Geiger presumably afforded
Schlotheim social and occupational advancement as the tools of a clockmaker and locksmith, in the late sixteenthcentury, were by and large the same. In the sixteenth century, the clockmakers were embroiled in the general guild
of smiths, which included painters, saddlers, and goldsmiths. Archival documents often mention that locksmiths and
clockmakers had a double qualification. Ibid: 60.
38

Maurice (1976): 120.

39

Streng (1963): 247-287.

40

Max Engelmann, Das Krippenwerk des Augsburgers Hans Schlottheim, Der Kunstwanderer, No. 1
(December 1921), Streng (1963): 273 and Maurice (1976): 125.

31
until the middle of the 1590s he is recorded at the Saxon court in Dresden, where he created the
Tower of Babel (ca. 1590 Grne Gewlbe, Dresden) and The Christmas Crib Automaton (ca.
1588, Mathematische und Physicalische Salon, Dresden). 41
The dating of the London and couen Nefs is unstable, not only because the objects bear
no date stamps, but also because there exist no other comparanda for the automata. Although the
objects exalt Rudolf IIs deceased forbearer Charles V, whose revival of medieval notions of
Imperial Universalism Rudolf II honored, several scholars claim that the objects were made
before Schlotheim entered the employ of the imperial crown.42 Writing, in 1963 Friedrich Streng
claimed that the couen Nef was crafted in 1580 and the London Nef in 1581.43 It is unclear on
what evidence Streng based his opinion. The underlying assumption is that in 1582 Schlotheim
caught the emperors attention with these two works and was subsequently invited to Prague.44
In point of fact it is highly improbable that Schlotheim executed the two nefs without an imperial
commission or in such a short span of time. Both of the ships are extremely large, each
measuring almost a meter in length and height and they are made almost entirely of gilded silver,

41

Fritsch (2000): 19.

42

R.J.W Evans, Rudolf II and his world: A Study in Intellectual History 1576-1612 (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1973), 12.
43

Streng (1963): 153.

44

We do know that Rudolph commissioned objects while he was in Augsburg. A document dated
December 31, 1582 from the imperial Hofzahlamt (Office of the Treasury) states: Dem Elias Huetter, des
Kurfursten von Sachsen Diener, welcher sich zur zeit des letzten Reichstages zu Augsburg dem Kaiser Rudolf II. zur
Anfertigung einiger Wasserkunstwerke erboten hatte und von demselben im August mit dem Auftrage nach Wien
geschickt worden war, die wasser kunstkwerke in der Gattermhle, zu Ebersdorf und an anderen Orten, besonders
aber im Kaiserlichen Fasangarten zu giessen, nach Vollendung dieser Arbeit aber, um des Kaisers Gutachten
abzuwarten, bis ende December 1582 zurckgehalten worden war und mit seinem Diener ausser den Augsburg
erhalten 30 Gulden fr Kost Wohnung und Arbeits Materialien 329 Gulden 20 Kreuzer augelegt hatte werden
dieselben ber Kaiserlichen befehl ersetzt. Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhchsten
Kaiserhauses, Vol. 7 (1888) CLXIX No. 5415. On average, four silver Gulden was the equivalent of one golden
ducat and seventy-two Kreuzern equaled one Guldin. Gulden, in Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, Bd.7 4 Aufl.
(Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institute, 1885-1892),922. To my knowledge we have no record of any object
commissioned from Schlotheim during 1582.

an exorbitantly expensive material.

45

32
Schlotheim would have required substantial financial

backing. The possibility that both nefs were speculative ventures at such an early date in the
clockmakers career is highly unlikely.

Indeed, the principal subject matter, an imperial

coronation, strongly suggests an imperial commission or, at the very least, the backing and
encouragement of an individual intimate with the imperial court. The London and couen Nefs, I
maintain, require additional analysis within this context of imperial patronage.

YOUR THRONE WAS ESTABLISHED LONG AGO; YOU ARE FROM ALL ETERNITY
Both the London and couen Nefs were prestige objects. Crafted from costly materials
and their manufacture was demanding.46 The technical virtuosity of the automata lies not only in
the complex mechanisms housed in the hulls of the ships, but also in their highly wrought
surfaces of gilded silver. Both bases are engulfed in in incised patterns of turbulent water that is
populated by chimeras and other sea monsters that swarm around the vessels. On each nef, the
waves and the creatures are rendered in relief, allowing for a play of light and accentuating the
rocking movement of the ships as they traverse, by way of internal mechanisms, a surface.
Schlotheim also made an effort to vary the texture of the ornamentation and architectural
elements of the ships. The entire body of both ships is covered in finely embossed and chased
Laubwerk or Ranken, a decorative motif that incorporates a variety of flora and fauna into
complex arrangements of curves and counter-curves.47

In addition to the finely detailed

45

Groiss (1980): 60.

46

For a very insightful discussion of the efficacy of prestige objects at early modern courts see, Brigitte
Buettner, Past Presents: New Years Gifts at the Valois Courts ca. 1400, Art Bulletin, Vol. 83 No. 4 (December,
2001), 604.

33
Laubwerk, the clockmaker skillfully molded the ribbing of the vessels, which simultaneously
interrupts and draws attention to the spiraling motif. Canons emerge from inside the ships and
extend outward through portals on both the port- and starboard sides, while larger canons
protrude from the mouths of the dragons on both heads of the vessels. 48
Although the ships are very large, they were constructed in such a way that the decks
were at eye level of viewers seated at a table; the decks constitute the focal points of the objects.
The main decks of the nefs which, like the hulls, are covered in Laubwerk, are populated with
brass figures in formal courtly attire. The London Nef holds two groups of four male figures
each, who stand shoulder-to-shoulder on either side of the deck. More crowded, the couen Nef
has twenty-three figures standing aboard the deck of the ship or actively working the masts. On
the couen Nef ten trumpeters, who originally played, line the perimeter of the deck.

drummer, who also played, is situated between the trumpeters on both automata. The main decks
each also contain a representation of a double-headed imperial eagle suspended between two
47

Laubwerk or Ranken is more often referred to as (in French) Rinceaux. During the early modern period
this decorative motif was used in a wide variety of settings, such as ceramics, furniture, textiles, armor, and frescoes.
It was first employed north of the Alps by printmakers such as Israhel van Meckenem (ca. 1440-1503) and Martin
Schngauer (1450-1491). Remarkably, in an early printed portrait of Emperor Charles V by Daniel Hopfer (14701536) the emperors bust is surrounded by the motif. Additionally, Hopfer also engraved a map in which the entire
geographical area of Burgundy, the first region Charles V inherited, is covered with Laubwerk. Thus, a tradition of
surrounding the Emperor with this decorative motif was established before Schlotheim manufactured the nefs, and
may have been a catalyst for the inclusion of the motif on these objects. See, Alain Gruber, Lart decorative en
Europe: Renaissance et Manirisme, Vol. 1 (Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 1993), 115-128.
48

Remarkably, the 1587 inventory entry of the Dresden nef describes the complex rigging of this particular
object. The rigging of each of the surviving nefs is also fairly complex. They are rigged with three maststhe
mizzen, main and fore mastsat full sail. All of the masts could be turned around in an attempt to simulate the wind
blowing in the proper direction of movement. A shroud (a set of ropes that lead from the head of the mast and
served to relieve lateral strain on the mast) extends from each mast. Three crows nestseach containing a figure
who struck bells while the automata were in motionare situated above each yard and sail and crowned with trucks,
spindles and vanes on both works. For excellent diagrams of early modern ships see, Ephraim Chambers,
Cyclopaedia, or, An universal dictionary of arts and sciences: containing the definitions of the terms, and accounts
of the things signify'd thereby, in the several arts, both liberal and mechanical, and the several sciences, human and
divine: the figures, kinds, properties, productions, preparations, and uses, of things natural and artificial; the rise,
progress, and state of things ecclesiastical, civil, military, and commercial: with the several systems, sects, opinions,
&c; among philosophers, divines, mathematicians, physicians, antiquaries, criticks, &c: The whole intended as a
course of ancient and modern learning. Vol. 2 (London, 1728), XVII.

columns.

49

34
The strategically placed imperial insignia simultaneously announces and demarcates

the symbolic and ritual act that transpires beneath the conical baldachin at the back of the
vessels.
Directly behind the main mast on both automata, Charles V sits enthroned, laden with
symbolic treasure, and garbed in golden ecclesiastical vestments (figs. 9 and 10).50 On the
London Nef, the emperor holds the imperial scepter in his left hand, while his right is out
stretched in a gesture of benediction; he wears the imperial mitre crown, topped with a cross. The
golden brocaded dalmatic he wears is the vestment worn during the unction by the pope.51 On
the couen Nef, by contrast, the emperor holds the Reichsapfel (Imperial Globe) and wields a
sword. In both cases, Charles V is represented in the moment immediately following his
transformation into a persona gemina, an individual who is human by nature and divine by

49

The fact that the double-headed eagle is hung between two columns is significant. It recalls Charles Vs
device of the two columns of Hercules. It should also be noted that the double-headed eagle was an imperial
insignia. The insignia could only be used by the sovereign after his conformatio coronation by the Pope in Rome.
When the sovereign was elected as the German-King of the Romans in Frankfurt and later crowned in Aachen he
was depicted with the single headed eagle. A famous example of this distinction can be found in Hans Burgkmairs
Kaiser Maximilian in der Kapelle. (1515 Vienna, Graphische Sammlungen Albertina). In the woodcut the Mitre
Crown of the Emperor is displayed over the double-headed eagle, while the Double-Arched Crown of the Emperor
Elect, was rendered above a single headed eagle. For a wonderfully technical discussion of the meaning of the two
crowns and their use before and during Charles Vs reign, see Earl E. Rosenthal, Die Reichskrone die Wiener
Krone und der Krone Karls des Grosen im 1520, Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, Vol. 66
(1970), 7-48.
50

The depiction of the emperor enthroned and in majesty began in the Holy Roman Empire during the
Carolingian period. It is believed that the tradition was initiated by either Lothar I (795-855) in The Gospel of
Lothar I, from the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris (ca. 849-851Ms. Lat. 266 fol. 1v) or by Charles the Bald
(823-877) in The Psalter of Charles the Bald from the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris (ca. 850 Ms. Lat.
1152 fol. 4v). The Ottonian Emperors appropriated this tradition and were regularly represented enthroned, not only
in manuscripts, such as the Aachen Gospels (ca. 975 Aachen, Aachner Dom Schatzkammer) , but also on secular
seals. Otto I is the first ruler in Western sigillographic history to be depicted on his seal enthroned, crowned,
holding a lily scepter and the Christological imperial orb surmounted by a cross...the revolutionary character of
Ottos seal resides chiefly in the fact that the scene of Royal majesty, previously exclusively found on religious
artifacts had made its way into absolutely secular and political objects. Brigitte Bedos Rezak, The King
Enthroned: A New Theme in Anglo Saxon Royal Econography, The Seal of Edward the Confessor and its Political
Implications, Acta, Vol. XI (1984), 60.
51

Robert Deshman, Otto II and the Warmund Sacramentary: A Study in Political Theology, Zeitschrift fr
Kunstgeschichte, Vol. 34 No. 1 (1971), 8.

grace.

52

35
The inclusion of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Empire and their liturgical

attributes reinforce this claim.


The coronation scene on the London Nef incorporates the three Geistliche Kurfrsten
(Holy Electors) of the Holy Roman Empire and the four Weltliche Kurfrsten (Secular Electors),
all dressed in regal ermine-trimmed red mantels and Kurhtten, (Electoral Crowns) while
processing in circle around the newly crowned emperor (fig. 11). The Electors are identifiable
on the basis of the attributes they were required to hold in the coronation ceremony. The three
Geistliche Kurfrsten carry texts. The Archbishops of Mainz and Trier hold books, while the
Archbishop of Cologne carries a scroll. The four Weltliche Kurfrsten wield liturgical items
used only during the coronation of the emperor. The King of Bohemia carries a silver chalice,
from which the emperor would drink a mixture of wine and water during the ceremony. The
washing basin and cloth used to cleanse the body of the emperor in preparation for his
anointment are held by the Margrave of Brandenburg. The Elector of Saxony carries the
Reichschwert (the imperial sword), a weapon believed to embody the power of the Empire.53
And finally, the Elector of the Palatine holds a large silver key to the imperial kitchen,
designating his responsibility over the sovereigns food.
The coronation scene on the couen Nef includes an additional two heralds donning the
Imperial Wappenrock (tabard), who lead the procession, and an eighth elector, whose hands are

52

This notion is crystallized in the Norman Anonymous eleventh century De consecratione pontificum et
regum, when the monk stated We thus have to recognize [in the King] a twin person, one descending from nature,
the other from grace. . . .One through which, by the condition of nature, he conformed with other men: another
through which by the eminence of [his] deification and by the power of the sacrament [of consecration], he excelled
all others. Concerning one personality, he was, by nature, an individual man: concerning his other personality, he
was, by grace, a Christus, that is a God-man. As quoted in, Ernst Kantorwicz, The Kings Two Bodies: A Study in
Medieval Political Theology (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957), 46.
53

Howard L. Adelson, The Holy Lance and the Hereditary German Monarchy. The Art Bulletin, Vol. 48
No. 2 (June 1966), 181.

54

empty.

36
Other differences are visible in the liturgical items the Margrave of Brandenburg and

the Elector of Saxony present. Instead of carrying the washbasin and cloth, the Margrave of
Brandenburg carries a scepter.

This crucial piece of imperial regalia is paired with the

Reichsapfel held by the Elector of Saxony. As on the London Nef, the Archbishop of Mainz and
Trier carry books, the Archbishop of Cologne holds a scroll, the King of Bohemia bears a grand
chalice, and the Elector Palatinate has a large key over his right shoulder.
Several aspects of these animated coronation scenes deserve close attention. Both nefs
present the most salient aspects of imperial power and thus adhere to traditional early modern
Majesttbilderimages in which the emperor is depicted enthroned and surrounded by his
electors. Consider, for example, Hans Weiditzs (1500-1536) woodcut of Charles Vs 1520
Coronation in Aachen (fig. 12) (ca. 1520 Aachen, Aachen Stadtarchiv), which was made to
circulate the news of the newly crowned emperor.55

At first glance the woodcut appears

strikingly similar to the coronation scenes on the nefs; the enthroned emperor is surrounded by
seven standing electors, holding either texts or liturgical objects used in the coronation. Yet
Schlotheim has manipulated the Majesttbilder tradition. In Weiditzs woodcut the emperor is
seated on a modest high-backed throne draped with a simple unornamented Cloth of Honor and
topped with the double-headed imperial eagle. On the London and couen Nefs, Charles V sits
on a low stool flanked by two lions. Remarkably, the thrones on Schlotheims works recall King
Solomons throne which, according to the first book of Kings, was adorned with stays on either

54

This curious addition of an elector, has two possible explanations. First, the eighth elector could have
been included during the time the automaton was crafted to compensate for a gap in the procession. Second, the
eighth figure could have been affixed sometime after 1648 when an eighth electoral position was given to the Duke
of Bavaria, Maximilian I (1573-1651).
55

Hans Weiditz also published two earlier portraits of Charles, when he was King Charles I of Spain, the
first dates to 1518 and the second to 1519.

56

side by the place of the seat, and two lions standing beside the stays.

37
Here the nefs allude to

Charles Vs Solomonic wisdom, and also suggest that the Holy Roman Empire and the emperor
are extensions of the Old Testament Kings and their divinely protected kingdoms.57 To put it
another way, in the first instance (Weiditz) the throne is decked in conventional royal trappings,
whereas in the second (the nefs) the Solomonic throne is mobilized to convey the divinity,
longevity, and legitimacy of the Hapsburg monarchy. Unlike Old Testament Kings such as
David and Solomon, who were considered harbingers of Christ, the rulers of the Holy Roman
Empire were construed as shadows of Christ, impersonators of ChristChristomimetes.58 In
the words of Ernst Kantorowicz, on earth the emperor presented the living image of the twonatured God. . . . The divine prototype and his visible vicar were taken to display great similarity,
as they were supposed to reflect each other.59
The manifestation of Christ in the Emperor is made apparent when we compare the figure
of the Charles V on the London and couen Nefs to a detail of Christ as Weltenreicher (ruler of
the world) from the Christusmantel (fig. 13) (ca. 1525 Wien, Weltliche Schatzkammer), a
lavishly embroidered liturgical pluviale and one of the key liturgical raiments of the Hapsburg
regalia.60 The Christusmantel and the figures of Charles V on the nefs share strategies of

56

I Kings 10: 18-20. An excellent visual example of the Old Testament Leonine throne which is
incorporated into a coronation is ceremony, Saul anointed by Samuel (ca. 1250) a detail from an illuminated
manuscript from the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (M. 638 f.23v).
57

The term sacrum imperium was first employed in the twelfth-century during the reign of Frederick I of
Barbarossa. Craig Koslofsky, Holy Roman Empire, in Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of Early Modern
History, ed. Jonathon Dewald, Vol. 3 (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 2004), 183.
58

Jefferey Hamburger has explored various ways medieval images of John the Baptist depict the saint
imitating Christ or depict the saint as Christ in, Jefferey F. Hamburger, The Deified Evangelist in Medieval Art and
Theology (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002).
59

Kantorowicz (1957): 47.

38
exhibiting an imperial presence. Austere and immobile majesty is a common feature. Christ and
the figures of Charles V sit frontally, iconically, in canopied thrones before concave backdrops
sumptuously ornamented with vegetal motifs. The figures of Charles V and Christ are draped in
dalmatics and wear mitre crowns topped with a cross. Consequently, each representation calls
attention to the role of the enthroned and crowned figure as the supreme ruler of the Christian
world.
Yet another critical distinction remains to be made between Weiditzs woodcut and the
coronation scenes on the London and couen Nefs. Weiditzs work statically represents and
attempts, by means of an accompanying text, to record an event that took place on a specific day
in a particular year, a singular event that occurred in chronological time. The automata deviate
from this tradition on precisely this point: the London and couen Nefs have the potential to
perform and re-perform the sacramental and liturgical action, which transformed Charles V into
yet another Hapsburg mediator of divine will.
Why, however, would a representation of Charles Vs coronation have been desirable for
Rudolph II to begin with?

Why would the emperor not wish to memorialize his father

Maximilian II (1527-1576) or perhaps the first Hapsburg rulerRudolph IIs namesake


Rudolph I (1218-1291)?

A partial answer is to be found in Charles Vs reign and dynastic

intentions. A more complete answer lies in the shaky dynastic grounds on which Rudolph II
ascended to the imperial throne.

PLUS ULTRA
60

The pluvial, along with its counterpartsthe Marienmantel (ca. 1525 Wien, Weltliche Schatzkammer)
and the Johannesmantel (ca. 1525 Wien, Weltliche Schatzkammer)have been dated to the second quarter of the
sixteenth-century. See, Colin Eisler, Two Early Franco-Flemish EmbroideriesSuggestions for their Settings,
The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 109 No. 775 (October, 1967) 578 no. 40.

39
Born on February 24, 1500 to Philip le Beau (1478-1506) and Joanna the Mad of Castille
(1479-1555), Charles V embodied the perfect storm of European dynasties. He was the heir to
three of Europes most powerful families: the Trastamara of Castille and Aragon, the Burgundian
Valois, and the Hapsburgs of Austria.61 The orchestration of Charles Vs role in imperial politics
began immediately following his birth.

Charles Vs birth on the feast of Matthiasthe

individual who, according to the Holy Scriptures, was chosen to succeed as the apostle of
Christwas viewed by many as fortuitous. Supposedly, upon hearing the announcement of her
grandsons birth, Isabella of Spain (1451-1504) remarked cecidit sors super Matthiam (and
the lot fell upon Matthias).62 Isabellas reputed remark signals Charles Vs link to the apostolic
age, and suggests that he had been pre-elected to his imperial position by God himself.63
Shortly after Charless birth, Philip le Beau began preparing his firstborn son to
perpetuate the might of the Hapsburgs.64 Before Charles reached the age of one, Philip arranged

61

Charles Vs maternal grandfather, Ferdinand II of Spain (1479-1516) was the head of the house of
Aragaon, while his maternal grandmother, Isabella I of Spain (1474-1504) was born within the house of Castille.
His paternal grandfather was the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) and his paternal
grandmother was Mary of Burgundy (1457-1482). Karl Brandi, Kaiser Karl V: Werden und Schichsal einer
Persnlichkeit und eines Weltreiches (Mnchen, Bruchmann Verlang, 1937) 37.
62

As quoted in Brandi (1937): 59. Zurita, one of the chroniclers of Isabellas life noted it is well known . .
.that when Isabella learned of [Charless] birth, remembering how in the Holy Scriptures it is mentioned that St
Matthias was chosen by lot to succeed as an apostle of Christ, and understanding in how much hope [Charles] had
been born with the power to succeed to so many powerful kingdoms and estates, she observed that the lot of St
Matthias had fallen upon him. And not many days passed before the truth of her prophecy emerged and it seemed as
if her remark had been made from Divine inspiration. As quoted by Rolf Strm-Olsen, Dynastic Ritual and
Politics in Early Modern Burgundy: The Baptism of Charles V, The Past and Present Society (2002), 44 no. 30.
63

This vertical axis linking the emperor with the apostles was a well-worn trope by the time Charless
emerged on the political scene. The Annals of Lobbes, ad annum 961 stressed the Ottonian kings relationship to the
apostles and their role in bringing Christianity to the gentes. Our lord Otto, his fathers name sake, is made to share
in the paternal kingship and is given the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit in the palace of Aachen, seven weeks
from Easter, on the day of the Pentecost and at the hour on which the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, on
the seventh of Calends of June, and on the seventh moon, when Otto was in his seventh year. As quoted by
Philippe Buc in Ritual and interpretation: the early medieval case, Early Medieval Europe, Vol. 9 (2000), 188.
64

Charles Vs dynastic ambition for the house Hapsburg has been primarily taken up by his German
Biographers. The Spanish biographers of the emperor, not surprisingly, have focused on his role in perpetuating the

40
for him to become one of the thirty members of the Order of the Golden Fleecea chivalric
order established by Philip the Good (1396-1467) to defend Christendom against the infidel
and ceded the child-prince the Duchy of Luxembourg.65 Philip died in 1506, causing Joanna of
Castille to be so overtaken with grief that she was unable to care for or stand in as regent of her
son.

Joannas weakened mental state worried her Hapsburg in-laws, and she was quietly

removed from Brussels and taken to Castille, where she lived in seclusion under the watch of her
father Ferdinand of Aragon, King of Spain (1452-1516).66 Concerned for his grandsons wellbeing and political future, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) placed Charles in the
care of Philip le Beaus sister, the twice widowed and childless Margaret of Austria (14801530).67 Thus, at an extremely early age, Charles was closely connected to the imperial throne
as he became, at the death of his father, the heir apparent.
In 1516 Charless maternal grandfather died and bequeathed all the Spanish Kingdoms to
Charles.68 As a result of Ferdinands decision, the Hapsburg line entered Spain; the Hapsburgs

ambitions of the House of Aragon and Castille in relation to Hernn Cortss (1485-1547) conquest of Mexico and
Peru. Karl Brandis biography of the emperor has become the accepted scholarly standard on the whole of Charles
Vs life and reign. However, in recent years there has been attempts by German scholars to revise Brandis heroic
view of Charles V. See, Alfred Kohler, Karl V. 1500-1558. Eine Biographie. (Munich: C.H. Beck, 1999) Luise
Schorn-Schtte, Karl V. Kaiser zwischen Mittelalter und Neuzeit (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2000) and Ernst Schulin,
Kaiser Karl V. Geschichte eines bergroen Wirkungsberiches (Stuttgart, Berlin and Cologne: W. Kohlhammer,
1999).
65

On Charles V and the Order of the Golden Fleece see Earl Rosenthal, Plus Ultra, Non plus Ultra, and the
Columnar Device of Emperor Charles V, Journal of the Warburg and Courtald Institutes, Vol. 34 (1971), 204-228
and Earl Rosenthal, The Invention of the Columnar Device of Emperor Charles V at the Court of Burgundy in
Flanders, Journal of the Warburg and Courtald Institutes, Vol. 36 (1973), 198-230.
66

Manuel Fernndez Alvarez, Charles V: Elected Emperor and Hereditary Ruler, Trans. J.A. Lalaguna
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1975), 17.
67

On the letters exchanged between Margaret of Austria and her father Maximilian I, which discuss her care
for Charles V and her regency of his Burgundian position see, Brandi (1937): 39-47.
68

In addition to Aragonian and Castillian regions in Spain Charles V also inherited the kingdoms of Naples
and Sicily upon the death of his grandfather. Consequently, Charles V was the second Holy Roman Emperor to
posses both Naples and Sicily. The previous emperor to possess both Sicily and Naples was Holy Roman Emperor

41
had not ruled the Iberian Peninsula before. This fact has substantial bearing on Charless later
dynastic intentions and his attempt to satisfy both the Austrian and Spanish lines of the Hapsburg
house at the time of his abdication in 1553.
When Charles arrived in Spain, in the late fall of 1516, his claims to the crowns of
Castille and Aragon were contested. Many Spaniards contended that the legitimate Spanish heir
was either Charless mother or Ferdinand (1506-1564) the younger son of Joanna of Castille and
Philip le Beau, arguing that if Joanna was truly unfit to perform her duties then Ferdinand, who
had been born and raised in Castille, should be considered the heir apparent.69 Recognizing that
his younger brother might stand in the way of his first royal title, Charles sent him to Flanders
where Ferdinand was raised and trained to be entrusted with the government of the Hapsburg
Erblande (hereditary lands).70
In January 1519 Charles received news of Maximilian Is death. At this time Charles was
aware that, prior to his demise Maximilian, had campaigned for his election as King of the
Romans (emperor elect) and given several electors heavy sums to insure that Charles would be
crowned.

Despite Maximilians energetic lobbying, the seven electors where not entirely

convinced that Charles was the natural choice to replace his grandfather.71

Charles was

extremely young, only nineteen years of age; he had never been to the German speaking lands of
Friedrich II (1194-1250). The fact that Charles was in possession of both Sicily and Naples is significant. Papal
authorities, historically, tended to lobby against the imperial election of the King of Naples. The pope did not want
the two heads of Christendom to be in such close proximity. See Alvarez (1975), 29.
69

Ferenc Majoros, Karl V. Habsburg als Weltmacht (Graz, Vienna and Cologne: Styria, 2000 ), 112-114.

70

On the Hapsburgs and the control of their hereditary lands see, Volker Press, The Hapsburg Court as
Center of the Imperial Government, Journal of Modern History, Vol. 58 suppl. (December, 1986), S25-S26 and
R.J.W. Evans, Rudolf II and his World: A Study in Intellectual History 1576-1612 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973 ),
10-14.
71

Henry J. Cohn, Did Bribes Induce the German Electors to Choose Charles V as Emperor in 1519?
German History, Vol. 19 No.1 (2001), 5.

42
the Holy Empire; he did not speak a word of German; nor did he have the military credentials
needed to combat Sultan Sleyman the Great (1494-1566) who was looming just outside the
imperial realms.72 Conscious of Charless weaknesses, Francis I of France (1494-1547)
campaigned vigorously for his own election as King of the Romans. In addition to Francis, it was
rumored that Henry VIII of England (1491-1547) had also been in secret discussions with the
electors for their support of his candidacy for Charlemagnes throne.73
Needless to say, the race for the throne was intense. Upon hearing news of his seasoned
rivals, Charles immediately focused all his attention on the upcoming elections. He swiftly
dispatched couriers to all the electors and wrote to his aunt in Brussels to begin negotiating with
electors on his behalf.74 With the help of Margaret and the pope and by incurring heavy debts to
line the pockets of the electors, Charles was elected King of the Romans on June 28, 1519, and a
date of October 23, 1520 was set for his coronation.75

72

Ibid: 14.

73

Supposedly, when Charles V informed Francis I of his decision to campaign for the election Francis
replied, Sire, we are both courting the same lady. See Alvarez (1975): 30.
74

Foreseeing a contentious election the Archbishop of Mainz, Albert III von Brandenburg (1490-1545)
convened all of the electors a month after Maximilian Is death. During the meeting, the electors agreed that they
would vote the new emperor into office three months later in Frankfurt. Charles realized that that he required the
support of the pope to defeat Francis and Henry. Throughout the three-month deliberation period, Charles wrote
frequent letters to Pope Leo X (1475-1521) that appealed to his papal sensibility. Charles made clear his personal
calling to quash the infidel in the east and destroy the German heretic, Martin Luther (1483-1546) whose ideas had
begun to plague the empire. Brandi (1937): 85-87.
75

Soon after learning of his election, Charles left Spain and first traveled to England and then to Brussels,
where he planned his coronation in Aachen. While in Brussels, he was awarded one million florins for his
coronation ceremony by the Estates General of the Netherlands. This delighted Charles, because he was anxious to
set the date for his anointing. However, reports out of Aachen claimed that the city was in the midst of a plague
outbreak. Charless advisors exhaustively strove to convince him to have the coronation at a different cite, such as
Regensburg. The advisors admonishments were ignored by Charles, who insisted on being crowned in Aachen
regardless of how long he was required to delay his anointing. This decision, which took place during the most
critical time to establish his dominance in Europe and position on the throne, clearly illustrates Charles Vs
reluctance to relinquish his reigns symbolic tie to the medieval empire. Charles was never indifferent to the

43
On the day of his anointment Charles processed through the streets of Aachen. When the
emperor-to-be reached the citys cathedral, built by Charlemagne himself, he was met by the
Archbishops of Mainz and Trier outside the entrance. The two Geistliche Kurfrsten flanked
Charles as the door opened and the music of the imperial guard came to a halt while the sacred
music of the liturgy poured out of portals of the church. Charles was escorted by the two
Geistliche Kurfrsten to the high altar, where he was asked if he would swear to preserve the
ancient faith, protect the church, govern justly, and care for the humble, poor, widows and
orphans.76 Charles answered Volo (I will) to each of the questions posed to him. After
Charless affirmative answers the Archbishop of Cologne turned to the congregation and asked if
they would pledge their undying allegiance to Charles as their emperor. Following the pledge of
the congregation, Charles was anointed on the back of his neck, on his chest, hands and head
while the Archbishop of Mainz repeated Unge te regem oleo sanctificatio. Once Charles had
been mystically distinguinshed from those on Earth and placed under the authority of God, he
was crowned with the Coronum Caroli (the crown of Charlemagne) and given the scepter and
globe while the Electors processed in a circle around him as the congregation screamed Vivat,
vivat, viviat rex in eternum.77

location of his symbolic transformation into a persona gemina. On the contrary, he displayed a keen sense of
history; an awareness which heightened the profundity of his coronation.
Charless controversial decision to wait for his desired location was fortuitous. During his stay in Brussels,
the emperor to be regularly exchanged letters with the pope, who in addition to preparing Charles to deal with his
most problematic new subject, Martin Luther, bestowed upon Charles the privilege of being crowned both King of
the Romans (emperor elect) and Emperor within the same liturgical ceremony. Furthermore, the pope allowed the
coronation to take place in his absence. This was the first and last time the pope would grant such a privilege. See
Brandi (1937): 100 and Alvarez (1975): 38.
76

Alvarez (1975): 34.

77

All of the biographies of Charles V describe his coronation see note 40. My brief description has been
taken from Karl Brandi. See Brandi (1937): 105-109.

44
This political and liturgical rite of coronation served to legitimate Charles V; demonstrate
the allegiance of the empire and electors, make clear the continuity of the past empire of
Charlemagne with that of the present, and fortify the Hapsburg line.78 Given the questions about
Hapsburg sucession that troubled Rudolph II, it makes good sense that the symbolic framework
of this momentous occasion was taken up by Schlotheim in the London and couen Nefs while
he was working at the Rudolph IIs court. 79 It is my considered opinion that Rudolph II wanted
associate and identify himself with Charles Vs coronation and reign, since he was not,
technically, Charles Vs heir. Rudolphs cousin Philip II (1527-1598), King of Spain, Algavres,
Portugal, Naples, Sicily and Chilthe foremost global empirewas.

One of the means by

which Rudolph II asserted this model of dynastic sucession was by commissioning and
displaying such vehicles of political meaning as the nefs under discussion.

78

For an overview of roles coronations play in societies and an historiographic discussion of the topic see,
Jnos M. Bak, Introduction: Coronation StudiesPast, Present and Future, in Jno M. Bak ed., Coronation (Los
Angeles: Centerl for Medieval and Renaissance Studies UCLA, 1985 ), 1-17. As one might imagine, the
scholarship on this ritual event is immense. The author who pioneered this field of study was Percy E. Schramm.
Schramm was primarily interested in divulging the mechanisms which promoted the symbolic nature of Kingship in
the medieval period. Numerous students of Schramm have published on coronations. Their collective body of
work, is referred to as the Gttingen School. Ernst Kantorowiczs masterful The Kings Two Bodies was written in
response to Schramms work. See, Percy E Schramm, Herrschaftszeichen und Staatsymbolik. II (Munich: C.H.
Beck, 1925) and Ernst Kantorwicz, The Kings Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1957).
79

After his coronation in Aachen, the young and precocious emperor ruled over no less than twenty-seven
kingdoms, thirteen duchies, twenty-two counties and nine seignories. The scale of his monarchy was so greatin
addition to colonies in Peru, Mexico and the Philippines the empire stretched from the Straights of Gibraltar in the
south of Europe to Holstein in the north, from Alsace in the west to Bohemia in the eastthat he was often
compared to the illustrious Charlemagne and, at times, hailed as greater than his beloved ancestor. Shortly after
Charless election his head jurist, Mercurino Gattinara (1465-1530) wrote to him and stated: Sire, now that God in
His prodigious grace has elevated Your Majesty above all Kings and Princes of Christendom, to a pinnacle of power
occupied before by none except your might predecessor Charlemagne, you are on the road toward Universal
Monarchy and on the point of uniting Christendom under a single shepherd. As quoted by Fernand Braudel, in
Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in Age of the Philip II, Vol. II trans. Sian
Reynolds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995 ), 674. Charles Vs rule even prompted nervous papal
authorities to concede that the young emperor had made the medieval notion of a universal Christian Monarchy
(monarchia universalis) a reality. On the repeated comparison made between Charles V and Charlemagne see,
Franz Bosbach, Die Politische Bedeutung Karls des Grossen fr Karl V, Archiv fr Kulturgechichte, Vil. 84 (2002
), pg, 49-73. On the response of the papal authorities see, Alfred Kohler, Karl V, Neue Deutsche Biographie, Vol.
11 (Berlin: Duncker & Humboldt, 1977), 194.

45
HAPSBURGIAN HAUSMACHT
In order to fully understand Philip IIs claim to the imperial throne we must first delve
deeper into Charles Vs plans for the continuation of the House of Hapsburg. To the dismay of
the empire, Charles V was unmarried when he commenced his imperial reign. Two years
following his coronation Charles was betrothed to his first cousin, Mary I of England (15161558), daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536). However, at the time of
her espousal Mary I was eight years of age, and the nuptial contract could not be instated until
she reached at least sixteen years. Initially, Charles agreed to wait the prescribed period of
time.80 Since Charles had to defer producing legitimate heirs for eight years, he officially
bequeathed the inheritance rights of the Hapsburg Erblande to his brother Ferdinand in 1522.81
Charless decision to invest Ferdinand with the Hapsburg lands was bolstered by Ferdinands
recent marriage to Anne of Bohemia (1503-1547) in 1521, which considerably strengthened
Hapsburg power in Central Europe.82 It appeared to the empire that Charles had strategically
solved his dynastic problems by spreading the familial supremacy across the whole of Europe.
This, however, was not the case.
Three years later Charles renounced his betrothal to Mary I of England. Henry VIIIs
attempt to divorce Catherine of Aragon enraged Charles and he cut all his ties with the House of
Tudor. Quickly thereafter, Charles brokered a marriage with yet another first cousin, Isabelle of

80

On Charles betrothal to Mary I of England and his relationship to the House of Tudor see Kohler (1999):

167-174.
81

Brandi (1937): 116-122.

82

This Hungarian and Austrian alliance was a crucial move instated to block Syleman the Magnificents
march from Belgradewhich the Turkish troops had taken in 1521along the Danube. Ibid: 123-125.

Portugal (1503-1539).

83

46
The couple was married on March 10, 1526 in Seville. One year later,

their first-born child (and only son to survive childhood) Philip II was born and in 1528 their
second child Maria of Spain (1528-1603), Rudolph IIs mother, came into the world.
At the close of the decade, Ferdinand requested a meeting with Charles to re-affirm his
inheritance promise of 1522. Charles responded, and on his journey from Italy to Germany to
convene the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 he stopped in Innsbruck. Charless visit to Innsbruck was
a symbolic gesture. Upon his arrival the two brothers and their younger sister, Mary of Hungary
(1505-1558), prayed together before the tomb of Maximilian I in the Hofkirche.84 Following
their devotions, Charles swore to Ferdinand that he would propose his election as King of the
Romans to the Imperial Diet in Augsburg. Charles intended for Ferdinand to disallow any of his
children the right to the imperial throne and instead propose that Philip II succeed him as
emperor.85 Ferdinand would do no such thing.
Charles V stayed true to his vow. During the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, he proposed that
Ferdinand be elected King of Romans and, consequently, take over the imperial throne. Since
Philip II, the heir apparent, was only a toddler at this time, the representatives who composed the
Reichstnde (imperial estates) agreed that electing Ferdinand would be in the Empires best
interest. Ferdinand was crowned in Aachen one year later in 1531.86
For the next fourteen years Ferdinand dealt with the confessional issues that plagued the
German-speaking lands and repelled repeated Ottoman attacks in his territories, while Charles V

83

Alvarez (1975): 45.

84

Ibid: 62.

85

Kohler (1999): 113.

86

Alvarez (1975): 94.

47
battled the Ottomans in the Mediterranean and the French in Italy. However, Ferdinands
attempts to quell a Protestant alliance in Germany failed, and in 1544 the formation of the
Schmalkaldic League forced Charles to devote all of his attention to the rebellious German
princes. In December 1544 Charles announced that he was going to deal with the Schmalkaldic
League by force. After three years of skirmishes, Charles defeated his protestant foes in the
decisive battle at Mhlberg. In 1547, it appeared to all of Europe, that Charles had quashed the
heretical ideas that had plagued Germany for almost three decades. However, in December 1547,
the emperors health deteriorated rapidly, prompting him to make swift decisions to tie up the
disparate ends of the house of Hapsburg.87 Charless choices spawned an internal Hapsburg
conflict, which led to a decisive split in the Hapsburg political edifice.
It was at this time, when Charles was weakened, that the succession issue was broached
by both Ferdinand and his twenty-year old first-born son Maximilian (1527-1576). Ferdinand
desired that Maximilian take the imperial crown and pressured Charles into proposing
Maximilians election to King of the Romans upon Ferdinands ascension to emperor. Not
surprisingly, Charles did not favor of Ferdinands plan, and proposed that Philip II be elected
King of the Romans instead of Maximilian. By way of appeasing Charles and Philip, Ferdinand
offered to invest Philip with the title of vicar of the Holy Roman Emperor in Italy. Charles
vetoed the suggestion. After three years of bitter exchanges between Ferdinand and Charles a
decision was reached. To the chagrin of Ferdinand and Maximilian, during the Imperial Diet of
Augsburg in 1550 Charles convinced the members of the Reichstnde to elect Philip II as King

87

Brandi devotes the largest section of his book to Charless conflicts and battles with the Schmalkadic
League. See Brandi (1937), 449-450.

48
of the Romans upon Ferdinands imperial coronation, or conformatio. Ferdinand and Maximilian
were enraged by the succession arrangements.
The remainder of Charles Vs reign was wracked with persistent Protestant uprisings in
Germany. By 1553 it was clear that several of the Protestant princes were on the precipice of
breaking away from the empire.88 Riddled with gout and depression over his inability to stop the
Protestant movement and unify the empire and the Church, Charles V renounced his imperial
obligations and invested Ferdinand with the empire and the confessional burden.

Charles

retreated to Spain, where he lived out the rest of his life in a monastery at Yuste.
Despite Charless abdication in 1553, the electors did not recognize the renouncement of
his imperial duties until 1558. Finally, on March 14, 1558 Ferdinand was invested with the
imperial crown. Ferdinand was now in the position to propose his successor, and predictably he
persuaded the electors and the Reichstnde to elect Maximilian as King of the Romans.
Consequently, the imperial crown never went to the Spanish line of the House of Hapsburg.
After Maximilians death his son, Rudolph II, took the crown in spite of Philip IIs prolonged
and virulent protests.89
Viewed against the backdrop of the Hapsburg succession issue, the London and couen
Nefs can be seen to have legitimized the Austrian Hapsburgs generally and Rudolph II in

88

These princes were the Margrave Hans von Kstrin, Wilhelm von Hesse and Margrave Albrecht
Alcibiades von Brandenburg, Kohler (1999): 247.
89

In addition to two failed attempts at poisoning Maximilian II, Philip sought an imperial title to rival that
of his Austrian relatives. In January of 1563 rumors were flying around Europe that he preparing to declare himself
Emperor of the Indies and a similar rumor circulated just four months later that he had proclaimed himself King
of the Indies and of the New World. Twenty years later, a French ambassador in Venice wrote to the French King
Henri II to inform him that Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517-1586) one of Philips leading jurists and minister,
visited the pope in Rome to discuss an imperial title for Philip II. I have learned from these Lords that Cardinal
Granvelle is coming to Rome in September this year to have the title of emperor conferred upon his master.As
quoted by Fernand Braudel in Braudel (1995), 675.

49
particular by representing the coronation of Charles V. Through these objects Rudolph could
visually tie his imperial title to Charles V, as if he had directly inherited the throne from him.
This linking of Rudolph IIs dynastic heritage to Charles V was an active political strategy and
was reiterated visually and pictorially in several instances. On May 7, 1577 Rudolph II ordered
that Charles Vs coat of arms be displayed in the Schlokirche (the palace chapel) and the church
of Saint Jacob in Prague.90 Four years later, the emperor sent Philip II 117 Gulden and 20
Kreuzern for a portrait of Charles V which was in Spain.91 And finally, the emperor juxtaposed
the bronze bust of himself, now known as Portrait bust of Rudolph II (ca. 1590 Vienna,
Kunsthistorisches Museum) II by Adrien de Vries with Leon Leonis Bronze Bust of Charles V
(ca. 1540 Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) in the imperial Kunstkammer in Prague.92

RITUAL AND REPETITION


Rituals are displays of carefully choreographed and negotiated ceremonies, gestures, and
behaviors that affirm or re-affirm distinctions of social status while expressing an argument or
statement.93 They are planned and staged with care, with attention to the smallest detail and

90

Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhchsten Kaiserhauses. Vol. 7 (1888), CLXIX No.

5370.
91

The Rechnungen from the Hofzahlamt in Prauge recorded that on May 19, 1581 Rudolf II sent the money
to Spain for the portraits. Der Hofzahlmeister entrichtet an Herrn Hans Khevenhller, Kaisers Rudolf II. Rath und
Gesandeten des Knigs von Spanien, 117 Gulden 20 Kreuzer fr ein Gemlde des Kaisers Karl, welches fr den
Kaiser gemacht wurden und noch aus Spanien erwartet wird. Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des
Allerhchsten Kaiserhauses. Vol. 7 (1888 ), CLVVV No. 5382.
92

The Location of the busts is discussed in Lars Olog Larsson, Portraits of emperor Rudolf II, in Eliska
Fucikova ed. Rudolf II and Prague: the Court and the City (London: Thames and Hudson, 1997), 127.
93

As I develop this dissertation chapter into an article and later a book chapter I will expand on this notion
of ritual by engaging Anthropological discussions of ritual. For example, Arnold van Gennep, Rites of Passage,
trans. Monika B. Vizedom and Gabriell L. Caffee (London: Routledge, 1977), Victor Turner, Dramas, Fields, and
Metaphor: Symbolic Action in Human Society (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1974), Clifford Geertz, Negara:

50
timing. Often, in the early modern period, rituals of all sorts were performed on or around
significant dates, such as feast days, and held in symbolically significant locales.94 Underlying
the consciously designed acts is the anxiety that someone or something will disrupt or prevent
the event. Consequently, the individuals involved in the design and performance of the ritual, in
addition to the public or audience who support the event, desire it to run smoothly and
uninterruptedin other words, like clockwork.
That ritual assumed a prominent position in imperial politics has long been recognized by
scholars of the medieval Ottonian Reich.95 Historically, scholars of imperial ritual have followed
Percy E. Schramms articulation of the capability of ritual to make the invisible visible and
form the visible in such a way that a deeper meaning could be discovered in it.96 Building on
Schramms argument, more recent scholars such as Gerd Althoff and Karl Leyser have shown
that imperial political rituals were forms of social communication that allowed rulers to express
their power, authority and legitimacy, and that governed almost all aspects of courtly life and

Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), Jonathan Z. Smith, To Take
Place: Toward a Theory of Ritual (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), and Maurice Bloch, Ritual History
and Power (London: Atlantic Highlands, 1989).
94

For a general discussion of ritual see, Robert Darnton, The Symbolic Element in History, Journal of
Modern History, Vol. 58 (1986 ), 218-234. For a looser yet provocative definition see David A. Warner, Thietmar
of Merseburg on Rituals of Kingship, Viator, Vol. 26 (1995 ), 56-76, and Timothy Reuter, Pre-Gregorian
Mentalities, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol 45 (1994 ), 465-474.
95

The literature on the role ritual played during the Ottonian period is vast. See, Percy E. Schramm, Kaiser,
Knige, und Ppste, 4 vols. (Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 1686-1971 ), passim. Gerd Althoff, Spielregeln der
Politik im Mittelalter: Kommunikation in Frieden und Fehd (Darmstadt:, 1997 ), passim. Hans-Werner Goetz,
Moderne Medivistik: Stand und Perspektiven der Mittelalterforschung (Darmstadt, 1997 ), passim. Karly J.
Leyser, Ritual Ceremony and Gesture: Ottonian Germany, in idem, Communications and Power in Medieval
Europe: The Carolingian and Ottonian Centuries (London: Thames and Hudson, 1994 ), 1-40. David A. Warner,
Ritual and Memory in the Ottonian Reich: The Ceremony of Adventus, Speculum, Vol. 76 No.2 (April, 2001 ),
255-283 and Philippe Buc, Ritual and Interpretation: the early medieval case, Early Medieval Europe, Vol. 9 No.
2 (2009 ), 183-210.
96

Schramm (1968-1971): 1:23 for a similar articulation of the notion see G. Koziol, in Begging Pardon and
Favor. Ritual and Political Order in Early Medieval France (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992 ), 51-86.

public engagement.

97

51
The means by which rituals were remembered and represented in literary

and visual forms to paper over conflict has been addressed by David A. Warner. Warner has
interrogated how representations of ritual manipulate a ceremonial event, which took place in the
past, in order to attach a deeper and greater significance to it.98 This re-organization of the past
makes clear, according to Warner, that when ritual events were represented long after their actual
occurrence they were considered, by those who represented the events, to have considerable
implications for the present and future.99
I have addressed these complementary functions of ritual because the London Nef and the
couen Nef make claims for legitimacy, disguise conflict, and attach great significance to a past
ritual event. Since the automata center on a coronation ceremony they address the core issues of
power, authority, and legitimacy.100 Both objects not only performed and re-performed the
sacramental and liturgical event that transformed Charles V into a persona gemina; they also
emphasized Charless medieval notions of the empire and political theologywhich Rudolph
echoedby presenting the emperor as the earthly representative of God through his association
with Old Testament Kings and Christ. In addition to stressing the quasi-apostolic legitimacy of
Charles Vs reign, the automata benefited Rudolph II by implication. By commissioning such
objects Rudolph II directly associated himself with the coronation of his forbearer as if no
problematic dynastic issues haunted that association. Consequently, both automata may be

97

For a discussion of Leysers and Althoffs contribution to the study of ritual and their relationship to
Shramm see, Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing, ed. K. Boyd, 2 vols. (London: Fitzroy Dearborn,
1999), 212-217.
98

Warner (2001): 258-259.

99

Ibid: 259.

100

Jnos Bak, Introduction: Coronation StudiesPast, Present and Future, in Jnos Bak, ed., Coronation
(Los Angeles: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies UCLA, 1985), 1.

52
viewed as attempts to legitimate Rudolph IIs tendentious claim to being one of the legitimate
progeny of Charles V. By foregrounding and emphasizing Charles Vs coronation, the automata
effectively push the contested coronations of Ferdinand I and Maximilian II into the background
and allude to the licit stronghold of the Austrian line of the House of Hapsburg over the Spanish
line, whose head was Philip IICharles Vs only son and heir.
In conclusion, it is worthwhile reviewing some of the focus of discussion. First, the
London and couen Nefs are part of a tradition representing and animating the electors of the
Holy Roman Empire paying reverence to an enthroned emperor. The nef recorded in the 1587
inventory of the Dresden Kunstkammer, the object witnessed by Jacques Esprinchard in
Augsburg, and the vessel that was housed in the Silberkammer at Schlo Ambras all attest to the
fact that this imagery its animation had been established before Schlotheim crafted the surviving
objects. Second, I have shown that the nefs in London and couen could only have been
produced after 1586, when Schlotheim was under the employ of Rudolph II at Prague. Third,
since the objects were produced under Rudolph IIs auspices, and since they clearly represent the
coronation of Charles V they must have played a role in propagating Rudolph IIs claim to be the
legitimate heir of Charles.
Finally, the fact that automata, rather than static arts such as painting or sculpture, were
chosen to bear such ideological weight is significant.

That the automata were made from

precious materials, wonderfully wrought, extremely large, portable, and in the form of nefs
suggests that they were intended to be viewed by guests at feasts. As objects that traversed a
table they had the potential to confront viewers more directly and assertively than a painting or
tapestry hanging on the wall or a sculpture in the center of the room. Furthermore, unlike static
works, which could only present the impression of movement, the automata presented an actual

re-enactment of the coronation ceremony.

53
Viewers watched the sequence of events that

continuously constituted Rudolph IIs and the Austrian line of the House of Hapsburgs
legitimacy. Moreover, through the animated repetition the consequential ceremony could take
place in other times and in other venues under pristine conditions. There was no room for
slippages, misfirings, or resistance: in other words the coronation ceremony, and by extension
the House of Hapsburg, would always run like clockwork, whose settings were carefully
controlled by Rudolf II.

54
THE GIFTS THAT KEEP ON GIVING: THE CHRISTMAS CRIB AUTOMATON AND THE LNEBURGER
SPIEGEL
On New Years Day in 1589 Sophie of Brandenburg (1568-1622), the wife of the newly
instated Albertine Elector of Saxony, Christian I (1560-1591), gave her husband a custom-made
automaton featuring an enactment of the adoration of the kings.101 Crafted by the Augsburg
goldsmith Hans Schlotheim (1545-1602), the author of the nefs discussed in Chapter 1, the
automaton was an elaborately decorated multi-tiered construction of bronze that was gilded and
embellished with silver; by way of an internal mechanism it played two consecutive hymns while
the shepherds and kings of the Christmas story moved in a circle presenting gifts to the Christ
child.102 The automaton was destroyed during the Allied bombing of Dresden on February 13,

101

The 1610 inventory lists the following: die Geburt Christi von Kupfer gemacht, versilbert und
vergoldet und mit allerlei Bildwerk gezieretist Churfrst Christian, hochlblicher Gedchtnis von derselben
geliebten Gemahlin zum Heiligen Christ verehret worden anno 1589. HStA Inventar Nr. 3 Fol. 363v.
The piece was also recorded by Tobias Beutel in 1611: Der funftlich beweglichen Sachen und Uhrwercke
werden zum wenigsten hundert stuck gezehlet/ die vorneumsten sind: Das grosse Astronomische Uhrwerck/ so
Chur=frst Augsto (hochstseeligsten Andectens) 1600.Rthlr.gecostet; Ein Uhrwerk von der Geburt Christi; Zwen in
Form wie Schiffe/ als Papegonen/ ein als ein Pfau/ Ouctguct/ Lamb/ und andere thiere. Tobias Beutel, ChurFrstlicher Schsischer stets grnender hoher Cerdern=Wald auf dem grnen Rauten-Grunde der(Dresden,
1671), n2.
Philip Hainhofer also described the object, which he saw in 1629 during his visit to the Dresden
Kunstkammer: Ain schnes vhrwerck, darinnen die geburt Christj samt der rase der weysen aus Morenland, wie
auch der engel herabfahrung vom himmel, ochs und esels sprung, suchung und anbetung her hirten zu sehen, auch
etlich Weihenact gesang durch ain pffeifenwerck zu hren, vom Schlotthammer. Des Augsburger Patricier Philip
Hainhofer Reisen nach Innsbruck und Dresden, in Oscar Doering ed., Quellenschrifft fr Kunstgeschichte und
Kunsttechnik des Mittelalter und der Neuzeit. (Wien: Verlag von Carl Graser und Co., 1901),176.
The 1640 inventory lists the following: Ein schon gro uhrwergk, darinnen die Geburth Christi wie auch
der Hirten und Weisen auf dem Morgenland ihre Bildwergk zu finden, welch in ablauffung des Uhrwergks herumb
gehen und sich voer dem Kindlein neigen, oben auch sich mit zweyen flgeln voneineander thut, die Engle
gleichsamm wie vom Himmel herabgflihen undt durch ein Pfeifenwergk, Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich hehr
singenn: Entlich Joseph wiegt und Maria durch ein Pfeifwergk singet Joseph lieber Joseph mein. Is alles von
Kupffer und Messing vergldet und versilbert, und ist Churfrst Christiano I zu Sacen Hochseeligten gedechtnis
und deroselben vielgeliebten Gehahl zum Heyligen Christ verehrt wordern. Anno. 1589. HStA Inventar Nr. 4
fol.496 r.
102

The base was adorned with reliefs of Biblical scenes; see below, pp. 61.

55
1945. Although now lost, the automaton has attracted scholarly attention in some parts and is
commonly referred to as the Christmas Crib Automaton (figs. 3 and 4).103
The Christmas Crib Automaton was unique in numerous respects. First, it appears to
have been a unicum, the only automaton featuring the adoration narrative crafted by Hans
Schlotheim, whereas Schlotheim tended to make automata en masse. His famed nefs, two of
which are the subject of Chapter 1, in the British Museum, and the Muse de la Renaissance in
couen exemplify his tendency to re-use models and technology over the course of a decade
(figs. 1 and 2).104 Second, the Christmas Crib Automaton was commissioned by a wife as a gift
for her husband. In the second half of the sixteenth century, automata were generally given as
tokens of allegiance between male rulers; they were diplomatic gifts. In the mid 1560s the
Bishop of Augsburg, Otto von Truchse, bequeathed an automaton to Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian II. This vessel, referenced in Chapter 1 but not a nef, was made completely of silver,
and featured an emperor enthroned in the presence of the seven electors of the Holy Roman
Empire.105 In 1582 the Duke of Bavaria, Wilhelm V, gave Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol an
automaton featuring Bavarian trumpeters who played a processional song, while the ebony base
on which they stood displayed the mingling of the Bavarian and Austrian coats of arms, marking,
visually and audibly, a celebratory connection between the Wittelsbach and Habsburg houses

103

Former Location: Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon, Dresden, Inv. n. (destroyed), Literature: Peter


Plameyer, Renaissance musical automata in the art collection of the Saxon Electors in Dresden, in J.J.L. Haspels,
ed., Royal Music Machines (Utrecht: National Museum from Musical Clock to Street Organ, 2005), 49. Klaus
Maurice, Die deutsch Rdeuhr vol. 2 (Munich: Beck Verlag, 1976), 389, Alfred Protz, Mechanische
Musikinstrumente (Kassel: Brenreiter Verlag, 1939), 36-38, Engelmann (1921). In his monumental study on
German clocks and automata Klaus Maurice noted that a similar automaton was given to the emperor of China, via
Nicolas Trigualt, by the Archbishop of Cologne, Ferdinand of Bayern in 1610.
104

See Note 24.

105

See Note 22.

106

(fig. 14).

56
Sophies gift of an automaton to her husband was not in keeping with this established

tradition. There is a third peculiar aspect of the Christmas Crib Automaton. It was selfreflexive. In the manner of other early modern gifts, it present[ed] to the viewer both the
present and the supposed spirit in which it was given.107 All of these peculiarities are relevant
to the analysis of this exceptional object offered in this chapter.
The Christmas Crib Automaton was given by Sophie to her husband during the New
Years festival, which in the late medieval and early modern eras abounded with banquets,
games, and displays of largess. The period between Christmas and New Years was filled, at
both Protestant and Catholic courts, with visitations of foreign dignitaries, the burning of logs,
the performance of Christmas plays (Weihnachtsspiele), the consumption of food, and the giving
of gifts.108 The Christmas Crib Automaton was one of two objects in an exchange of gifts
between Sophie of Brandenburg and Christian I. Christian reciprocated Sophies gift with a
Prunkkassette crafted by the famed, recently deceased Nuremburg goldsmith Wenzel Jamnitzer
(fig. 15).109 Initially, the gifts appear to adhere to conventions of courtly prestation. Christians

106

Hilda Lietzman, Die Geschichte zweier Automaten, Zeitschrift fr Kunstgeshichte, Vol. 57 No. 3
(1994), 390-402.
107
Birgitte Buettner, Past Presents: New Years Gifts at the Valois Courts ca. 1400, Art Bulletin, Vol. 83
No. 4 (December 2001), 613.
108

On the New Years festivals at late medieval and early modern courts see, Buettner (2001): 598-619,
Paul F. Casey, Court Performance in Berlin of the Sixteenth Century: Georg Pondos Christmas Play of 1589,
Daphnis, Vol. 32 Nos. 1-2 (2003), 57-72, A. Jefferies Collins, ed., Jewels and Plate of Queen Elizabeth I (London:
Trusties of the British Museum, 1955), 101-108, Gregory Lubkin, Christmas at the Court of Milan: 1466-1476, in
Craig Hugh Smyth and Gian Carlo Garfagnini eds., Florence and Milan: Comparisons and Relations, Vol. 2
(Florence: La Nuova Italia Editrice, 1989), 257-270, Princely Magnificence: Court Jewels of the Renaissance
(London: Victoria Albert Museum, 1980), pg, 11-12, and Leopold Kretzenbacher, Frhbarockes Weinachtsspiel in
Krnten und Steiermark (Klagenfurt: Geschichtesvereines fr Krnten, 1952), 7-32.
109

Dirk Syndram, Schatzkunst der Renaissance und des Barock: Das Grne Gewlbe zu Dresden (Dresden:
Deutsche Kunstverlag, 2004), 38-39, Klaus Pechstein, Der Goldschmied Wenzel Jamnitzer, in Erik Forssman ed.,
Wenzel Jamnitzer und die Nrnberger Goldschmiedekunst 1500-1700 (Munich: Klinkhardt und Biermann, 1985),
57-70, Eduard Isphording, Wenzel Jamnitzer und sein Werk im Urteil der Nachwelt, in Erik Forssman ed., Wenzel
Jamnitzer und die Nrnberger Goldschmiedekunst 1500-1700 (Munich: Klinkhardt und Biermann, 1985), 191-206,
and on the other Jamnitzer Prunkkassette in the Dresden Kunstkammer see, Erik Forssman, Die Prunkkassette mit

57
gift is consistent with a long history of men presenting to women cases to hold their jewelry,
barrettes, combs, mirrors, and maquillageobjects that enabled the woman to adorn and
beautify her body.110 And Sophies gift of an automaton was seemingly well-suited for a prince.
The remarkable craftsmanship, by the Augsburg goldsmith Schlotheim, and the wondrous
movement of the object was, on one level, intended to delight Christian. On yet another level, as
this chapter will demonstrate, the automaton advocates an ideal of religious behavior for a
Lutheran ruler.
My interpretation of the Christmas Crib Automaton and its political and religious
significance is also largely based on an elaborate gift Sophie of Brandenburg gave to her son
Elector Christian II in 1600, the Lneburger Spiegel of ca. 1587-1592 (Dresden, Grnes
Gewolbe) (fig. 16). This gift, a masterpiece of metalsmithery, placed the ruler of Saxony at the
center of an overtly political allegory. Like the Christmas Crib Automaton, the Lneburger
Spiegel was steeped in a Lutheran tradition that was grounded in Martin Luthers writing, was
given by Sophie of Brandenburg at a pivotal political moment, and, as I will demonstrate,
displayed its intended recipient as a virtuous Lutheran ruler. In addition to these sources, I will

der Allegorie der Philosophie von Wenzel Jamnitzer, Dresdener Kunstbltter, Vol. 48 No.4 (2004), 246-249.
Additionally, it is important to note that Sophies stepmother, Elizabeth Kurfrstin von Brandenburg, gave Christian
I yet another Prunkkasette on Februrary 28, 1590 as a New Years gift. However, this piece was not as costly an
item as Jamnitzers case. Even though the Kestlein oder Nheledtlein, as it was referred to in the 1595 Inventory
of the Dresden Kunstkammer, followed the style of Jamnitzer, the case Elizabeth gave to Christian also incorporated
linen and embroidered work in addition to costly silver castings. See, Dirk Syndram and Antje Scherner eds.,
Princely Splendor: The Dresden Court 1580-1620 (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, 2004),
288-291.
110

A lover may freely accept from her beloved these things: a handkerchief, a hair band, a circlet of gold
or silver, a brooch for the breast, a mirror, a belt, a purse, a lace for clothes, a comb, cuffs, gloves, a ring, a little box
of scent, a portrait, toiletries, little vases, trays, a standard as a keepsake of the lover, and to speak more generally, a
lady can accept from her love whatever small gift may be useful in the care of her person, or may look charming, or
may remind her of her lover, providing, however that in accepting the gift it is clear that she is acting quite without
avarice. Andreas Capellanus as quoted in Michael Camille, The Medieval Art of Love: Objects and Subjects of
Desire (London: Laurence King Publishing, 1998), 51. For an excellent catalogue of many of the courtly cases see,
Heinrich Kohlhaussen, Minnekstchen im Mittelalter. (Berlin: Verlag fr Kunstwissenschaft, 1928), passim.

58
adduce several sixteenth-century texts that shaped the didactic role of art objects and images in a
Lutheran context. The Christmas Crib Automaton was a gift whose central theme and action is
giving. The object promoted a very specific kind of princely charitable liberalitythat stressed
the importance of bestowing the correct type and amount of gifts to appropriate recipients.111
Thus, we might think of the Christmas Crib Automaton as a political tool; it mediated the
relationship between Christian and his wife and more broadly exemplified the confessional
tensions in the Holy Roman Empire at the close of the sixteenth century. The automaton did not
merely enact a biblical event; it, provided Christian with a model of proper actions and attitudes
for his new role as ruler of Saxony.

THE ALBERTINES, SAXONY, LUTHERANISM AND CALVINISM


The Albertine line of the electors of Saxony established dominance in the region a
generation before Christian I took over the position of his father August I (1526-1586). Prior to
the familys rise to power, the position of the elector had been reserved for the Ernestine line of
the house of Wettin, whose governance stretched over Torgau, Wittenburg, Gotha, Coburg, Jena,
the Vogtland and Weimarthe Leipziger Teilung (figs. 17 and 18).112 It was the Ernestine
Elector Frederick the Wise (1463-1525) who supported the first wave of the Reformation in
Saxony, and through his intimate ties with Martin Luther made Saxony the most important
Protestant German territory in the early modern period.113

Shortly thereafter, in 1539,

111

For an interesting discussion of liberality and its virtues at courts see, Jean C. Wilson, Painting in Bruges
at the Close of the Middle Ages (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Pres, 1998), 61-70.
112

Karlheinz Blaschke, Moritz von Sachen: ein Reformationsfrst der zweiten Generation (Gttingen,
Muster-Schmidt, 1983), 17.

59
Protestantism was introduced by Duke Heinrich (1473-1541) to the Albertine lands of Meissen
and Thuringia. By the second quarter of the sixteenth century it appeared to the empire that the
Ernestines and the Albertines were, confessionally speaking, on the same page. This, however,
was not the case. In 1545 the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500-1558), nervous about the
growing Protestant alliance of the Schmalkaldic League, sought to align himself with a strong
Protestant prince. Charles V found sympathies with Moritz (1521-1553), the Albertine Duke of
Saxony. Moritzs alliance with the emperor strengthened over a short period of time, and in
1547 Moritz battled and defeated his Ernestine cousin, the Elector Johann Friedrich I (15031547), at Mhlberg. Moritz quickly took over the title of elector and moved the capital from
Wittenburg to Dresden. But Moritzs concord with the emperor was short lived. In 1552 he
sided with his former Protestant foes of the Schmalkaldic League in opposition to Charles V, and
pushed the emperor into signing the the Treaty of Passau, which led to the famed Peace of
Augsburg in 1555. Moritz, however, never saw the Peace of Augsburg come to fruition, because
he died in 1553 in the Battle of Sieverhausen. Nevertheless, Moritz established the dominant
role of the Albertine house in Protestant politics throughout latter half of the sixteenth century.114
To the chagrin of the Ernestine house Moritz was succeeded by his brother August I. It
was throughout and following Augusts reign that strong Protestant marriage politics began to
play a larger role in Saxonys maintenance of Protestant power.115 August had already married
Anna princess of Denmark (1532-1585)daughter of Saxonys strong Lutheran ally Christian

113

Helen Watanabe-OKelly, Court Culture in Dresden: From Renaissance to Baroque (London: Palgrave,

2002), 2.
114

Ibid: 6-10.

115

Karlheinz Blaschke, Religion und Politik in Kursachsen 1586-1591, in Heinz Schilling, ed., Die
reformierte Konfesionalisierung in DeutschlandDas Problem der Zweiten Reformation, (Gtersloh: Verlags
Haus G. Mohn, 1986), 79-97.

60
III (1503-1559)in 1548. This nuptial contract both expressed and reinforced the Kingdom of
Denmark and Saxonys mutual commitment to Lutheranism.116 This is not to say, however, that
August did not manipulate marriages to uphold amicable relationships with Calvinists outside of
Saxony. August made a strategic move in 1570 to appease Calvinists by marrying and exporting
his daughter Elizabeth to Johan Casimir, the Elector Palatine.117 At home, though, August took
great measures to assure that his dynasty in Dresden presented itself as the bulwark of
Lutheranism. August married his son and heir Christian I to Margravine Sophie of Brandenburg
in 1582, thus grafting the Albertine house to the small but up and coming, staunchly Lutheran
court in Clln (now Berlin).118 The Brandenburg Courts stance on Lutheranism was draconian.
Johan Georg I (1525-1598), the Elector of Brandenburg and Sophies father, refused to
acknowledge any other reformed ideas in his lands after 1572.119 It must have been quite
advantageous for Johan Georg I to send off one of his thirteen daughters eventually to replace the

116

Katrin Keller has pointed out, Dieses vom neuen, Lutherischen Eheideal und Rollenverstandis ganz
offensichtlich beinflute Bild setzen Anna und August als Ausdruck ihrer Frmmigkeit wie als deizidiert
evangelisches Leitbild bewut ein, um sich als Herrscherpaar des neun reformatorischen Zeitalters darzustellen. Zu
diesem Leitbild gehrte freilch auch die Einigkeit in allen Gragen des Wirken ber Familie und Haushalt hinaus und
selbstverstandlich die Zurckhaltung der hinsichtlich diesbezglicher Aktivitten. Katrin Keller, Kurfrstin Anna
von Sachsen (1532-1585): Von Mglichkeiten und Grenzen einer Landesmutter, in Jan Hirschbeigel ed., Das
Frauenzimmer: Die Frau bei Hofe in Sptmittelalter und frher Neuzeit (Stuttgart: Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 2000),
266.
117

Watanabe-OKelly (2002), 15.

118

The marriage alliance between the Elector of Saxony and the Elector of Brandenburg was already
apparent in 1581, when August I took Christian to Clln an der Spree to participate the festivities surrounding the
baptism of the Elector of Brandenburgs son, whom was also named Christian. There is a printed account of this
visit that was written by Philipp Agricola at SLUB Hist.Brand. 14, misc. 2.
119

Elector Johan Georg of Brandenburg did not tolerate Calvinism or any reformed ideas within his domain.
Schon auf eine dahin zielende Bitter der Stnde gab er denselben 1572 die Zusicherung, da die Lehre des
gttlichen Wortes, wei sie durch Dr. Luther bei seinem Leben gelehrt, allein und ausschlielich im Lande gelten und
keine andere Lehrmeinung oder Ceremoni geduldet werden solle. L.H. Hirsch, Johan Georg, Kf. v. Brandenburg,
in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. 14 (Leipzig: Dunder & Humboldt, 1881), 167.

dnische Ksemutter.

120

61
It afforded his family, the Hohenzllerns, the opportunity to put

themselves on the political map.121


The gift of the Christmas Crib Automaton must be viewed within this context of Lutheran
marriage politics, where marriage alliances helped to establish and further Protestant and,
specifically, Lutheran agendas in Saxony and Brandenburg.

Even though Sophie of

Brandenburg, the giver of the automaton, was absorbed into the Albertine household, the
interests of the Brandenburg court and its ardent Lutheranism were not abandoned at the altar. In
fact, Sophie was famously devout.

For instance, she relieved her childrens tutor, Elias

Reinhardt, of his duties for not providing a strict Lutheran education. Under Reinhardt, her son
and future elector Christian II was responsible for memorizing, by heart, all of Luthers
catechism, all of the psalms, Luthers Sunday Gospel readings, and all the prayers Luther penned
himself. Sophie demanded that her sons Lutheran education exceed Reinhardts curriculum.122
While the subject matter of the Christmas Crib Automaton was surely inspired by the
time of year at which it was given, it should not be interpreted as mere moving illustration of the

120

One of the verses of a popular song that mentions Anna referred to her as the dnische Ksemutter, die
Churfrstin laufe in die Viehstlle, mache Butter und Kse und verkaufe sie wieder, man heie sie ein dnische
Ksemutter. Keller (2000),: 270.
121

The exportation of Sophie was for the Brandenburg house the most politically advantageous marriage of
her generation. Her brother and future elector Joachim Friedrich I was married in 1570 to Katharine von
Brandenburg-Kstrin. Sophies sister Erdmuthe was married in 1577 to Herzog Joachim Friedrich von Pommern.
Her other sister Anna Marie was married to Barnim XII, yet another Herzog from Pommerania, in 1581. Her
brother Christian was married to Marie the daughter of Herzog Albrecht Friedrich von Preussen in 1604. A third
sister, Magdalene, was married to Ludwig, Landgraff von Hessen-Darmstadt in 1598. And a third brother, Joachim
Ernst, was married to Sophie von Solms-Laubach in 1612. Sophies younger sister Agnes was married in 1604 to
Philipp Julius the Herzog von Pommern. Elisabeth Sophie was married to Janus I von Raidziell. And finally, her
youngest surviving sister, Dorothea Sibylle, married Johann Christian Herzog von Liegnitz. Needless, to say all of
these marriages that Johan Georg arranged for his numerous children22 in all and 10 who survived to adulthood
were to courts that did not have the political strength of the Saxon court. See Wilhelm Karl Prinz von Isenburg, ed.
Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europischen Staaten: Band I Die Deutschen Staaten (Marburg: J.A. Stargardt,
1965), 62 and 65-66.
122

HStA Geheimes Archiv 8017/12 doc. 2 and HStA Geheimes Archiv 8017/12 doc. 3

123

practice of gift giving during the Christmas and New Year festival.

62
The object was

commissioned and given during a time when there was a great amount of suspicion and anxiety
among Lutherans, in and outside of Saxony, that Christian I had secretly converted to Calvinism.
And the automaton made for Christian I may have responded to these concerns.
The Albertines complicated relationship with Calvinism went back to Christian Is
father, August.124 Even though August made valiant attempts to export and import Lutheran
brides, he surrounded himself with Calvinist and Huguenot sympathizers. Hubert Languet, one
of Augusts foreign diplomatic representatives, had fled France in fear of his life because of his
Huguenot leanings. And Augusts chaplain, Christian Schtz, had strong ties to Calvinism as
well.125 In 1574 the Lutheran clergy in Saxony attacked what they perceived to be, Augusts
lack of evangelical clarity. August responded to the criticism and threw Languet and Schtz into
prison, along with his advisor Dr. Georg Craco and his physician Caspar Peucer, for their
Calvinist leanings.126 Augusts crackdown on Calvinists at court had begun. Augusts betrothal
of Christian I in 1582 to a woman from an extremely orthodox Lutheran court was consistent
with his reactionary behavior. The marriage signified to the Empire that the Electors of Saxony
were unwavering Lutherans. The marriage alliance with the Brandenburg court promised to

123

For an excellent discussion of the reception of the Magi during the early modern period see, Richard
Trexler, The Journey of the Magi: Meanings in History of a Christian Story (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2002), passim.
124

In the beginning of his reign August openly favored Phillipists, followers of Melancthon over orthodox
Lutherans Ernst Koch, Der kurschsische Philippismus und seine Krise in den 1560er und 1570er Jahren, in in
Heinz Schilling, ed., Die reformierte Konfesionalisierung in DeutschlandDas Problem der Zweiten Reformation,
(Gtersloh: Verlags Haus G. Mohn, 1986), 60-77.
125

Beatrice Nicollier-De Weck, Hubert Languet (1518-1581): Un Reseau politique international de


Melanchthon a Guillaume dOrange (Geneva: Librarie Droz, 1995), 181-189.
126

Watanbe-OKelly (2002): 15.

63
alleviate suspicion about the steadfastness and orthodoxy of Augusts beliefs. Augusts attempt
to rectify the situation, however, may have come too late.
Once Christian was of age, in 1584, his father slowly started giving him political
responsibilities.127

Very soon thereafter, Christian required advisors and he brought Dr.

Nikolaus Krell (1551-1601) into the fold. Krell was a Calvinist, and Krell soon started rising in
the ranks. In 1586, the year that Christian took over the position of elector, Christian made Krell
his privy councillor and three years later the Chancellor.128 The promotion of the Calvinist
upstart elated Calvinists while, yet again, deeply offending Lutheran clergy. But Christian did
not stop there. He single-handedly paved the way for Calvinists to become faculty in Saxon
universities, which were at that time living monuments to Luther; he allowed Calvinist books to
be sold in Leipzig; and finally, he decreed that exorcism would no longer be a part of the baptism
servicea key component of the Lutheran rite.

Fears of cuius regio, eius religio were

rampant.129
The Christmas Crib Automaton was commissioned by Sophie and given to Christian at
the height of his very public Calvinist sympathies. It is fitting, therefore, that the automaton
should emphasize Christians role as a Lutheran prince, especially on a visual and audible level.
He would have watched the figures on the automaton repeatedly perform their action in harmony
with the music, one hymn written by Luther himself. The Christmas Crib Automaton presents a

127

Christian Is official title was Zivilgouverneur. See, Chrisa Schille, Christian I, in Erik Amburger, et
al, ed., Neue Deutsche Biographie, Vol. 3 (Berlin: Duncker & Humboldt, 1956), 230.
128

Jutta Bumel, Cave CalvinaeD.N.K.: das Richtschwert des Kurschsischen Kanzlers Dr. Nikolaus
Krell von 1601, Dresdener Kusntbltter, Vol. 25 No.2 (2001), 144-151.
129

Alex Gotthard, Politice seint wir bptisch: Kursachsen und der deutsche Protestantismus im frhen
17. Jahrhundert, Zeitschrift fr historische Forschung, vol. 20 (1993), 275-319 and Watanabe-OKelly (2002), 23.

64
repetitive imagethe offering of gifts from rulers to the humble, destitute Christstructured to
reinforce the values and actions of a pious Lutheran prince.

THE ACT OF GIVING


The figures of the Christmas Crib Automaton moved in a circle atop a painstakingly
ornamented ovular silver base. The figures, biblical scenes, and architectural elements that
populated the base were rendered in a variety of techniques that only the most adept goldsmith
could have undertaken. Small figures, which were cast in the round, stood in recessed niches on
each side of eight modeled arches. Each arch contained one biblical scene in relief: four from
the Old Testament (The Creation, The Flood, Abrahams Sacrifice of Isaac, and Moses
before the Burning Bush) and four from the New Testament (The Baptism of John, Christ in
the Temple, The Crucifixion, and The Ascension). The spaces between the niches and the
arches were filled with swirling vegetal motifs that were executed in relief and engraved detail.
The base had four distinct sides. With the exception of the front of the base, each side contained
two arches with biblical scenes, eight figures in nicheswhich were arranged in pairs on each
side of the biblical sceneand four Corinthian columns. At the front of the object a third
smaller arch was situated between the two larger arches, two round bosses of unidentified males
heads, and only four figures in niches. Additionally, the front had a double staircase, which
protruded from the base. The purpose of the staircase was to hide several mechanisms enabling
the automatons movement.130

130

The bases Italianate architectural elements and their arrangement strongly resemble the portal of the
Dresden Residenzkapelle, which dates to about 1555. The portal now stands in the Judenhof in Dresden, and is the
only surviving architectural feature from the chapel. It was most likely designed and partly executed by the Italian
Johann Maria. The statues of the two Saint Johns, Saint Peter, and Moses that stand in the niches of the portal were

65
The narrative flow of the biblical scenes moved from right to left, the same direction as
the figures of the automaton. The first scene, The Creation, appeared in the right arch on the
left face of the object and was followed by The Flood. The third biblical scene, Abrahams
Sacrifice of Isaac, was situated in the right arch on the back-side of the base, and Moses before
the Burning Bush was placed in the left arch. Moving around the object, the next scene was
The Baptism of John, which was paired with Christ in the Temple on the right face of the
base. And finally, the biblical narrative concluded on the front face. The Crucifixion was the
penultimate scene. It was followed by the final scene of The Ascension. The Ascension
was strategically placed directly beneath the figure of the Christ child in the Christmas story.
Thus, the beginning of Christs life and his voyage to paradise were dramatically juxtaposed. It
is clear that Schlotheim took the circular movement of the figures of the automaton into account
when organizing the aptly chosen biblical scenes, all which have typological significance with
reference to the life of Christ.
The music that sounded from the base of the Christmas Crib Automaton consisted of well
known Lutheran hymns dedicated to the story of Christs birth. The first was Luthers From
Heaven above to Earth I Come (Vom hoch da Komm ich her) and the second was a popular
hymn that was first written in the fourteenth century but performed widely in Protestant lands,
Joseph dearest, Joseph mine (Josef, lieber Josef mein.)131 Although the lyrics of the hymns
were not sung, it is interesting to note that the imagery of the automaton directly engages them.
Luthers hymn pointedly states:
carved by him. He also may have executed the large relief in the attic and the statue of Christ flanked by two angels
(originally four) carrying the symbols of the passion. Henry-Russell Hitchcock, German Renaissance Architecture
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), 103-104.
131

B. Wachinger, Mnch von Salzburg, in Kurt Ruh et. al. ed., Die deutsche Literature des Mittelalters
Verfasserlexikon, Vol. 6 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1987) 658-670.

66
These are the tokens ye shall mark
The swaddling clothes and manger dark;
There shall ye find the young child laid,
By whom the heavens and Earth are made
Now let us all, with gladsome cheer,
Follow the Shephards and draw near
To see this wondrous gift of God,
Who hath his own dear son bestowed
Ah, Lord who has created all,
How hast thou made thee weak and small
To lie upon the course dry grass
The food of humble ox and ass.132

The lyrics of Luthers hymn emphasize both the preciousness of the most important gift mankind
ever receivedits savior and son of Godand, paradoxically, the Christ childs humble
appearance.
Luthers hymn was widely sung during Christmas and New Years celebrations
throughout the second half of the sixteenth century, and it was often included in Lutheran
Weihnachtsspiele.133

Notably, Vom Himmel hoch da Komm Ich her was sung in a

Weihnachtsspiel entitled Pfund or Pfundt, which Sophies father Johan Georg I commissioned

132

Leonard Mosely Bacon, ed., Dr. Martin Luthers Deutsche Geistliche Lieder. The Hymns of Martin
Luther set to their original Melodies with an English Version (London: Hoder and Stoughton, 1884) xxix.
133

Leopold Kretzenbacher, Frhbarockes Weinachtsspiel in Krnten und Steiermark (Klagenfurt:


Geschichtesvereines fr Krnten, 1952) 11.

67
playwright Georg Pondo to write in 1588. Sophies younger brothers and sisters performed the
play on New Years Day at the Brandenburg Court in 1589the same day Sophie gave Christian
I the Christmas Crib Automaton. Three young, electoral princes played the roles of the three
kings, while three more acted as the shepherds. In Pondos play, Christs penniless beginnings
and affinity with the common man were accentuated by the actors use of the Northern German
dialect of Mrkisch (a local dialect which the Margraves and Margravines did not speak).134
Since her own family performed the play, it is likely that Sophie was familiar with some of its
key components: the portrayal of the Christ child and Holy Family as local peasants, and the
electoral princes in guise of the Three Kingsboth feature prominently in the Christmas Crib
Automaton.
After the music to Luthers hymn concluded, the Christmas Crib Automaton played the
music to Josef, Lieber Josef mein. The lyrics to this hymn, again, address the bereft situation
of the King of Kings. The final verse is:
Little man and God indeed,
Little and poor, Thou art all we need,
We will follow where Thou dost lead.135

Christian I surely knew the lyrics to these hymns. A significant part of his religious training as a
boy consisted of memorizing all of Luthers hymns and many, many others. This suggests that

134

For instance, New Years greetings were given to the audience by a child whose name was Wilhelm von
Lewen; they employed the low German dialect. Vill glug Euer Gnaden wiederfhar/ In anfang, zu dem Newen Jhar/
Gott lass Euer Gnaden werden zu Theill/ Da New geborne Kindelein/ Dauon wir Jtz bringen herein/ Ein Spill,
Kurtz, schlecht gering, undt klein. As quoted in Paul F. Casey, Court Performance in Berlin of the Sixteenth
Century: Georg Pondos Christmas Play of 1589, Daphnis, Vol. 32 Nos. 1-2 (2003) 57.
135

John David Lamb, Josef lieber, Josef Mein (Berkeley: Wymn, 1965) 2.

68
while the music sounded the lyrics would easily have been recalled, further emphasizing the
visual components of the object.136
While the hymns played, the kings, each followed by two attendants, paraded around a
small dilapidated structure that contained the Virgin, Joseph, the Christ Child and two asses
(figs. 19 and 20). As the kings passed the manger they turned, faced, and bowed before the
Christ Child, while the Virgin lifted his blanket. Joseph rocked the cradle of the child, while the
mules turned their heads towards and away from the main action of prestation. The attendants,
who followed the kings, were paired and clothed in costumes that were variants on their
respective kings and carried the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which were described in
the Gospel of Matthew.137 The kings and attendants engagement with the Christ Child was the
focal point of the automaton: their turning and bowing reinforced the ritualistic rhythm of the
piece, while demonstrating princely charitable liberality.138 Once the kings and their entourage
passed the Holy Family they entered a richly adorned semicircular structure and reappeared
behind the manger. After the kings passed the back of the manger, they proceeded into yet
another semicircular structure that mirrored the first. As soon as they re-emerged they repeated
their offering.

136

See Note 23.

137

Matthew 2:11.

138

I have borrowed this phrase, ritualistic rhythm of the piece from Cecily J. Hilsdales insightful analysis
of the Vatican Greek Manuscript 1851. In her article on this work, Hilsdale addresses the means by which a
miniature from the manuscript has a pattern of alternating progressions and arrest [which] recalls ceremonial
processions as described in texts, distinguished by the alternation of movement and stillness and punctuated by the
roar of the crowds acclamation or the silence of it visual reflection. The Christmas Crib Automaton also refers to
courtly ceremonial acts of giving through the figures procession and bowing before the Christ Child. These
movements were precisely the same movements that courtiers or attendants would have performed in front of the
duke or elector during the act of prestation. See Cecily J. Hilsdale, Constructing A Byzantine Augusta: A Greek
Book for a French Bride, Art Bulletin, Vol. 87 No. 3 (2005) 466.

69
The three shepherds of the Christmas story followed in the procession. Their stances,
however, were considerably less firm and solemn than the travelers from the East. The star of the
East crowned the scene and opened to reveal God the Father, the Holy Ghost, and cherubs, while
three more cherubs descended from the golden ball frolicking in excitement. With the exception
of the cherubs, who supplemented the celebratory nature of the event, the automaton provided
the most prominent and renowned features of the Christmas story, as told by Matthew. And
behold the star that they [the kings] had seen in the East went before them, until it came and
stood over the place where the child was. . . And entering the house, they found the child with
Mary his mother, and falling down they worshipped him. And opening their treasures they
offered gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.139 This story, however, is slightly altered in the
Christmas Crib Automaton.
As rendered by Schlotheim, all of the kings who present gifts to the Christ Child were
clothed in contemporary courtly garb. Even the black Ethiopian king wore courtly attire that was
the vogue among courtiers across Western Europe. The middle king follows suit. His hair was
long, and his purple mantle swept over the ground. The first king, however, had a curious
addition to his collar and red mantel that suggests he was a specific figure rather than a standard
type. His mantle and collar were trimmed with the recognizable ermine fur of an elector of the
Holy Roman Empire. The same distinctive dress can be seen in Schlotheims representation of
the seven electors on his London Nef, which was made shortly before the Christmas Crib
Automaton (fig. 21).140 The Dresden Kunstkammer also contained yet another representation of

139

Matthew 2:9-11

140

Vorguldt kunstreich Schiff oder nave mit einer virtel und stunden schlagenden Uhr, welch alle 24.
Stundent mu afgetzogen werden, oben mit dreyen mastbaumen, uf welchen die Buknechte im Mastkrben

70
the electors in their formal garb. The Electors Tankard of 1588 depicts the political order of the
Holy Roman Empire (fig. 22). The tankard presents the Holy Roman Emperor seated and
flanked on his left and right by the seven electors and their respective insignia.141 The Elector of
Saxony stands second from the right between the Electors of Brandenburg and the Palatinate.
All of these representations of the Elector of Saxony adhere to early modern pictorial
conventions of depicting his formal attire. Thus, the dress of the first king in the Christmas Crib
Automaton, despite his lack of crown (Kurht), suggests that this figure is an elector, and this
formal idiom functions as a marker for the intended viewer, Christian I. Both he and other
viewers of the automaton could experience this elector as Christian I himself. In a sense, it is
Christian I who is demonstrating his generosity and largess to the Christ child. This involves an
interesting reversal of roles. The patterning and rhythm of the automaton recalls ceremonial

umbgehen, und Viertel und Stunden auf den glcklein mit hammern schlagen. Inwedigk die Rom. Key. Mayt. aud
den Keyserlichen stul stizendt, und vor deselben die sieben Churfrsten und Herolden mit erzeigung ihrer Reverenz
zu entfalunge der lehen umgehendt, Degleichen zehen Trommeter und ein Heerpauker, die da Wechselweise zu
tisch blasen, auch ein Drommelschleger und drey Trabandten sambt 16 kleinen stucklein, deren man II. Laden Khan,
und von sich selbsten abgehen, darbey ein Futter, stehet auf einer grnen langen mit tuch behengt. 1587 Inventar,
Blatt 254r.
141

This particular tankard in the Dresden Kunstkammer is based on an image from Schedels Weltchronik
of 1493 and a later woodcut by Hans Vogel. The emperor is enthroned in the center of vessel and is flanked on his
right by the three ecclesiastical electors: Mainz, Cologne, and Trier. To the left of the emperor stand the four
secular offices of electors: the king of Bohemia, the Elector of Palatine, the Elector of Saxony, and the Elector of
Brandenburg. Oftentimes this object and others similar to it are referred to as glasses with the imperial eagle.
Almost all of these tankards were painted in the city of Kreibitz in Bohemia. This particular piece is the earliest of
its type. It also has a lengthy inscription. Above the electors it reads Die Rmische kayserliche Mayestt, sampt
Den Sieben Churfrsten: Inn Irer Kleidung Ampt und Sitz etc. Below the figures it reads: Der ertzbischoff zu
mentz bekande, ist Cantzler im Deutschen lande. Sonst der bischoff zu Cln gleich/ Cantzler durch gantz
franckreich. Darnach der ertzbischoff zu trier, Is Cantzler in welscher refier. 1588 Also in all ihrem Ornat/ Sitzt
kayserliche Mayestat, Sampt den sieben Churfrsten gut wie den ein ider sitzen thut. Inn Churfrstlicher kleidung
sein/ Mit an Zeigung des ampts sein. Der Knig in Beheim der ist/ Des reichs erzschenck zu aller frist. Hernach der
pfaltzgraff bein rein Des heiligen reich truchsss thut sein. Der Hertzog zu Sachsen geborn Ise des reichmarschalch
auserkorn. Der Marggraff von Brandenburg gut/ des reich ertzkmmer sein thut. See Gisela Haase, Sachsische
Glas (Leipzig: Seeman, 1988) 295 cat. Nos. 8 and 9.

71
processions of gift giving that transpired at princely courts, where the elector or prince would
have been the receiver rather than the giver of gifts.142

AND THEN RICH MEN RUSHED FORTH TO RENDER THEIR PRESENTS


In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the celebration of the New Year was a favored
time for the ritual giving and receiving of gifts. Within the Saxon court and the duchy at large,
the tradition even reached the lowest strata of society. Peasants would set a place at the table for
a dead loved one, with pieces of bread and a libation. Gypsies throughout the region would
bestow the blood and bones of a lamb on fields, in the hopes of a bountiful harvest in the coming
year.143 At court, the giving of gifts during the New Year was conceived of as a reenactment of
the three kings bestowing the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh on the Christ Child.144
However, instead of the small child receiving the bounty of kingdoms and persons from afar, it
was the duke, elector, or prince who was on the receiving end of the ceremonial prestation.
Furthermore, the elector did not only receive gifts from visitors and courtiers; he gave them as
well.145

Small tokens such as barrettes, books, trunks, clothing, etc., were bequeathed to

individuals at court, in addition to the rulers visual presence, which was also a privilege or a gift
in and of itself.

142

Queen Elizabeth famously gave out thousands of presents during the New Years festival. The majority
of the gifts were gilt plate. She gave gifts to people she received gifts from and even to individuals she did not
receive gifts from, such as the Grooms of her Privy Chamber, the Yeoman of the Robes, and the Jewel House
Officers. See Collins (1955): 103.
143

Hanns Bchtold-Stubli, ed., Handworterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter:
1927-1942) 1027.
144

Trexler (2002): 78-84.

145

Buettner (2001): 600, Collins (1955): 103-108, Lubkin (1989): 258.

72
It is not surprising, then, that the New Year was a period when European courts presented
themselves at their most resplendent; crowns were donned and regalia displayed.146 Visitors
from nearby and distant lands would come and pay tribute to the prince or duke. Galeazzo Maria
Sforza, Duke of Milan, wrote of the New Years festivals ceremonial and representational
importance. He stated that when the court [was] frequented at solemn feasts by distinguished
and honorable men . . . the prince himself [stood] out more, and the noble and excellent men who
[were] in a state of grace and favor in the princes eyes [grew] in grace and increase[d] in
honors.147 It is clear that one of the key components of increasing ones honoralthough only
euphemistically referred to herewas showering the Duke, Prince or Elector with precious
tokens, as the travelers from the east did. It is in keeping with these customs that the Christmas
Crib Automaton and representations of courtly ceremonies of gift giving share similar visual
strategies of portraying the givers and receivers of gifts.
The iconography of gift giving has been stable and consistent since the fifth century
BCE.148 One of the earliest surviving representations of tribute, or gift offering, appears on the
monumental bas reliefs of the northern and eastern staircases of the Apadana, or audience hall, at
the ancient ceremonial capital of Persepolis (fig. 23). Designed during the reign of Darius I (522
-486/485 BCE), the Apadana was completed under Xerxes I (r. 486/485 465 BCE). It is
believed that the reliefs represent the New Years festivals at Darius Is court.149 The gift-givers

146

Princely Magnificence: Court Jewels of the Renaissance (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1980),

12.
147

Lubkin (1989) 258.

148

Buettner (2001): 605.

149

Nicholas Cahill, The Treasury at Persepolis: Gift-Giving at the City of the Persians, American Journal of

73
are representatives from the twenty-three nations of the Persian Empire. Their gifts, which they
simultaneously display to the seated Darius, range from humble vessels, raw materials, and
animals to jewels, weapons, elaborate textiles, and gold. The exceptional quality of the reliefs is
enhanced by the fact that each gift is carefully delineated, as are the hair, beards, headdresses and
clothing of the givers. Indeed, when one compares the stance of the tribute bearers in the
monumental relief from Persepolis to the posture of the kings in the Christmas Crib Automaton,
the intentional stiffness of the poses in contrast to the seated recipients becomes evident. By
these means the artists demonstrate visually dominant and submissive relationships.
Such an asymmetrical relationship between the giver and receiver of gifts recurs 1300
years later in a ninth-century manuscript illumination of the Chronicle of John Skylitizes, now in
Madrid (fig. 24). In this instance, the Byzantine emperor receives priceless documents from the
Caliph, by way of a messenger. The emperor is depicted on the right, enthroned, and protected
beneath a domed structure, possibly a tent. The potentate is rendered in three-quarter view,
while the messenger, whose stance suggests genuflection, is depicted in profileas in the
Apadana reliefs and the Christmas Crib Automaton. A further detail, which emphasizes the
contrasting status of the emperor and the messenger, is the distinction between the spaces they
inhabit. The messenger is clearly standing outside the tent. The white negative space between
the body of the messenger and the left corner of the structure literally highlights the inequality
between the emperor and his servant. Similarly, the kings and shepherds of the Christmas Crib
Automaton never enter the enclosed space of the Holy Family. Like the messenger, they inhabit
the periphery. The only physical link they have to the sacred figures is in the transmission of the
gift.
Archaeology, Vol. 89 No. 3 (July 1985), 375.

74
This does not hold true for a third example found in a manuscript of Justinians The
Institutions (1458) (fig. 25). In this presentation scene Duke Charles of Orlans sits enthroned
beneath a late Gothic baldachin and before an ornamented curtain bearing the fleur de lis. A
clerical figure, possibly a bishop, stands to the left of the throne bearing witness to the
transaction. The donor or gift giver kneels and passes a book to a finely dressed court official
(who, remarkably, dons the same hat as Charles of Orlans) instead of handing it directly to the
recipientyet again signifying the incongruity between the giver and receiver. Despite this
discrepancy, this example, as also the two previously discussed, presents the fundamental and
persistent visual components of representations of acts of giving. The giver of gifts is rendered
in profile; the offering is clearly displayed to the viewer and the seated recipient. In each of
these images, and the Christmas Crib Automaton, the central action is the transmission of the
gift. There is, however, a major disparity between the Christmas Crib Automaton and the
examples just discussed. In the automaton, the ruler (Christian I) occupies the role of the giver
of the gift, and this alteration is indeed significant. Rather than acquiring more wealth, the
elector in the Christmas Crib Automaton is giving it away.

THE DEED
Martin Luther consistently advocated that the faithful should improve the lot of their
neighbors. According to Peter Iver Kauffman, Luther was convinced that if persons did not
wholeheartedly use the goods given to them by God to respond to opportunities for doing good
for others, God would deny them the ultimate good of eternal life.150 At several points in his

150

Peter Iver Kaufman, Luthers Scholastic Phase Revisited: Grace, Works, and Merit in the Earliest
Extant Sermons, Church History, Vol. 51 No. 3 (September 1982), 282.

75
writings Luther strongly urges against indulging in earthly luxuries and instead stresses the
importance of charity, or giving. In his sermon On Threefold Righteousness, which he gave in
1518, Luther unabashedly uses the princes of Saxony to exemplify individuals whose riches have
been bestowed on them by God for their piety.
Therefore Christians, who are to be enriched with eternal good things, are not to be
exhorted to righteousness, but rather discouraged from it in favor of a better one. Hence,
one is not to rejoice in these things; just as God enriches the princes of Saxony with
glory, riches, and pleasure, because they are pious lords. And if these things were not
enough, He will bring forth still a mountain of silver and peace in the land will be
preserved. But let them see themselves whether this will do them any good for their
salvation.151

Despite the fact that Saxon princes have been rewarded with seemingly endless silver mines for
their devotion, Luther suggests, these riches will not benefit them in their hope for salvation. It
is faith first and foremost that allows one to enter paradise. According to Luther, the truly
faithful, inspired by their longing for God, give willingly. In The Freedom of the Christian
(1521) Luther states, See, therefore, how love and desire for God flow out of faith and out of
love flows a spontaneous, willing, joyful life that serves the neighbor for no reward
whatsoever.152 Using the rhetorical imagery of a river Luther suggests that giving to those in
need was a demonstration, an outward manifestation, of ones faith. Ilana Krausmann Ben Amos
has astutely noted that Protestanism provided a new language with which to articulate and
communicate the benefits of gifts, thus investing acts of giving with religious meaning that

151

Martin Luther, On Threefold Righteousness, in The Works of Martin Luther, Vol. 1, trans. Henry
Eyster Jacobs (Philadelphia: A.J. Holman Company, 1915), 89.
152

Luther, The Freedom of the Christian, in The Works of Martin Luther, Vol. 2 393.

would reinforce the impulse to give.

153

76
Luther also articulates this notion in The Explanation of

the Theses: The first and main [good deed] is to help a beggar or ones neighbor in need.154
And this deed, the paradigm of all good works, which displays to the world ones faith, is
precisely the deed the kings of the Christmas Crib Automaton perform as the centripetal force of
the motion of the automaton pulls them and their gifts toward Joseph with his tattered hat and his
worn clothing, the Virgin on her humble wooden seat, and the Christ Child laid to sleep in a
barn.
The potential of the Christmas Crib Automaton to serve a didactic purpose is in keeping
with Luthers considerations on religious imagery. Luthers views on the function of religious
art were formed in the first instance as a reaction to the radical iconoclasm promoted by early
reformers, such as his Wittenburg faculty colleague Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt (14861541).155 First and foremost, Luther stressed the inevitability of mental visualizations. In his
treatise Against the Heavenly Prophets in the Matter of Images and the Sacraments (1525) the
reformer stated, Whether I will it or not, when I hear of Christ an image of a man hanging from
a cross takes form in my heart, just as the reflection of my face naturally appears in the water
when I look into it.156 Second, Luther contended that the work of painters, sculptors, and
printers could enhance a laypersons understanding of the Bible. In the same treatise of 1525 he

153

Ilana Krausman Ben-Amos, Gifts and Favors: Informal Support in Early Modern England, The
Journal of Modern History, Vol. 72 No. 2 (June 2000), 223.
154

Luther, The Explanation of the Theses in The Works of Martin Luther, Vol. 3 19.

155

Ernst Ullman, Die Wittenburger Unruhen, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt und die Bilderstrme in
Deutschland, in Lart et les revolutions (Strasbourg: XXVIIe Congrs International dHistoire de lArt, 1992), 117226.
156

Martin Luther, Against the Heavenly Prophets in the Matter of Images and Sacraments, in Gesa
Elsbeth Thiessen ed., Theological Aesthetics: A Reader (London: SCM Press, 2004), 134.

77
wrote that he wished to convince the lords as well as the rich to have the entire Bible painted in
detail on houses, so that the eyes of everyone could see it.157 Furthermore, he saw value in
combining mental and visual images and claimed, following Gregory the Great, that people are
more apt to retain the divine stories when taught by picture and parable than merely by words or
instruction.158 For Luther, religious art was an aid to memory; religious images were cues for
the faithful to recall significant figures and events, zum Ansehen, zum Zeugnis, zum
Gedachtnis.159
Although Luthers views on images were attacked by other radical reformers such as
Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531), the notions that an art object could serve as a reminder to the
faithful and, furthermore, function as a model of appropriate behavior were adopted by his
followers.160 For instance, in 1526 the Nuremburg reformer Andreas Osiander maintained that
the images of saints, which populated many Lutheran Churches in Nuremburg, could provide
Lutherans with models (Vorbilder) of correct conduct.
In the Holy Scriptures there are sufficient and abundant teachings on what we should and
should not do. However, we also require, for our feeble wills, good examples and role
models of holy and spiritual people. In them we see that Gods word teaches us and we
should follow it. We do this in order to live immaterial and Christian lives.161

157

Ibid: 132.

158

Ibid: 133.

159

As quoted by Sergiusz Michalski, The Reformation and the Visual Arts: The Protestant Image Question
in Western and Eastern Europe (London: Routledge, 1993), 27.
160

For a clear and cogent discussion of Zwinglis attack on Luthers acceptance of images see Hans J.
Hillerbrand ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1996).http://www.oxfordreformation.com.turing.library.northwestern.edu/entry?entry=t172.e0063&srn=1&ssid=376
32714#FIRSTHIT. Accessed November 10, 2007.
161

Dan wiewol uns Gottes wort/ in der heiligen Schrifft. Gnugsam und reichlich lehret/ was wir thun und
lassen sollen . . .Dannoch bedrffen wir/ umb unserer schwacheyt willen/ auch gutter exempel/ und frbilde/ der

78
These examples cited thus far are taken from religious treatises or sermons, which attempted to
explicate and legitimize the use of images in the Lutheran church. Remarkably, the same ideas
were put forth by Gabriel Kaltemarkt in order to justify the collection and appreciation of
painting and sculpture within a princely Lutheran context.
Almost nothing is known about Gabriel Kaltemarkt. Where and when he was born is a
mystery, as is the nature of his education. The little we do know has been deduced from his
treatise on collecting, How a Kunstkammer Should be Formed (Bedenken wie eine KunstCammer Aufzurichten seyn mchte), a text that he dedicated and sent to Christian I in the hopes
of being appointed Master of the Collection (Kammermeister) of the Dresden Kunstkammer.162
In his treatise Kaltemarkt makes clear that he was familiar with many of the important
numismatic collections in Europe and had intimate knowledge of the organization and contents
of the Dresden Kunstkammer.163
Throughout his fascinating treatise Kaltemarkt masterfully argued that Lutheran rulers
needed religion, faithful subjects, money, military equipment and books, as well as paintings and
sculptures in order to obtain the best adornment and treasures of a prince.164 Furthermore, he
claimed that art objects were essential to the well being of a prince. The ruler required books for
hellige[n]/ und geist reichen leute/ darin[n] wir eben dasselbig sehen/ das uns Gottes wort lehret/ von denen wir
lernen/ und denen wir nachfolgen solle[n]/ damit wir unser leben unstafflich unnd Christlich fren. As quoted in
Bridget Heal, Sacred image and Sacred space in Lutheran Germany, in Will Coster and Andrew Spicer eds.
Sacred Space in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 53 n. 52 (my translation).
162

Barbara Gutfleisch and Joachim Menzhausen, Introduction How a Kunstkammer should be formed:
Gabriel Kaltemarckts advice to Christian I of Saxony on the Formation of an Art Collection, 1587, in Journal of
the History of Collections, Vol.1 No. 1 (1989), 3. For a brief discussion of the text see Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann,
Toward a Geography of Art (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 207.
163

Ibid: 4.

164

Ibid: 10.

79
edification, but also, as a delight to the eyes and strengthening of memory, likenesses of their
[the books] authors and heroesas a living incitement to do good and avoid evil.165 These
beliefs regarding the ennobling function of art objects most likely governed how the Christmas
Crib Automaton was endowed with religious and political agency.166

Within a Lutheran

framework, the three kings on the Christmas Crib Automaton were reminders or signals for
Christian I, that reinforced the proper actions and duties of a devout Lutheran.
If arranging marriages for strategic purposes was intended to solidify the relationships
between Protestant courts, it also opened the door for disagreement. Toward the end of his reign
Elector August I took great pains to foster a smooth transition of power. He attempted to flush
out the Calvinists at court, and aligned himself with the orthodox Lutheran court of Brandenburg.
And finally, he brought his heir, Christian I, into the political proceedings prior to his ascent to
the office of elector. However, in light of the fragile political situation surrounding the early
years of Christians reign and Sophie of Brandenburgs strong Lutheran stance, a religious and
political interpretation of the Christmas Crib Automaton seems fitting. The tension between
husband and wife, one a crypto-Calvinist and the other an unwavering Lutheran, embodies the
anxiety of late sixteenth-century confessional politics in the Holy Roman Empire.
Although there is no known surviving correspondence between Sophie of Brandenburg
and Hans Schlotheim that describes or discusses the commission of the automaton, it seems
appropriate that Sophie would have commissioned such an object for her religiously dithering
husband as an exemplification of proper religious and therefore political duties. The gift of the

165

Ibid: 8.

166

The idea that objects, and particularly gifts, can be endowed with social functions is addressed in
Hilsdale (2005): 459.

80
Lneburger Spiegel (fig. 16) (ca. 1587) to her son Christian IIChristian Is successoron the
eve to his becoming an elector demonstrates that she was prone to giving religious and politically
loaded gifts to her immediate family.
THE FRSTENSPIEGEL
At the time of his fathers unexpected death in 1591, Christian II was only eight years
old. Due to his young age his grandfather Johan Georg I of Brandenburg and the young princes
Ernestine cousin Duke Friedrich Wilhelm I of Saxony-Weimar-Altenburg stood in as regents of
the duchy until 1601, when Christian II turned eighteen and was able to take on the
responsibilities of elector. The ten years between Christian Is death and Chrisitan IIs ascension
were dominated by yet a second Calvinist blitz at the Saxon court. Immediately following
Christian Is demise many of his consorts were thrown into prison for their Calvinists beliefs.
Most notably, Nicholas Krell was imprisoned and executed just days before Christian II took
office.167 This execution was very likely a symbolic act, to demonstrate that the Saxon court had
cleansed itself of any residual Calvinist leanings. Therefore, like the Christmas Crib Automaton,
Sophie of Brandenburgs gift of the Lneburger Spiegel occurred at a pivotal political moment.
In 1600, Sophie requested that the Dresden Rentkammer dispense 1,450 Gulden to
Johann Schlowen of Lneburg to pay for a large mirror fitted with 1000 pieces of pounded and
gilded silver. It also shows all of the coats of arms of the Holy Roman Empire and is adorned
with many Bohemian gems.168

In addition to its sparkling gems and coats of arms the

167

Karlheinz Blaschke, Religion und Politik in Kursachsen 1586-1591, in H. Schilling, ed., Die
reformierte Konfessionaliesierung in DeutschlandDas Problem der Zweiten Reformation (Gtersloh, Verlagshaus,
K. Mohn, 1986), 95-96.
168

Vor einen groen Spiegell, welcher mit 1000 lot vergltten silber beschlagen. Auch mit des gantzen
Romischen reichs wappen, und viehlen darien verstzten Bemischen steihnen getziert. Quoted in Dirk Syndram,

81
Lneburger Spiegel is densely populated with representations of the Prophet Daniels analysis of
Nebuchadnezzars dream and allegories of good and bad government.169 In this mirror allusions
to a Lutheran world order abound, and the visual and verbal programs are particularly well suited
for its recipient, the newly instated Elector of Saxony.
The mirror was designed and crafted by two goldsmiths, Luleff Meyer and Dirch
Utermarke, between 1587 and 1592.170 Meyer was a master from Lneburg, while Utermarke
was an independent master (Freikunstler) working in Hamburg.171 Scholars have disagreed over
the original patron of the Lneburger Spiegel. Hans Schrder, the first and only art historian to
devote a monograph to the mirror, assumed Sophie of Brandenburg commissioned it in 1587.
Schrder based his hypothesis on the 1610 Dresden Kunstkammer inventory, which includes the
following description of the mirror:
One large gilded silver mirror adorned with Bohemian gems, on which appear Daniels
entire prophecy of the four monarchies and the coats of arms of the kingdoms, duchies

Schatzkunst der Rennaissance und des Barok: Das Grne Gewlbe zu Dresden (Dresden: Deustche Kunstverlag), 59
(my translation).
169

J.F. Hayward, Virtusos Goldsmiths and the Triumph of Mannerism 1540-1620 (New York: Sotheby
Parke Bernet, 1976), 253-255; J.F. Hayward, The Mannerist Goldsmiths: 5 Northern Germany, Part VII, The
Connoisseur. September 1970, 22-30; Hans Schrder, Dirch Utermarke ein Hamburger Goldschmied der
Renaissance (Hamburg: Museum fr Hamburgische Geschichte, 1939), passim; Susan Tipton, Res publica bene
Ordinata, Regentenspiegle und Bilder vom guten Regiment: Rathausdekoration in der Frhen Neuzeit (Hildesheim:
Georg Olms Verlag, 1996), 44-50.
170

The initials of the makers appear on two shields attached to the mirror. One of the shields is topped with
blossoms and a sickle, which are flanked on each side by the initials LM. The second shield has a rampant lion,
which is flanked by the initials DV. Hayward (1976), 389.
171

Utermarke originally lived in Lneburg and it is here where he met Meyer. Utermarke was not a
member of the Goldsmiths guild in Lneburg, instead he belonged to the brewers guild and worked illegally for
Meyer on occasion. In 1592 Utermarke presented a piece to the Goldsmiths guild in Lneburg, but it was rejected.
After being turned away from the Lneburg Goldsmith guild Utermarke left the city and settled in Hamburg and
worked as a Freikunstler (independent master). In 1595, Utermarke presented a piece to the Goldsmiths guild in
Hamburg. This time he succeeded in being inducted into the guild and spent much of his time there making
presentation cups for the city of Hamburg (seventy-five cups still survive along with twelve gilt spoons). Hans
Schrder, Dirch Utermarke ein Hamburger Goldschmied der Renaissance (Hamburg: Museum fr Hamburgische
Geschichte, 1939), 100-102.

82
and provinces of the Roman Empire. It is from the electors widow, who bought it from
a man in Lneburg. Additionally, the writing on the glass is executed in enamel. 172

Following Schrder, J.F. Hayward also claimed that Sophie commissioned the object. However,
Dirk Syndram has argued that Sophie did not commission the mirror, but merely purchased it
from Johann Schlowen of Lneburg.173 Syndrams argument has most recently been expanded
upon by Susan Tipton on the basis of documents that record the construction and decoration of
the Lneburger Rathaus. Tipton found that the Lneburger Spiegel was most likely
commissioned for the Rathaus but the funds needed to purchase it were not available. The
Lneburger Spiegel was consequently placed on the open market and purchased by Sophie eight
years after its completion, in 1600.174 Although Sophie may not have played a role in designing
the object, the fact remains that she bought it with the intent of giving it to her son Christian II.
It is crucial to examine this object in detail in order to demonstrate that Sophie of Brandenburg
was keen on bestowing lavish gifts that display their intended recipients as righteous Lutheran
rulers.
The shape of the mirrors frame is derived from monumental epitaphs in Northern
German churches, which commemorated the nobility or wealthy merchants. The epitaph for
Heinrich von Schnberg (ca. 1575) which resided in the Dresden Frauenkirche until the church

172

1 Groer von silber und vergldter spiegell mit bhimischen steinen gezierrt, darahn die gantz
Propheziung Danielis von den vier Monarchien, auch des Rmischen Reiches unnd der darein gehrigen
Knigreichen, lender unnd Provincien Wappen, ist von der Churfrstlichen Schsischen Wittwe, von einen
Lneburger erkaufft worden, und is das glass darauf die Wappen amaliert zerschrichtt. 1610 Inventar, fol. 167r.
173

Syndram (2004): 60.

174

Tipton (1994): 45.

was destroyed in 1945 is a key example of the form (fig. 26).

175

83
The frame of the mirror is a

densely concentrated space, which incorporates a wide variety of ornamentation: swags of


drapery, Rollwerk, oval bosses, flutes, and trophies of arms.176 In addition to its swarming
decoration, the object also includes figures cast in the round, relief work, and engraved detail.
All of the figures on the top half of the mirror are derived from 2:27-45 of the Book of
Daniel, in which the Hebrew prophet divines and analyzes the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, the
Babylonian King and Daniels captor. In his dream Nebuchadnezzar saw a colossal statue whose
head was made of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly of brass, legs of iron, and feet of clay. In
the vision, a singular stone cast into the air destroyed the massive statue. After being struck by
the stone, the statue turned to dust and blew away like the chaff of summer threshing floors.177
The stone, however, remained and became a mountain, which covered the entire earth and stood
for eternity. The Prophet Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzars dream as a nebulous timetable
that concluded with the domination of the Kingdom of Heaven. Daniel explained that the head
of gold signified the kingdom of Babylonia, while the chest and arms of silver and belly of brass
foretold of two kingdoms that would follow but be inferior to Nebuchadnezzars empire.178 And
finally,

175

Walter Hentschel, Epitaphe in der Alten Dresdner Frauenkirche: Eine Untersuchung nach Zeichnungen
im Kupferstich-Kabinett der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Jahrbuch Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Dresden (1961-1962), 101-125. An engraving of the Schnberg epitaph was included in Johann Gottfried
Michaeliss Dresdinische Inscriptiones und Epitaphia, welche auf denen monumentis. . . in und auer der Kirche zu
unser Lieben Frauen . . . zu finden. (Dresden: 1714) a splendid copy of which can be found in the Kupferstich
Kabinett in Dresden. The remnants of the sculpted epitaph are now in the Dresden Stadtmuseum.
176

Max Deri, Das Rollwerk in der Deutschen Ornamentik des sechzehn und siebzehn Jahrhundert (Berlin:
Schuster und Beflub, 1906), 4.
177

Daniel 2:35.

178

Daniel 2:39.

84
There shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron; as iron shatters and destroys all things, it
shall break and shatter the whole earth. As in your vision, the feet and toes were part
potters clay and part iron, it shall be a divided kingdom. Its core shall be partly of iron
just as you saw iron mixed with common clay, as the toes were part iron and part clay,
the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As in your vision, the iron was
mixed with common clay, so shall men mix each other by intermarriage, but such
alliances will not be stable: iron does not mix with clay. In the period of those kings the
God of heaven will establish a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; that kingdom
shall never pass to another people; it shall shatter and make an end of all these kingdoms,
while it shall itself endure forever.179

The fact that one half of the decoration of the Lneburger Spiegel is dedicated to the
Book of Daniel is significant because the Book of Daniel and the prophet himself were treated
repeatedly by Martin Luther in his sermons and writings that addressed the fate of the Holy
Roman Empire and its leaders.180 Luther capitalized on Daniels apocalyptic analysis and
intimated that the final divided kingdom was none other than the confessionally split Holy
Roman Empire. In his Preface to the Prophet Daniel (Vorrede ber den Propheten Daniel)
Luther declared, The Holy Roman Empire will remain until Judgment Day. The kings and
popes are powerless. Daniel does not deny this and heretofore the record has attested to it.181

179

Daniel 2:40-44.

180

Thomas Rahn, Geschichte gedchtnis am Krper: Furstliche merkund Mediationsbilder nach


Weltreiche Prophetie des zweite Buches Daniel, in Jorg Jochen Berns and Wolfgang Neuber, eds.,
Seelenmaschinen. Gattungstraditionen, Funktionen und Leistunggrenzen der Mnemotechniken vom spten
Mittelalter bis zum Beginn der Moderne (Vienna: Bhlau Verlag, 2000), 521-61. It is also important to note that
Luther was often rendered in the guise of Daniel. A painting from the second half of the sixteenth-century, which
hung in the Eisleben Luther-House, depicted Luther before the emperor at Worms. In the image Luther refused to
worship an idol that looked surprisingly similar to the emperor himself. R.W. Scribner, The Incombustible Luther:
Images of the Reformer in Early Modern Germany, Past and Present, No. 110 (Feb. 1986), 54.

85
This apocalyptic rhetoric was picked up by Luthers students. Johann Mathesius (1504-1565), in
his 1562 publication of his Bergpostilla, hailed Luthers exegesis of the Book of Daniel.
Furthermore, visual renderings of Luthers interpretation of the colossal statue began around
1550, most notably with a woodcut by Hans Brosamers.182
The visual program of the Lneburger Spiegel deploys Luthers exegesis of the Book of
Daniel, while imbuing it with political significance through the mingling of figures from
Nebuchadnezzars dream with allegories of good and bad government and heraldic devices. The
mirror is divided into five registers, organized along a vertical axis. Soaring above the tangled
ornamentation is the colossal Statua Danielis, which appeared to Nebuchadnezzar.

183

The

figure, dressed in a Roman cuirass, stands with one foot firmly planted upon a painted image of
the city of Lneburg. His enormous sword, which echoes the curve of his lower body, hangs
precariously from his left hip, while his immense and sinewy hands rest against his torso.
Although the figures body faces frontally his head is turned to the right. The statues distinctive
dress, particularly his leonine padded knees, identifies him (fig. 27). The same formal attire
adorns the body of the statue in the frontispiece to Lorenz Fausts Anatomia Statuae Danielis, of
1586 (fig. 28). The second register is dominated by the painted medallion of the black double-

181

Es muss bleiben bis an Jngsten Tag, wie schwach es simmer sey, denn Daniel leugnet nicht und
bischer die Erfahrung auch beweiset hat, beide an Bebsten und Knigen. Martin Luther, Vorrede uber den
Propheten Daniel, in Biblia, das ist, die gantze Heilige Schrifft Deudsch, originally Wittenburg: Lufft, 1534,
Vollstndiger Nachdruck (Kln: Taschen, 2002), Vol. 2 Ir.
182

The 1587 inventory of the Dresden Kunstkammer also records a Anatomia Statuae Danielis, in gestalt
eines groen gewapneten Mannes, mit den Bedeutungen der 4 Monarchien sambt dem Sachischen Stamme, in
einmem eingefaten Rahmen mit Marmolfarbe angestrichen, hat Laurentius Faust pastor Schirmicensis gemachet,
in the library. Inventar 1587, fol. 313v.
183

When the Augsburg Handelsman Phillip Hainhofer saw the Lneburger Spiegel in 1628 he recognized
the crowning figure as the statue that appeared before Nebuchadnezzar and wrote, Die statua Danielis oder der
traum des Nebucadnezars, samt derselben explication, als den vier Monarchien, underschidner Reichwappen, und
andern alls Kstlich von getribner arbeit, so vil tausent gulden costet mit gar schnen stainen aus fleiigst Geziert
mit groer verwunderung zu sehen und zu Lnburg solle sein gemacht worden. Doering (1901): 10.

86
headed of the Holy Roman Empire, whose spread wings form the backdrop for the fifty-six coats
of arms of the constituent bodies of the Holy Roman Empire; while the crucified Christ is placed
centrally on the birds breast. Flanking the medallion are two warriors on rampant horses. The
horses contorted heads draw the viewers eye back to the medallion and the smaller figures of
Neptune and sea nymphs, who stand before the Corpus Christi.

The second register is

punctuated by a row of twelve more painted medallions, each containing a coat of arms from the
Protestant lands in the empire. The central and largest register includes the mirror, which is
protected behind a large rectangular panel depicting the Earth trapped in the net of vice and
crushing the back of the personification of wickedness.184 To the right of the Earth stands Mars,
whose warring proclivities are referenced by the burnt and pillaged city strategically placed
above the god of wars head in the middle ground. Peace stands to the left of the Earth, her long
attenuated arm draws the eye to the undisturbed landscape, filled with mountains and quaint
buildings. The center of the panel is dominated by two angels. One is perched on top of the
earth, while the second floats above sounding the trumpet of the apocalypse and heralding the
coming of Judgment and the dawn of the Age of Christ. The central panel is bordered on its
sides by two warriors set in niches while an additional two warriors rest on the extravagant
volutes, and display the trophies of war. These four warriors represent the four fallen kingdoms
Daniel refers to in his analysis of Nebuchadnezzars dream.185 Thus, these figures bridge the
first and third register because each kingdom, according to Daniel, was embodied by the Statua

184

The personification of Vice is rendered in the same position in an engraving by Johannes Sadeler after
Martin de Vos from 1579, which is entitled Politeia: Constituit rerm formas Politeia serna. Si bona da Regem, que
si perversa Tirannum. See, Martin Warnke, Die Demokratie zwischen Vorbildern und Zerrbildern, in Dario
Gamboni and Georg Germann eds., Zeichen der Freiheit: Das Bild der Republik in der Kunst des 16. Und 20.
Jahrhunderts (Bern: Verlag Stmpfli, 1991), 84.
185

Schrder (1939): 96.

87
Danielis. Like the second register, the third register is punctuated by yet another row of painted
medallions, which present twelve more coats of arms of the Protestant lands of the Holy Roman
Empire. An allegory of good government is situated below the medallions. This conglomeration
of figures serves to shift attention away from the constituent bodies of the Holy Roman Empire
and apocalyptic visions of the top half of mirror toward the purpose of government and the
virtues of a prince.
The allegory of good government consists of hierarchically organized personifications of
moral and civic concepts. In the large niche, Justice sits, elevated in the center, while Prudentia
stands to her left and Caritas, holding a writhing baby, stands to Justices right. Pax and Res
Publica grasp hands at the feet of Justice.186 The allusion to the necessity for the state of
maintaining peace is amplified by the chains attached to Paxs and Res Publicas wrists, which
terminate around the wrists of Justice. Consequently, the chains, which bind the three figures,
take the place of the balance in traditional representations of Justice. Justices entire body
functions as the balance, and her domination over Pax and Res Publica clearly expresses the
necessity to have ordered all things with measure, number, and weight187 in the maintenance of
tranquillitas, civium.188 This register is separated from the fifth and final register by a third set
of painted medallions. However, unlike the previous heraldic devices these medallions announce

186

The same figures in the exact arrangement appear in Isaac Schwendters Das gute Regiment der
Reichsstadt Regensburg from 1592, which still hangs in the altes Rathaus in Regensburg, and again in the
frontispiece to Georg Lauterbecks Regentenbuch, which was published in Frankfurt in 1600. See Adolf Schmetzer,
Die Restaurierung des Reichssaales, in Das Rathaus zu Regensburg: ein Markstein deutscher Geschichte und
deutscher Kunst (Regensburg: Habbel, 1910), 174.
187

Wisdom 11:20.

188

For a discussion of the role of Justice in Allegories of Good Government, see Joseph Polzer, Ambrogio
Lorenzettis War and Peace Murals Revisited: Contributions to the Meaning of the of Good Government Allegory,
Artibus et historiae. No. 45 (2002), 77-81.

88
the princely virtues: CARITAS, IUSTITIA, PATIENTIA, SPES, FORTITVDO, and,
TEMPERANTIA. Thus, these medallions verbally address the intended viewer of the mirror.
Here the verbal and pictorial programs reinforce and engage one another. The recitation of the
princely virtues directly beneath the allegory of good government demonstrates that the allegory
was intended for the eyes of a princely ruler.
The Judgment of Paris is rendered below the princely virtues. Paris stands in the center
while Apollo hands the Trojan prince the golden apple to give to either Aphrodite of Helen of
Troy. The mirror presents the moment before Pariss fatal decision, which led to the destruction
of his kingdom by the hands of the Greeks. Thus, the final register functions as a commentary
on the importance of good judgment for the sake of ones kingdoms. Here, the Judgment of
Paris is intended to correspond, antithetically, to the princely virtues and allegory of good
government. It is clear, then, that the Lneburger Spiegel brings together terrifically complex
visual and verbal programs that forefront the duties and virtues of a ruler of Protestant lands,
against the backdrop of the end of days. In Christian IIs possession, the mirror functioned as a
reminder to the ruler of Saxony of his Lutheran faith, his allegiance to the Protestant lands, his
duty to maintain a proper and peaceful government, the princely code of conduct, the
consequences of poor decisions, and his prominent role in the Empire that will, according to
Luther, be the last of all empires.
This final aspect of the object becomes even more prominent when we consider that a
vast amount of ornamentation functions as frame for a mirror, a surface that has a very particular
ocular dynamic. When Christian II gazed into the mirror, its reflective surface enabled his
reflection, his own image, to be incorporated into the object itself, literally placing him at the

189

center of this overtly Lutheran political allegory.

89
Therefore, the inclusion of Christian IIs

image in the Lneburger Spiegel functions in ways similar to the animation of the elector in the
Christmas Crib Automaton.

Both rulers would have been able to see themselves in their

respective gifts as virtuous Lutheran rulers.


This is not the only similarity between the Christmas Crib Automaton and the Lnebuger
Spiegel. Both were given as gifts to an Elector of Saxony by Sophie of Brandenburg. Each was
made from precious materials and with the highest quality of craftsmanship and technical
dexterity. Additionally, both objects incorporate religious imagery that, as I have argued, had
religious and political significance. And finally, the gifts also foreground various Lutheran
virtues, and as such were pointedly addressed to their respective recipients at politically
momentous moments.
Close examination of the Christmas Crib Automaton has revealed that the imagery not
only speaks to the customs and rituals pertaining to the time of year at which it was given; it also
exemplifies the supreme Lutheran duty. The object was a political tool that may have enabled
the mediation of the relationship of an extremely powerful husband and wife. While Sophies
motivation for commissioning the object remains a matter of speculation, the complicated issues
of Christians Calvinist leanings underlie both the music and imagery of the automaton. Of
course it will never be known whether Christian I gazed upon the automaton with delight, or if
he recognized a version of himself in the object. We do know that Sophie employed a similar
strategy in her gift of the Lnegburger Spiegel to Christian II, and this implies that the Christmas
Crib Automaton served its purpose.

189

For an excellent discussion on the ways mirrors solicit the gaze of viewers see, Susan L. Smith, The
Gothic Mirror and the Female Gaze, in Saints, Sinners, and Sisters: Gender and Northern in Art in Medieval and
Early Modern Europe, Jane L. Caroll and Alison G. Stewart eds. (Burlington: Ashgate, 2003), 74.

90

VERBUM DOMINI MANET IN AETERNUM: THE VERKEHRTE WELT


AUTOMATON

The Verkehrte Welt (the world upside-down) Automaton (fig. 5), crafted sometime
between 1560 and 1570 in Augsburg, is the sole automaton recorded in the 1598 inventory of the
ducal Kunstkammer in Munich.190 The diminutive size of the Verkehrte Welt automaton (it
stands at only 14.2 centimeters) allowed for exceptionally intimate use. This was an object one
could easily have picked up, wound up, inspected, manipulated, and passed around a room. The
object is comprised of a number of sumptuous materialssilver, gold, rubies, diamonds,
emeralds, pearls, enamels, ivory, parchment, and ebonyall elaborately worked and
incorporated in to a compelling, if odd, ensemble. The combination of gem-like colored enamels,
actual gems, gold, and silverall materials that seem to emit lightenhances the objects
bewildering imagery and movementan ape beating a pulpit before three deer. What makes this
automaton strange, however, is not just the bizarre coupling of an ape and deer, but its attempt to
convey that the ape is speaking to the deer. This is a world, unlike our own, where animals talk
and listen.191

190

Auf einem uberlengeten stckl, von Hebeno ein grien geschmelzte berg, darauf ein viereckhet gulden
gestell in die vierung mit rundafelin versezt, auf welchem sizt ein Aff von gold, geschmelzt, mit einer blawen
Kappen, und ein Paketen in der handt, vor im ein gulden Pulpit, daruaf ein gesangbuech, der wirt von einem
urwerckh bewegt, das der Aff mit der Paketen die Mensure schlegt. Neben dem Affen ligen ain Hirsch, ain stuckh
wildt von goldt, wai geschmelzt, ain gulden Rech. Oberst neben dem berg ain anderer geschmeltzer baum. Auf
der seitens des stckhels wrt ein Deckhel frgeschoben, darunder ein tfel in dem ein wald, darinen hirschen und
Rech, von minature gemalt, in mitten am frschub ain Porten an deren baiderseits ain Pyramis mit rubin am fue
versezt, oben auf geschmelzt, am Spiz ein Perlin hinder iedem ein Pyramis ain gulden turlen, auf der objerseitten
zwai schubladen, so mit gulden geschmelzten hirskpfl heraugezogen werden. In dem groern ligen ain guldene
Reichpfeiffen, auch in dem clainern schubldl, das ein falsch, an idern ein geschmelzt hirshkpfl. Das fuetral hiezu
ist inwendig mit weiem Attla gefertet, von auen mit Plawen sammet uberzogen. Peter Diemer, Elke Bujot, und
Dorothea Diemer, eds. Johannes Baptist Fickler Das Inventar der Mnchner herzlogichen Kunstkammer von 1598
(Mnchen: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2004) No. 3390.

91
According to the 1598 inventory of the ducal Kunstkammer in Munich and subsequent
descriptions of the collection, this peculiar object was situated on a table in the northeast corner
of the chamber, just outside the Gwlbl (vault) that housed the most valuable objects in the
collection.192 There can be little doubt that this position was generally considered to be one of
honor.193 Yet despite the fact that this unique object survives and despite the fact that it occupied
such an esteemed location in what was arguably the most distinguished Kunstkammer in the
Holy Roman Empire, it has been curiously ignored by art historical scholarship.194
What prompted the manufacture, collection, and display of the Verkehrte Welt Automaton
at the court in Munich? I attempt to answer this question first by accounting for the ways the
automaton transforms images of preaching into a verkherte Welt idiom and second by focusing
on the preoccupation of the Wittelsbach dukesWilhelm IV (1493-1550), Ludwig X (14951545), Albrecht V (1528-1579), and Wilhelm V (1548-1626) with routing out Protestant
preachers and reinvigorating Catholicism in Bavaria around the time the object was made.
Scholars have often stressed the importance of the Counter-Reformation for cultural production
in late sixteenth-century Bavaria, above all for the Wilhelmean building program of the last two
decades of the century.195 But they have paid little attention to the Bavarian Wittelsbach dukes

191

Location: Schatzkammer der Residenz, Munich, Inv. n. 609-162, Literature: H. Brunner, Schatzkammer
der Residenz Mnchen (Mnchen: Bayerische Verwaltung der Staatliche Schlsser, Grten, und Seen, 1975), 42.
192

Diemer (2004): 223, nos. 3373-3384 and Chr. Hutle, Die Reisen der Augsburg Phillipp Hainhofer nach
Eichstdt, Mnchen, und Regensburg in den Jahren 1611, 1612, und 1613, Zeitschrift des Historischen Veriens fr
Schwaben und Neuberg, Vol. 8 (1881) 95.
193

I would like to thank Pieter and Dorothea Diemer for bringing this to my attention. Their unsurpassed
knowledge of the 1598 inventory of the Kunstkammer, and their willingness to share it with me on a daily basis
made this chapter possible.
194

On the fame of the Munich Kunstkammer see Lorenz Seelig, Literaturbericht zur Mnchner
Kunstkammer, in Pieter Diemer and Dorothea Diemer eds., Die Mnchner Kunstkammer (Munich: Bayerische
Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2008) 115-124.

92
more intimate objets dart. The analysis of the Verkehrte Welt Automaton that follows will
emphasize conceptions of and responses to Protestantin particular, Lutheranpreaching
during the Counter-Reformation in southern Germany.196

In the end I argue the objects

animation and imagery, shot through with straightforward and oblique references to Protestant
forms of ministry, visualize an argument against one of the most central elements of Martin
Luthers reformation.

FOR THEY KNOW NOT THE VOICE OF STRANGERS


The Verkehrte Welt Automatons resplendent ensemble of a hilltop, preaching monkey,
audience of deer, and trees rests on an ebony base containing four drawers. Each drawer houses
a miniature golden hunters whistle (Wildruf), and the drawer pulls consist of small white
enameled deer heads.197 The front of the ebony base contains an arched portal. There are three
steps at the foot of the portal and the top is adorned with a pediment. Inside the portal a
descending drawbridge partially obstructs a minutely rendered landscape on parchment,
suggesting that the base is a fortress in miniature. The reference to defensive architecture in the
base is underlined by the two golden battle-axes flanking the portal. These instruments of war
are framed by two ruby obelisks, each crowned with a single pearl, while four more ruby
195

The classic text is Paul Frankl, Sustris und die Mnchner Michaelskirche, Mnchner Jahrbuch der
bildenen Kunst, vol. 10 (1916) 1-63. See also, Erich Hubala, Vom eurpischen Rang der Mnchner Architektur um
1600, in Hubert Glaser ed., Beitrge zur Bayerischen Geschichte und Kunst, 1573-1657 (Mnchen: Hirmer Verlag,
1980) 141-151.
196

On using objects as a parallel archive see, Bill Brown, Thing Theory, Critical Inquiry, Vol. 28 No. 1
(2001) 1-22.
197

There is only one instance in the literature from the period that places a monkey in the role of the hunter.
It occurs in Georg Rollenhagens Froschmeuseler, Buch II, Teil 2, Kap. 11, v. 125-154, in the passage, Der jagende
Affe mu sich den Spott der Krhe gefallen lassen, weil seinem Bogen die Sehne fehlt. See, Gerd Dicke and Klaus
Grubmller, Die Fabeln des Mittelalters und der frhen Neuzeit: ein Katalog der deutschen Versionen und ihrer
lateinischen Entsprechungen (Mnchen: Wilhelm Fink, 1987) 25.

93
obelisks are placed at the four corners of the base. A small ivory Roman soldier stands in a niche
on the back of the burnished fortress. His whiteness, like that of the enameled deer heads,
contrasts strikingly with the black south Asian wood of the base.
Two twisting golden trees sprout from the right and left sides of the enameled mound
atop the base. The leaves of these trees, one deciduous and the other coniferous, are denoted by
nothing less than countless translucent emeralds. The hill, which was crafted in the difficult
technique of mail en ronde bosse, contains numerous embossed trees and two small huts.198
Reigning over this topsy-turvy world is a mammoth (relative to the scale of the object) golden
ape mounted on a red enameled platform behind a diamond studded and repouse enameled
golden pulpit. The apes small red cap and blue chasuble signals his status as a representative of
the church, and the open songbook before himpossibly a hymnalsuggests he is in the midst
of a service. That the ape is preaching is strongly alluded to by the gem-studded pulpitwhich
stands in coded contrast to its simian userin combination with the creatures mechanical
movement; powered by a clockwork mechanism encased in the enameled mound, the ape turns
its head, rolls its eyes and raises and lowers its right arm, beating his radiant jeweled lectern
repeatedly. At the monkeys feet lie three enameled deertwo white stags and one golden
doewhose heads are raised and whose gazes are directed toward the ape.199 Although the deer
seem at home within the landscape suggested by the enameled hilltop and its vegetation, their

198

For excellent discussions of the mail ronde bosse technique see, Erika Speel, Dictionary of Enameling
(Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998) 126, Theodre Mller and Erich Steingrber, Die Franzosiche Goldemailplastik um
1400, Mnchener Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst, vol. 5 (1954) 29-79; Everett P. Lesley Jr., Enamel (New York:
The Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration, 1954) 4; and Renata Eikelmann, Goldemail um 1400, in
Reinhold Baumstart ed., Das Goldene Rssl: Ein Meisterwerk der Pariser Hofkunst um 1400 (Munich: Hirmer
Verlag, 1995) 106-109.
199

On the iconography of the stag see, Debra Hassig, Medieval Bestiaries: Image, Text, Ideology
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) 40-52 and Michael Bath, The Image of the Stag (Baden Baden:
Valentin Koerner, 1992) passim.

94
juxtaposition with a preaching ape at a pulpit is incongruousand iconographically novel.
Indeed, the relationship between the ape and the deer is marked by alienation; in the context of
the automatons movement and its central element, the ape, they seem isolated. The bewildering
coexistence of the ape and the deer, the apes mindlessly repeated gestures, and even the silence
of the object make the Verkehrte Welt automaton a telling commentary on the act of preaching.
The fact that this object evoked images of preaching is attested to by an early
seventeenth-century description. Writing in 1611, during a visit to the Munich court, the famed
Handelsman Philip Hainhofer (1578-1647) reports that in the Kunstkammer he saw: a black hill
crafted from a touchstone, on top sits an ape with a music book before it. It beats a rhythm and
rolls its eyes. Around it sit several animals, all of which are enameled and gold. It looks like the
wolf preaching to the geese.200 Hainhofer was reminded by the object of the popular tale of
Reynard the fox, whoaccording to the numerous manifestations of the taleduped unwitting
poultry into listening to him deliver a sermon in order to entrap and devour them.201 That the

200

Ain schwartzer berg au lapide elidio, darob sitz ein af mit eine Musich buch vor Ihme, der schlegt den
tact, und rhret die augen, umb Ihn hero sitzten etliche their alle gulden und geschmelzt, sihet als wann der Wolf den
gnsen predigte. (my translation) Chr. Hutle, Die Reisen der Augsburg Phillipp Hainhofer nach Eichstdt,
Mnchen, und Regensburg in den Jahren 1611, 1612, und 1613, Zeitschrift des Historischen Veriens fr Schwaben
und Neuberg, Vol. 8 (1881) 95.
201

By the time the automaton was manufactured, the tale of the guileful fox had been one of the most
widespread stories north of the Alps for 300 years. The first known text to describe Reynards exploits was
Ysengrimus, and dates to 1148-1149. Ysengrimus is a Latin epic poem over six and a half thousand lines in length,
and is believed to have been written in Ghent. The first vernacular version of Reynards travails was penned in
France and titled Roman de Reynard. Between 1150 and 1190 the stories of Reynard flourished. The renditions of
Reynards exploits spread in all directions and we have evidence of manuscripts dating to this forty-year period
produced in territories now known as Belgium, Holland, Northern Germany, France, and even Northern Italy. In
1191 the Alsatian Heinrich der Glichesaer produced the first German version, Reinhart Fuchs. Shortly thereafter, an
Italian version of the epic appeared, Rainaldo e Lesegrino. In the 1260s a Frenchman known as Rutebeuf wrote
Renart le Bestourne. Sometime between 1263-1270, a third French version of the epic appeared. This text was
anonymously written and entitled, Cournnment de Renart. Sometime between 1288 and 1289 Jacquemart Gile
drafted RenartReynard le Nouvel. The first Dutch version, Van de vos Reynaerde, was drafted at the end of the
thirteenth century. Three more Dutch versions followed in the fourteenth century. They were respectively titled
Renyanaerts Historie, Renaert de Vos, and Hystorie van Renaert die Vos. The tale was also well known in
England. Chaucer devoted 680 lines to the fox in The Nuns Priests Tale of the Cook and the Fox, while one

95
automaton recalled to Hainhofer the Reynard tale is no wonder, since numerous sixteenthcentury images of the duplicitous fox preaching to ducks, geese, and chickens mobilized the
same composition as the Verkehrte Welt Automaton (fig. 29 and fig. 30).
Because the composition evokes Reynard imagery, and the central figure is an ape, one
might imagine that the Verkehrte Welt Automaton is simply an allegory against false
preaching.202 And indeed, an ape is an appropriate figure of deceit. Isidore of Seville (ca. 560636), convinced that apes were debased replicas and unworthy imitators of man, went through a
series of etymological exercises to argue that the Latin simia stemmed from the Latin
similituderather than the Greek simus, which means snubbed nosein his influential
Etymologiae.203

By the thirteenth century the German term Affe (Ape) achieved common

currency as a synonym for fool. As indicated by numerous phrasesden Affe machen (to
play the fool), wie ein Affe auf dem Schliefstein sitzen (to sit like a monkey on a knife-grinder),
wohl vom blauen Affen gebissen (to be off ones head), wie vom Wilden Affen gebissen da
herumtoben (to jump around like a raving lunatic), wie einen Affenkfig (its like a
madhouse)to be apish was to be a dunce or a loon.
hundred years later William Caxton published the Historye of Renaert the Foxe. A number of studies address the
history and development of the Renart tale. See, A.J. Barnouw, Reynard the Fox, in E. Colledge ed. Reynard the
Fox and other Medieval Netherlands Secular Literature (Leyden: Sijthoff, 1967) 47-157; Norman F. Blake,
English Versions of Reynard the Fox in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, Studies in Philology, Vol. 62
(1965); Gerd Dicke and Klaus Grumller, Die Fabeln des Mittelalters und der frhen Neuzeit: ein Katalog der
deutschen Versionen und ihrer lateinischen Entsprechungen (Mnchen: Wilhelm Fink, 1987) 698-699; Thomas
Honegger, A Fox is a Fox: The Fox and the Wolf Reconsidered, Reinardus: Yearbook of the International
Reynard Society, Vol. 9 (1996) 59-74.
202

One scholar has argued that the images of apes satirizing members of the cloth, are likely to have been
intended as satires on unworthy individuals who performed these rituals just as ape-knight and ape-physicians
almost certainly constituted criticism of men who were not good members of their profession rather than a criticism
of the professions themselves. Karl Pl Wentersdorf, The Symbolic Significance of the Figurae Scatologicae in
Gothic Manuscripts, in Clifford Davidson, ed. Word, Picture, Spectalce (Kalamzoo: Medieval Institute
Publications, 1984) 3.
203

H.W. Janson, Apes and Ape Lore in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (London: The Warburg
Institute, 1952) 19-20.

96
Typically, in the medieval period, representations of apes are expressive of this notion
that apes are foolish creatures. In the marginalia of a folio from the fourteenth-century GreyFitzpayn Hours (fig. 31) and a fifteenth-century Minnekstchen (fig. 32) from the
Bayerischeslandes Museum, apes convey their foolishness by donning a crown and wielding a
branch, as if it were a scepter (Minnekstchen) and beating a drum while mounted backwards on
a dog (Grey-Fitzpayn Hours), respectively.204 More in tune with the Verkehrte Welt automaton
is a sermonzing ape depicted on a folio of a fourteenth-century book of hours, now in the Walters
Art Gallery (fig. 33). In the register below the text, above a band of foliated and figured
roundels, sits an ape in a Gothic throne wielding a crozier and with three other apes clustered
around its feet.
Medieval simian imagery, represented here by this brisk survey, seems to me to be one
important source for the subject of the Verkehrte Welt Automaton. The apes thoughtless,
mechanical mimicry surely owes something to his medieval predecessors.

It is important,

however, not to lose sight of the historical distance separating the medieval images of apes from
the Verkehrte Welt Automaton. While these figurations, which populate the edges of manuscript
folios and adorn secular luxury works of art, may seem to predict the golden enameled preaching
ape and his congregation, they were consistently peripheral to the work of art itself, occurring in
places, in the words of Michael Camille, betwixt and between.205 By contrast, the Verkehrte
Welt Automaton is constructed so as to feature and even animate the ape and his actions. But

204

Marginalia was also referred to as babuini (monkey business) during the late middle ages. Michael
Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art (London: Reaktion Books, 1992) 12 . For an excellent
catalogue and overview of apes in the margins of medieval manuscripts see, Lillian M. Randall, Images in the
Margins of Gothic Manuscripts (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966) passim.
205

Camille (1992): 12.

97
what sort of natural order, not to mention church hierarchy, could sustain an ape preaching? The
world represented on this hilltop is doubly topsy-turvy: apes do not preach; and deer do not listen
to sermons, whether delivered by apes or men.

THE UPSIDE-DOWN WORLD


Before delving further into the significance of the Verkehrte Welt Automaton, and the
extent to which it is an allegory about false preaching, let us explore other contemporary
verkehrte Welt imagery. In the decades in which the automaton was made in Augsburg and
acquired by the Munich court, German-speaking lands were inundated with verbal and pictorial
formulations of the verkehrte Welt.206 The efflorescence of literature, pictures, and objects that
depicted a reversal of laws of nature and social hierarchies took its cues from a number of
sourcesclassical mythology, animal fables, exempla, proverbs, folklore, and zoological
treatises among them.207 Representations of the verkehrte Welt tended to be popular in nature.
Broadsheets depicting women beating their husbands, bulls disemboweling butchers, hares
hunting men, and monkeys attacking castles were widepsread. Tales of ships traversing rocky
terrains and peasants drinking spoons were narrated in such widely read books as Sebastian
Brants Narrenschiff (1494) and Hans Sachss Das Schlaraffen Landt (1530).208 The world

206

Other languages also have similar terms. For instance imagery and literature that portrays an inverted
world can fall under the headings of, Mundus Perversus, Mondo alla Rovescio, Monde lenvers, Mundo al
Revs, and Verkeerde Wereld. David Kunzle, The World Upside Down: The Iconography of a European
Broadsheet Type, in Barbara A. Babcock, ed., The Reversible World: Symbolic Inversion in Art and Society
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1978) 41.
207

Many of the zoological treatises were derived from medieval bestiaries such as the Early Christian
Physiologus, Isidore of Sevilles Etymologiae, Ambroses Hexaemeron, the anonymous De Bestiis et aliis rebus,
Hugh of Fouillys De avibus, and Solinuss Collectanea rerum memorabilium, See Debra Hassig, Medieval
Bestiaries: Text, Image, Ideology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) 5.

98
upside down was also prominently featured in religious imagery. Foxes preaching to ducks and
farriers shoeing geese appear regularly in the misericords of churches such as Hoogstraten in
present day Belgium (fig. 34).209 Luxury items were also, though to a lesser extent, prone to
interest in this imagery. For instance, a silver platter crafted by Abraham Gessner (1580,
Schweizerisches Landesmuseum, Zrich) is covered with these reversals, and executed with the
utmost precision and care (fig. 35).210
David Kunzle has proposed that the verkehrte Welt be divided into five types of
inversions and one heterogenous group: human to human; human to animal; animal to animal;
animal to element; animal to object; and animals in incongruous activity.211 To the first
208

Sebastian Brant, Das Narrenschiff (Basel) 1494 and Hans Sachs, Smtliche Fabeln und Schwnke, Vols.
1-3. (Halle: Niemeyer, 1893). The passage where Sachs discusses a peasant drinking a spoon reads as follows:
Ein dorff in einem Bauren fasas, Der gerne leffel mit milch as Sampt einen grossen wecke, Viers hauser
hat sein ecke, vier wagen spandt erfur sein pferdt, Sein kch stundt mitten in derm her, Bold stadel was
wein hewe, sein hoff lag in dem strewe, sein stall findt mitten in derm Ro, Sein offen in dabl rod er Scho,
Au kes macht er gutt milsche, Bon jppen war sein milche, er seblug die bau aus der gruben, und seldtacker
au den Rubern, mit garbe Trlcht er slegel, Auff der spitz stellt ein kegel.
Sachs also describes a peasants paradise where no one works and people are paid to sleep. The streets are lined with
plum pudding, houses made from cake, and food falls randomly from the skya culinary utopia. One among many
key examples of the world turned upside down is an instance in the text when animals invite humans to devour
them. Auch fliegen umb, muget iyr glauben/ Gebraten Hner, Gensz, und Tauben/ Wer sie nigh fact und ist so
faul/ Dem fliegen sie von selbs in da maul/ Die sew all Jar gar wol gerathen/ Lauffen im Land umb, sind gebraten!/
Yede eyn messer hat im Rck! Boesch (1894); 72
209

The term misericord is derived from the Latin misericordia, which denoted mercy or pity. They are
carved wooden brackets beneath the seats of choir stalls in cathedrals or collegiate and monastic churches. Christa
Grssinger, The World Upside-Down: English Misericords (London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 1997) 11-17.
210

J.F. Hayward, Virtuoso Goldsmiths And the Triumph of Mannerism 1540-1620 (New York: Sotheby
Parke Bernet, 1976) Plate Number, 555. Art historians have been curiously silent with regard to the luxury items that
depict the verkehrte Welt. For this literature see, Natalie Zemon Davis, Women on Top: Symbolic Sexual Inversion
and Political Disorder in Early Modern Europe, in Barbara A. Babcock, ed., The Reversible World: Symbolic
Inversion in Art and Society (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1978) 154, Frederick B. Jonassen, Lucians
Saturnalia, the Land of Cockaigne, and the Mummers Plays, Follkore vol. 101, no. 1 (1990) 58-68 and Keith
Moxey, Peasants, Warriors, and Wives: Popular Imagery in the Reformation. (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1989) 45-62 David Kunzle, The World Upside Down: The Iconography of a European Broadsheet Type, in
Barbara A. Babcock, ed., The Reversible World: Symbolic Inversion in Art and Society (Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1978) 40.
211

In rare instances object/element inversion is featured in verkehrte Welt imagery. For instance, a
sixteenth-century Italian broadsheet incorporates an anvil flying through the air. Such inversions are reminiscent of

99
category belong gender and class inversions, such as the Phyllis riding and subjugating Aristotle,
which was illustrated in Hans Sachss Die vier trefliche menner sampt ander vilen, so durch
frawenlieb betrogen, sin und noch betrogen weden (1534) (fig. 36). To the second category
belong animals that treat humans as animals, as, for example, where donkeys ride peasants. To
the third category belongs images which that reverse the role of animals, for instance the
prevalent scene of; hares hunting dogs appears in a range of media, from a small engraving
entitled The Hares Revenge by Israel van Meckenem (ca. 1490) (fig. 37), to frescoes which that
date to 1616 in the Ansitz Thun-Martini in the town of Rev in southern Tyrol (fig. 38).212 The
latter example also demonstrates that overlap between and among categories was part and parcel
of world upside-down imagery. The fourth category, animal to element reversal, is infrequent,
but one case can be found in in a frame of a Dutch broadsheet published at the end of the
sixteenth century in Amsterdam by Ewout Mlller (fig. 39). Versions of this broadsheet, which
presents a pictorial catalogue of instances of inversion, were widely disseminated.

This

particular instance features fish busily nesting in the top of trees (De vissen nestlen inde
boomen). The fifth category, the inversion of animal and object, appears frequently in the
misericords of Churches. One the most visually stunning examples of this mode of reversal can
be found on a misericord in Beverly Minster, a wonderfully foreshortened representation of cart
pulling a horse (fig. 40).
A significant percentage of verkehrte Welt imagery falls into the sixth category: animals
performing human activities. Dancing bears, cats playing bagpipes, or monkeys riding horses
ancient adynata or impossibilia. These rhetorical devices were employed by ancient writers to highlight the
unnatural nature of a social anomaly. Kunzle (1978): 59.
212

The Hares Revenge was so popular that in 1573 Flohaz Johannes Fischart remarked, strange
combats our artists represent these days. For they bring into the cats against the rats, mice and rats [against the cats].
Who hasnt seen the hares turning the hunters on the spit? Quoted by Kunzle (1978):79.

100
appeared in verbal and visual representations well before the Verkehrte Welt Automaton was
crafted. Some of the best recent work on the world upside-down has explored how images of
inversion amounted to the collective voice of the Volk, capable of subverting official culture and
overthrowing a burgeoning bourgeois aesthetics of beauty.213 It might therefore be possible to
argue that the Verkehrte Welt Automaton is a prime example of what the Russian literary theorist
Mikhail Bakhtin deemed the eruption of the popular or carnivalesque in an aristocratic
sphere.214 This reading, however, does not fully explain the significance of the objects imagery,
nor does it shed much light on why the object was acquired by the Munich court and so
prominently displayed. To begin to understand its appeal to the Munich court we must examine
another class of images the automaton readily recallsrepresentations of Lutheran preachers.

FIGURES OF SPEECH
The period during which the German-speaking world produced such a density of
configurations of the world upside-down was also a time when images of clergymen pulpiteering
were manifold and ever-present. These images, most of which were produced by Protestant
presses and artists, lauded preaching as the foremost strategy to transmit the word of God, as
well as a means to connect theological teachings and the concerns of the clergy with the spiritual
ideas and practices of their congregations.215 Scores of woodcuts such as Lucas Cranach the
Elders Hallowed be thy Name (1527) (fig. 41), The Third Commandment (1529) (fig. 42), The

213

Moxey (1989).

214

Mikhail Bahktin, Rabelais and his World, trans. Hlne Iswolsky (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1984) 164-166.
215

R. W. Scribner, Demons, Defecation and Monsters: Popular Propaganda for the German Reformation
in Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany (London: Hambledon Press, 1987) 278-299.

101
Last Supper of Protestants and the Popes Descent to Hell (1547) (fig. 43), Matthias Gerungs
Evangelical Church Service and Catholic Indulgences (1546), Georg Penczs Content of two
Sermons (1529) (fig. 44), and Pancratz Kemps The Difference between the True Religion of
Christ and the False Idolatrous Teachings of the Antichrist (1550) (fig. 45), to name but a few,
became emblems of the evangelical movement.216 Such imagery, like that of the world upsidedown, was routine: the laity, young and old, rich and poor, stand or sit in audience before a pulpit
occupied by a gesticulating minister, often with a book laid open before him. Images such as
these were reproduced in books, pamphlets, and broad sheetsor printed catechismswhich
not only publicized the new faith, but also conveyed Luthers essential teachings of sola
scriptura and sola fide to lay persons.217
Out of all of the printed catechisms mentioned above, Pancratz Kempfs The Difference
between the True Religion of Christ and the False Idolatrous Teachings of the Antichrist (fig.
45), most clearly articulates the Lutheran ministers ability to transfer the word of God to his
congregation.218 In Kempfs complex two-part image, the rites, wealth, corruption, and idolatry
of the Catholic Church are pitted against the cleansed sacramentsthe Baptism and the Lords
Supperof Luthers reformed religion. Separated by the column that bisects the image, Luther,

216

On the propagandistic role of these images see, R.W. Scribner, For the Sake of Simple Folk: Popular
Propaganda for the German Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981). See especially Chapter
7, Teaching the Gospel: Propaganda as Instruction 190-228.
217

On the pedagogical function of the printed catechisms see, Gerald Strauss, Luthers House of Learning:
Indoctrination of the Young in the German Reformation (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1978) 151-175.
218

Currently, the large two-block print survives in two versions. One is supplemented with text composed
by Melancthons most fervent interlocutor, the theologian Matthias Flacius Illricus (1520-1575) and one is without
commentary. The authorship of this print has been questioned. The manner and theme of the work has been
attributed to Cranachs workshop, but the watermark suggests that it was printed in Madeburg, where Illyricus was
preaching and writing. Since we know Kempf produced satirical prints in Magdeburg that supported the reformers
cause, it has been claimed and, for the most part, accepted that Kempf executed the woodcut in Magdeburg under
the guidance of Illyricus.

102
pristine in his fur collared coat, or Schaube, is juxtaposed with a hooded monk at the right, with a
demon wielding bellows on his shoulder. Clearly, the bellows are a conduit of Satans
message.219 Wearing a devilish grin, the corpulent clergyman stands in his ornamented pulpit
and delivers his sermon (devoted to the teachings of the Antichrist/Abgottischenlehr des
Antichrists) while pointing toward the monks and church officials below him who carry out what
Luther deemed the abuses of the Church.220 A demon blesses the altar table placed on the naked
earth at the center of the composition; a richly adorned priest celebrates a private mass; a bishop
consecrates a bell; two monks lay a cowl on a dying man to ensure that he expires as a member
of a privileged monastic order. Holding aloft the standard of a local saint, a monk leads a
procession of pilgrims around the church in the background. In the right foreground, wearing the
three-tiered papal tiara, Christs vicar on earth is selling indulgences. He fondles a pile of coins
with his left hand, while in his right he holds aloft an indulgence paraphrasing the infamous lines
penned by Johann Tetzel in 1517: Sobald der Glden im Becken klingt/ im huy die Seel im
Himmel Springt. (When the coin in the coffin rings, the soul from purgatory springs.)

221

Encircled by clouds and kneeling beside God the Father, Saint Francis, plainly displaying his

219

This representation of the demon imparting the teachings of Satan to the monks ear is an inversion of
the popular legend of Saint Gregory the Great. After Gregorys death it was suggested by his contemporaries that
his works were heretical and should be burned. One of Gregorys followers prevented the book burning by
testifying that he witnessed the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, dictating the works in Gregorys ear. See, Uwe
Westfehling, ed. Die Messe Gregors des Groen. Vision, Kunst, Realitt. Katalog und Fhrer zu einer Ausstellung
im Schntgen Museum Kln (Kln: Schntgen Museum, 1982) 13.
220

The fact that this woodcut underscores the moral, spiritual, and theological oppositions of the Reformed
preacher and the Catholic monk aligns it with the Wittenberg Tradition, developed from Luthers writings, of the
antichrist. Popular visual indicators of the antichrist, such as presenting the monk as the devil himself or being born
from a she-devil are, surprisingly, not present in this work. On representing the Pope as the antichrist, see Scribner
(1981): 155-163.
221

Weil der grosch noch klingt/feret die Seel im himel.

103
stigmata to the viewer, offers himself as intercessor, prompting the divine wrath of fire and
brimstone.
In the other, left half of the image, Luther is identified as a prophet by the text inscribed
on the pulpit, Alle Propheten zeugen von diesem dz sein ander name unter dem Himel sey (All
prophets testify to this one, that his other name is in the heavens). Luther solemnly places his left
hand on the book of scripture, while his right hand extends to make contact with an outstretched
banderole containing three weightless texts and that concludes in the body and orb of God the
Father in heaven. Reading from above, the first of these texts states, Es ist nur ein Mitler
(There is only one mediator). The text between Christ and the Paschal Lamb reads: Ich bin der
weg Niemant etc.an abbreviation of John 14:16 (I am the way, the truth, the life: no man
cometh unto the father but by me). The third text starts anew with John 19:29, Gibt es ist di
lamb Gottes etc. (Behold, this is the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the World.) A
passage of text to the left of Christs headthe suggestion is that the words emerge from his
mouthreads, Vater heilige sie/Ich heilige und opffere mich fr sie. Mir meinen wunden etc
(Holy Father save them, I sacrificed myself for them with my wounds). Reiterating this
salvific plea the text below reminds the viewer, So, wir sundigen haben wir einen wortsprecher
beim Vater. Darumb last uns gewost zu dem gnadenivol treten (If we sin we have an advocate
before God, so let us turn in consolation to this means of grace). Directly beneath this message,
communion is given to a man and a woman kneeling at the altar table, behind which the crucified
Christ rises above the landscape. To his right we read Matthew 26:27, Trinckt alle daraus
(Drink from it, all of you). The passage from Matthews Gospel is strategically placed to
bridge the scene of the Eucharist to the second sacrament of Luthers churchBaptism. By
picturing the channels by which preachers receive and deliver Gods invisible message and by

104
juxtaposing this invisibility with the wickedly visible mechanisms of salvation institutionalized
by the Catholic church, Kempfs woodcut asserts that Luther and, by extension, reform preachers
in general, are the shepherds of Christ Kingdom, because Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. (Romans 10:17).
Joseph Leo Koerners recent study of Lucas Cranach the Elders (1472-1553) Wittenberg
Altarpiece (1547) offers an excellent introduction to the theological and political underpinnings
of images of Protestant ministry.222 Koerner discusses the wide dissemination of images of
preaching, which he understands as attempts to picture an ideal communicative relationship
between the Protestant minister and his congregation (Gemeinde) of believers. Standing in stark
contrast to the monstrances, papal seals, coins, rosaries, and reliquaries that populate scenes of
Catholic materialism and ritual, printed images of preaching disavow the power of visual
persuasion integral to Catholic practices. No longer dependent on the heilbringende Schau
(salvific display) and the Schaufrmmigkeit (visual piety) of the Catholic Church, the reform
church relies only on wordsthe Scripture and sermonsto convey Christ. The depiction of
these relationships rests on the assumption that a given message can be transmitted immediately
and clearly. Koerners analysis rests on the pivotal declaration that Reformation art was at once
iconic (images continued to play a central role in communicating fundamental religious and
liturgical concerns) and iconoclastic (insofar as the word trumped the image).
Viewed in light of the early sixteenth-century pictorial conventions for and of
representing the act of preaching in the context of the Reformation and of Koerners work, the
Verkehrte Welt Automaton offers a parodic commentary on reform preaching (and its
representation) by way of enacting it. It appears to mock the premise that meaningful
222

Joseph Leo Koerner, The Reformation of the Image (London: Reaktion Books, 2004).

communication can occur between minister and congregation.

105
The object sends an ironic

message: the reformed ministers ability to transfer the Word of God to the populace is
comparable to the apes claim to be able to communicate with deer. What is staged in this
hilltop farce, therefore, is not merely a reinterpreation or simple rephrasing of the printed
catechisms, but an entirely different model of oral transmission that places the Protestant sermon
outside the realm of religiosity. At one level, the automaton parodies and thereby condemns a
social phenomenon and, like other verkehrte Welt imagery, relies on absurdity as a chief comedic
resource. Yet at another level, by twisting the mechanics of Protestant ministry into mindless
repetition and thoughtless gestures, and by representing the audience as an unlikely assemblage
of uninterested and discrete listening bodies, the automaton denies the notion of verbal
efficacyone of, if not the most, crucial components of Luthers Reformation.

THE KINGDOM OF LISTENERS


The office of preaching is second to none in Christendom.223 This statement on the
glorification of preaching was written by Martin Luther and intended for his freshly formed
congregation of Protestants in Wittenberg. Writing in 1522, the young Luther modeled his
sermon, On the Office of Preaching and of Preachers and Hearers, after John 10:1-11in which
Christ recounts the parable of the shepherd.
Verily, verily I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but
climbeth up some other way, is the same as a thief and robber. But he that entereth in by
the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his
voice; and he calleth the sheep by name and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth

223

Martin Luther, The Office of Preaching and of Preachers and Hearers, in The Sermons of Martin
Luther, Vol. III (Grand Rapids: Backer Book House, 1907) 374.

106
his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
And a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him for they know not the voice of
strangers.

Like the Verkehrte Welt Automaton, Luthers sermon could be construed as a warning against
false preachers. Luther knew well that for the Church of Rome, the pulpit served exclusively to
lay down rules of good behavior and proper spiritual actions, since the seven sacraments were
considered the primary mechanisms of salvation. Luthers foundational sermon on the office of
ministry was not inspired by a conviction that the Churchs clergymen were pretenders, however,
but by his belief in the efficacy of the spoken word. Later in the sermon Luther writes: Let it be
called coming when one preaches right; the approach is spiritual, and through the wordupon
the ears of hearers (Hreren), the preacher comes at least into the sheepfoldthe heart of
believers. Christ says that the shepherd must enter the door; that is, preach nothing but Christ,
for Christ is the door onto the Sheepfold.224 Luther reiterated this claim one year later, in the
preface to the Ordnung eines gemeinen Kastens der Gemeine zu Leisnig (1523): Every
householder and his wife shall be duty-bound to cause the wholesome and consoling Word of
God to be preached to them, their children, and their domestic servants, so that the Gospel may
be impressed [eingebildet] on them for their betterment.225 The reformer further refined this
notion at the end of his career, in a sermon on the Eighth Psalm, penned in 1545, where he states:
Christs kingdom is a hearing-kingdom, not a seeing kingdom; for the eyes do not lead and
guide us to where we know and find Christ, but rather ears do this.226 In emphasizing the
exchange between the preacher (speaker) and the congregation (hearers) Luther proposes that
224

Ibid: 376.
D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesammtausgabe (Weimar Ausgabe) Vol. 12 (Weimar: Hermann
Bhlaus Nachfolger, 1884), 1-30. From here on the Gesammtausgabe will be abbreviated WA.
226
WA LI, 11
225

107
oral communicationwho says what to whom in what channel with what effectis a salvific
mechanism.227 Luthers advocacy of the pulpit did not fall on deaf ears. In the words of Robert
Scribner, for Protestants, hearing the Word became virtually a third Sacrament alongside
Baptism and the Lords Supper.228
The notion that preaching was a means of mass communication to reach a religious base
is not Luthers own; it was already mobilized in the late fourteenth, fifteenth, and early sixteenth
centuries by charismatic figures such as Jan Hus (1369-1415) and Geiler von Keyserberg (14451510).229 What is novel about Luthers approach, and what makes it so pivotal in the rise of the
modern evangelical movement, is the devotion of the preacher to his congregation and his ability
to transmit a message (Christ) with utmost simplicity for comprehension by all.230

In 1541

Luther wrote:
Cursed be every preacher who aims at lofty topics in the church.When I preach here I
adapt myself to the circumstances of the common people. I do not look at the doctors and
masters of whom scarcely forty are present, but at the hundred or thousand young people
and children. It is to them that I preach, to them that I devote myself, for they too need to
understand. If the others do not want to listen, they can leave we preach in public for
the sake of plain people. Christ could have taught in a profound way, but he wished to

227

Harold Dwight Lasswell, The Structure and Function of Communication in Society, in Lyman
Bryson, ed., The Communication of Ideas (New York: Harper & Row, 1948) (must check on page number.)
228

Robert Scribner, Oral Culture and the Diffusion of Reformation Ideas, History of European Ideas, Vol.
5, No. 3 (1984) 238.
229

In addition to charismatic figures such Hus and von Keyserberg, numerous itinerant preachers predicted
the end of days to rapt audiences. The phenomenon was so widespread that in 1513 the Lateran Council prohibited
preaching on such matters. Andrew Cunningham and Ole Peter Grell, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse:
Religion, War, Famine, and Death in Reformation Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) 1.
230

Patrick T. Ferry, Confessionalization and Popular Preaching: Sermons Against Synergism in


Reformation Saxony, The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 28 No. 4 (Winter 1997) 1144.

108
deliver his message with the utmost simplicity in order that the common people might
understand.231

The sermon was thus a practical means of impressing Christ on the laity. Words convey pure
grace and enable its passage from Christ to his flock. Luther thus endows preachers with
spiritual authority and listeners with the ability to comprehend and retain Scriptures message
and in turn makes them the direct recipients of Gods Word, thereby saving them.
In formulating this radical salvific mechanism, Luther had to contend with eight hundred
years of eloquent church writing concerning the inability of language to articulate the sacred
mysteries of the established church. For theologians and mystics such as Augustine, Hildegard
von Bingen, and Meister Eckhart, to name but a few, language was not only insufficient for
capturing the ineffability of the mysteries of the Church; it was also vulnerable to distortion,
opacity, and faulty transmission.232 Sight, touch, and taste, for the Church in Rome, were the
primary tools the layperson possessed to understand immanence and achieve salvation.233
Consuming the host, witnessing the weeping cult statue, handling a relic, praying before an
altarpiece of Christ, the Virgin or a saint, beholding the monumental sacred architecture: these
experiences proclaimed the Praesentia of the Catholic Church, stood as evidence of the efficacy
231

WA, 35:235

232

A. Loth, Augustine on Language, Literature and Theology, Vol. 3 No.2 (Spring, 1989) 151-158. See
also Norman Tanner and Sethina Watson, Least of the Laity: the minimum requirements for a medieval Christian,
Journal of Medieval History, Vol. 32 (2006) 395-423; Berndt Hamm, Normative Centering in the Fifteenth and
Sixteenth Centuries: Observations on Religiosity, Theology, and Iconology, trans. John M. Frymire, Journal of
Early Modern History, Vol. 3 No.4 (1999) 315-323; and Alois M. Haas, Sermo mysticus: Studien zu Theologie und
Sprache der deutschen Mystik (Freiburg: Universttsverlag, 1979.).
233

These crucial aspects of devotion in the late medieval church have been called heilbringende Schau
(salvific display) by A.L. Meyer. See, A.L. Meyer, Die heilbringend Schau in Sitte und Kult, in Heilige
berlieferung: Festschrift fr I. Herwegen (Mnster, 1938). For a more recent and seminal work on the topic see
Berndt Hamm, Frmmigkeit als Gegenstand theologiegeschichtlicher Forschung: Methodisch-historische
berlegungen am Beispiel von Sptmittelalter und Reformation, Zeitschrift fr Theologie und Kirche, Vol. 74
(1977) 464-497. I thank Richard Kieckhefer for suggesting them both to me.

109
of its rites, and validated the sacred economy on which the institution relied. Language and all
of its explanatory, exorcistic, and transubstantiative powers was restricted to the ordained. For
instance, the translation of the Canon into the vernacular was prohibited.234 Protestant authors
often discussed the Catholic Churchs silence in their sermons on salvific matters. In 1566
Johann Mathesius published a sermon on Luthers life; he reports that before he was introduced
to Luther and his teachings he was ignorant of the significance of the Eucharist: I know for
certain that, before I came to Wittenberg, I never in my lifetime learned of the forgiveness and
comfort that one gets by consuming the body and blood of Christ in faith; neither in church or in
school was a word heard recollecting this.235
Counter-Reformation propaganda signals the churchs distrust of both the laitys ability
to comprehend the proceedings and of preaching in general. One fascinating response to Luthers
elevation of the office of preaching and the spoken word belongs to the early phase of CounterReformation indoctrination. In the title page of the priest and humanist Johann Cochlaeuss
(1479-1552) Vom Hochwirdigen Sacrament des Altars (1529), Hans Brosamer (1550-1555), a
precocious student of Lucas Cranach the Elder, casts Luther as the seven-headed hydra from the
Book of Revelation (fig. 46).236 What is most crucial about this image, however, is not that it
renders Luther as an apocalyptic figure, but rather the claims it makes about the reformers
ability to convey Scriptures message. Each of the seven heads portrays Luther as a different

234

One commentary on the Canon reads: It is unseemly that the laity should be concerned with these
things. Quoted by Koerner, 352
235
236

Ibid 352

For an excellent discussion of this and other prints of clerical figures in the guise of the red dragon and
other beasts of the apocalypse, see Christiane Andersson, Polemical Prints in Reformation Nuremberg, in New
Perspectives on the Art of Renaissance Nuremberg: Five Essays, ed. Jeffrey Chipps Smith (Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1985) 48-59.

110
personadoctor, saint, infidel, priest, zealot, bureaucrat, and Barrabas. By throwing the stability
of Luthers identity into question and by equating these different guises with the head of the red
dragon of Johns revelation, the title page attempts to undermine Luthers spiritual, theological,
and political authority. Yet insofar as this print endeavors to demonstrate (among other things)
the religious leaders hypocrisy, it also makes a broader claim about the act of preaching. Poised
frontally, Luther grasps the Gospel, from which all of his various heads preach. The cacophony
of voices transforms the red dragon of revelations into a monster of confusion.237
Furthermore, the composition implies that reformer is directly addressing the viewer, rendering
the viewer the audience of Luthers Babel. Like the Verkehrte Welt Automaton, the print
represents the breakdown of communicationparadoxically, by way of a sermonizing figure.
As I aim to show in the concluding sections of this chapter, the prominent display of the
automaton in the Kunstkammer of the Wittelsbach dukes resonates in the context of attempts to
undermine the Reformations verbal regimea cultural gesture aligned with the political
attempts on the part of the Wittelsbach dukes to impair the spread of the Reform movement in
their territorial state.

THE BAVARIAN CATHOLIC RENEWAL


In February of 1519, two years after Martin Luther confronted the Catholic church with
his Ninety-Five Theses (1517), Hans Schober, a printer in Munich, published his Sermon oder
Predigt von der Betrachtung des Heiligen Leidens Christi (1519).238

237

Luthers sermon on the

I am borrowing this phrase from Joseph Leo Koerner. Joseph Leo Koerner, The Moment of SelfPortraiture in German Renaissance Art (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993) 60.
238

WA 2: 132.

111
fruit of Christs suffering (Frucht des Leidens Christi) was the first Protestant tract published in
the southern German territory of Bavaria. Two years later, in the city of Landshut, the priest and
printer Johann Weienburger published a detailed report of Luthers appearance at the Diet of
Worms, which occurred on 16 April 1521an epic public performance where the reformer
refused, before the young emperor Charles V and the entire Reichstnde, to recant his polemical
avowal of sola fide and unabashedly denied the authority of the pope.239 Weienburgers
dramatic and widely circulated account of Luthers unprecedented stand opened the proverbial
floodgates. Protestant texts and wandering preachers inundated the rural duchy of Bavaria.240
Such a dramatic shift in the religious landscape did not go unnoticed. On Ash Wednesday 1522,
the conjoint rulers of the territory Dukes Ludwig X and Wilhelm IV issued a new ordinance
decreeing that followers of Luther were forbidden within their realm.241 To the dismay of
Protestants in and outside of Bavaria, the brothers acted zealously toward this end.
Enforcement of the ordinance began immediately, and all individuals who were rumored
to have Protestant sympathies were subject to expulsion. In 1522 Wolf Ru, a chaplan in Neutting, was forced to flee to Ulm after the Archbishop of Salzburg, Matthus Lang von
Wellenberg (1469-1540), caught wind that Ru had publicly claimed the pilgrimage shrine of
Our Lady at Alttting to be a heidnischen Kult.242 Reformers were accused of heresy, put on

239

On Weienburgers publication see, Claus-Jrgen Roepke, Die evangelische Bewegung in Bayer im 16.
Jahrhundert, in Hubert Glaser ed., Beitrge zur Bayerischen Geschichte und Kunst, 1573-1657 (Mnchen: Hirmer
Verlag, 1980) 101. On the various publications of Berichte (reports) of Luthers appearance at the Diet of Worms
in 1521 see WA: Vol.7, 814-824.
240

On the movement of reformation preachers in the second and third decades of the sixteenth century, see
R.W. Scribner, Preachers and People in the German Towns, in Popular Culture and Popular Movements in
Reformation Germany (London: Hambledon Press, 1987) 123-143.
241

Dieter Albrecht, Bayern und die Gegenreformation, in Hubert Glaser ed., Beitrge zur Bayerischen
Geschichte und Kunst, 1573-1657 (Mnchen: Hirmer Verlag, 1980) 13.
242
Roepke (1980): 103.

112
trial, deprived of their property, dismissed from their positions, and publicly humiliated. Just one
year after the Ru affair, a young professor at the University of Ingolstadt, Arsacius Seehofer,
was arrested for his proto-Philippist lectures on Pauls Epistles, forced publicly to recant
seventeen articles of evangelical teaching, and imprisoned in a Benedictine monastery in Ettal.243
Responding to the public abasement and seizure of Seehofer, Argula von Grumbach (ne von
Stauf) (1492-1554), a noblewoman from Ingolstadt, published a letter addressed to the Bavarian
dukes and the university, in which she criticized the state and universitys treatment of the
professor. Von Grumbachs command of scripture (she cites and discusses over 80 passages in
the letter) was praised by Luther himself in Wider das blind und toll Verdammni der seibenzehn
Artikel von der elenden Schndlichen Universitt zu Ingolstadt ausgangen (1524). Shortly
thereafter she became widely known among Protestants as the neuen Judith. Anxious over
von Grumbachs popularity, Ludwig X and Wilhelm IV, aided by the conservative theologian
(and later inquisitor) Johannes Eck (1486-1543), instigated a smear campaign, in which von
Grumbach was repeatedly referred to as the schndlich Weib.244
In Bavaria, then, the persecution, prosecution, and expulsion of Protestants was
sanctioned from above, for the first time in German speaking lands.245 The Wittelsbach dukes
saw the reform movement as a threat to the homogenous and docile inhabitants of their realm.
The purge of the Protestants continued into the reign of Duke Albrecht V, alongside a new

243

Martin Brecht, Martin Luther: Zweiter Band: Ordnung und Abgrenzung der Reformation 1521-1532
(Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1986) 88-89.
244

Peter Matheson, Introduction, in Peter Matheson ed., Argula von Grumbach: A Womans Voice in the
Reformation (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1995) 21-24.
245

R. Po-Chia Hsia, Social Discipline in the Reformation: Central Europe 1550-1750 (New York:
Routledge, 1989) 40.

113
initiative to disable reformers ability to communicate with other like-minded individuals.246 In
1558 Albrecht V issued an ordinance that decreed:
Henceforth no bookseller, whoever he may be, resident or alien, may secretly or openly
peddle or seek books, be they in Latin or German, that deal with theological matters, in
which the Holy Scriptures are discussedand interpreted, or [books] that defend this or
that teaching and confession; likewise no books or hymnals[are to be] brought into the
land except for those printed in the following cities and country: Munich, Ingolstadt,
Dillengen, Mainz, Cologne, Freiburg in Breisgau, Innsbruck, Paris, Lyon, Venice, Rome,
Florence, Bologna, Antwerp, Louvain, and Spain.247
Not only did Albrecht attempt to thwart the circulation of Protestant texts in Bavaria; he also
policed the flow of persons. Merchants in Munich were not permitted to travel to confessionally
mixed cities such as Augsburg, Nuremberg, and Regensburg.248 In addition, individuals caught
crossing Bavarian borders to attend Protestant services were fined fifty to one hundred florins.249
Nor were Bavarian students granted permission to attend Protestant universities, such as
Wittenburg and Leipzig in Saxony, and when students did leave Bavaria to study it was required
that they present proof of their matriculation at Catholic institutions.250

246

On book censorship in Bavaria throughout the sixteenth century see K. Heigel, Die Censure in
Altbaiern, Archiv fr Geschichte des deutschen Buchandels, Vol. 1 (1876) 5-32.
247

As quoted in Hsia (1989): 91. In 1558 Albrecht V also appointed the uncompromising Simon Eck to
serve as his personal chancellor. Throughout Ecks tenure as chancellor he urged Albrecht to ignore the pleas of the
Protestant and align himself more closely with Rome and the Jesuits. See W. Gtz, Die Bayerische Politik im ersten
Jahrzehnt der Regierung Herzog Albrecht V von Bayern (Munich: M. Riegersche Universitts Buchhandlung,
1895) 110-115.
248

Roepke (1980): 105.

249

Rler, Geschichte und Strukturen der evangelischen Bewegung (Nrnberg: Verein fr Bayerische
Kirchengeschichte, 1966) 176 (must check this)
250

Although this was decreed it was extremely difficult to enforce. We have records of several Protestant
preachers in Bavaria, who attended university in Wittenburg.

114
In addition to suppressing and weeding out heretics the Wittelsbach dukes began
forging closer ties with Rome and the Jesuits. 1549 witnessed the first push of the Society of
Jesus into the territorial state. Wilhelm IV called on the order that year to take over the faculty
and curriculum at the University of Ingolstadt. This was quickly followed by the establishment
of Jesuit schools in Landshut, Landsberg, Munich, Dillingen, Straubing, Alttting, and
Ebersberg.251 In the course of the Jesuits programmatic infiltration of the Bavarian educational
system the Collegium Germanicum was established in Rome. Founded in 1552 by Pope Julius
III (1487-1555) with the help of Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), the institution was devoted to
the theological training of future German priests.252 In 1553, Cardinal Giovanni Morone (15091580), an ecclesiastical official who oversaw the seminary, wrote to Albrecht V: It seems to me
that His Holiness was well disposed in the deliberations to found this college because like the
Trojan Horse, many brave men will come forth from it, who, fired with Divine Grace, will
convert parts of Germany or at least preserve those parts that are now Catholic.253 With the
education of Bavarias future priests and Catholic reformers underway, Albrecht V turned his

251

In an address to the city of Munich during the founding of Jesuit Gymnasium, Albrecht V stated: Wir
finden ie lenger ie mer, das die patres von der societe mit iren Fleis grossen Nuz in unserm Lande schaffen, da auch
ir Soceitet aus den Gnaden Gottes an gueten Leuten von Tag zu Tag wachst und zuenimbt, da hergegen andere
orden schier all abnemen, derwegen Wir nit ungeneigt weren, mit Zulassung der Bpstl. Heylichkeit und der
Ordinarien iedes Orts inen mer Clster un unserem Land enzugeben. Albrecht (1980): 17.
252

Francesco C. Cesareo, The Collegium Germanicum and the Ignatian Vision of Education, The
Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 24 No. 4 (Winter, 1993) 829.
253

As quoted in Hsia (1989): 46. Indeed, the Collegium Germanicum was successful in winning back many
of the individuals who had left the Catholic faith. In 1594 an anonymous Protestant preacher expressed his
contempt for the institution: The German college at Rome is a hotbed singularly favorable for developing the worst
kind of Jesuitry. Our young Germans are educated there gratuitously; and at the end of their studies they are sent
home to restore papistry to its former place and fight for it with all their might. You find them exercising the
ministry in a great number of collegiate churches and parishes. They became the advisors of the bishops and even
archbishops; and we see these Jesuits under our very eyes defending the Catholic cause with such zeal that we
Evangelicals may well ask ourselves in what lands and in what towns such fervent zeal for the beloved Gospel is
found among our own party. They seduce so many souls from us that it too distressing even to enumerate them.
Quoted from Nothgedrungene Erinnerungen in Thomas J. Campbell, The Jesuits 1534-1921: A History of the
Society of Jesus from its Foundation to the Present Time (New York: Encyclopedia Press, 1921) 1: 66.

115
attention to extending his influence in Catholic dioceses in and outside of Bavaria. In 1564 the
Dukes twelve-year-old son, Ernst (1554-1612), was elected bishop in the diocese of Freising.
Later the adolescent became the Bishop of Hildesheim, Lige, Halberstadt, Mnster and in 1583
he was elected Archbishop of Colognethe most powerful Catholic office in the Holy Roman
Empire.254 Just three years after Ernst took control in Freising, Philipp, Albrechts three-year-old
son, was elected bishop of Regensburg, placing the diocese directly under the dukes regency.
The Pope himself affirmed Albrechts gestures toward the Church when he told Otto von
Truchse, bishop of Augsburg, that the love he felt for Albrecht brought tears to his eyes (das
Wasser in die Augen geschossen).255
While busily allying himself with Rome, Albrecht also developed a greater interest in the
salvation of his Kinder and promoted Bavaria as a sacral community.256 In 1570 he formed the
Bavarian Clerical Council (Geistlicher Rat). Composed of ecclesiastical and secular officials,
the council ensured that Catholic doctrine was strictly followed by parish priests and persons in
the dukes government. For instance, the council coerced priests into documenting the frequency
of confession and communion among their parishioners, especially those with noble blood and
ties to the court. Pilgrimage sites, such as Andechs, Inchenhofen, and Alttting, were revived
after lying dormant during the first half of the sixteenth centuryto encourage widespread

254

During Ernsts time in Cologne four electors of the Holy Roman Empire were Catholic (Mainz, Trier,
Bohemia, and Cologne) and three electors (Saxony, Brandenburg, and Palatinate) were Protestant. It should also be
noted that during Ernests tenure in Cologne, 1583 to 1612, fewer than one third of the imperial cities represented at
Imperial Diets were Catholic.
255

In a letter to Albrecht Kardinal Truchse wrote: wie auf hchst Ihre Heiligkeit ein dankbares
Wohlgefallen ob Ew. Liebden gehabt haben, also da Ihrer Heiligkeit das Wasser in die Augen geschossen As
quoted by Albrecht (1980): 17.
256

Albrecht, likening himself to the illustrious Charlemagne, deliverer of the pagan German tribes into
Christianity, assured the Bishop Otto von Truchse from Augsburg that he would not rest until he accomplished,
was Carolus Magnus gethan, wie er eben diesel an a paganismo ad fidem catholicam gebracht. Ibid: 18

116
devotion and provide, in the words of the Bavarian court priest Johann Rabus, spiritual
medicines for heretical poison.257 Pilgrimage books, for example Martin Eisengreins
Unserliebe Fraw zu alten Oetting. Das ist Von der Uralten, heyligen Capellen unser lieben
Frawen unnd dem Fuerstlichen Stifft (1571), chronicled the repeated miracles performed at
shrines in Bavaria, and urged the laity to travel to them and bestow benefaction on the cult.258
Bolstering Eisengreins account of the Marian shrine at Alttting, Albrecht V testified to the
sanctity of the site in print. According to the duke, in the summer of 1568 he was caught in the
gales of a storm on the Abersee. Fearful of death by drowning he prayed to the Virgin, and
swore that if rescued from the tempest, he would make a pilgrimage to her shrine at Alttting.
Having emerged from the storm unscathed, Albrecht, clothed in nothing more than a sackcloth,
wound his way to Alttting and presented the Virgin twenty-one silver figures of saints, a
communion service, altar cloths, and embroidered vestments and hangings for her shrine.259 For
the Wittelsbachs in the second half of the sixteenth century, then, few other concerns trumped
the establishment of a mono-confessional state. The central motivation for this mission was
precisely the conviction that a singular confession would secure the bindingthe religioof
people to society.

CONCLUSION

257

As quoted by Philip M. Soergel, Wonderous in His Saints: Counter-Reformation Propaganda in Bavaria


(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993) 161.
258

Ibid: 160-167.

259

Maria Angela Knig, Weihegaben an U.L. Frau von Alttting von Beginn der Wahlfahrt bis zum
Abschluss der Skularisation, Vol. 2 (Munich: Lenter, 1940) 73-76.

117
Given the Counter-Reformation court and confessional and political atmosphere in which
the Verkehrte Welt Automaton was made, and the nature and imagery of widespread images of
pupiteering, the automaton no longer seems quite so strange. What is most astonishing about the
Verkehrte Welt Automaton, however, is the manner in which it invokes and rephrases this
preaching imagery. The protestant minister becomes an animated golden ape; the congregation is
transformed into resplendent indifferent deer; and the reformed church, implausibly, is supported
by a hilly mound of trees. By these transpositions, the Verkherte Welt automaton suggests that
the event it enacts is itself preposterous. By means of an internal mechanism that animates the
object, it attempts to engender speech itself; it vilifies repetition, demonstrates the routinization
of charisma, manifests the emptiness of preaching, and signals the impotence of communication.
There is more. The objects bewildering imagery, setting, and silence is amplified by the fact
that it addresses the beholder as if she were party to the incomprehensible sermon. We become
passive auditors bemused by the objects action, just as the Catholic Church and, by extension,
the Wittelsbach dukes construed the simple folk. Thus, as a representational machine, the
automaton provided an arena wherein convictions such as the primacy of the sermon in
conveying Christ could be rejected. But unlike Brosamers The Seven Heads of Martin Luther,
the Verkehrte Welt Automaton does not make this claim unambiguously. Whereas Brosamer,
like the majority of Reformation and Counter-Reformation propaganda, relied on the presence of
the printed word to, in the words of R.W. Scribner, spell out its message, the Verkehrte Welt
Automaton relied on its imagery, composition, and most of all its animation.260 Remarkably,
what we are approaching here, then, is a phenomenon of communication: a silent object that,

260

Scribner (1981): 11.

118
without the incorporation of alphabetical writing, is able to convey the fallibilities of verbal
communication.

119
HAPSBURG-OTTOMAN DIPLOMATIC MACHINERY: AUTOMATA AND THE
TRKENVERERHRUNG

In 1590 the Bohemian Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw (d. ca. 1613), an imperial envoy to
Constantinople, described four automata that Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II (1552-1612) had
given to Ottoman Sultan Murad III (1546-1595) as tribute. Wratislaw wrote of:
a clock in the shape of a tower upon the striking of which, Turkish Jugglers, in the
different rooms, ran about and peeped out; another striking clock of chased work; a large
square clock, a masterpiece of art, upon the striking whereof Turks ran out, mounted on
horses and fought, and then, when it left off striking went again; a long clock, on which
stood a wolf, carrying a goose in his mouth, on the striking of which the wolf fled, and a
Turk hastened after him with his gun ready to shoot, and when the last stroke was about
to strike, shot at the wolf; a large square smooth clock, on the top of which a Turk turned
his eyes when it struck, moved his head and mouth.261
Although those four automata are now lost, five other automata representing Turks have
survived the sixteenth century. Scholars agree that these automata, like those Wratislaw escorted
to Constantinople, were intended to be given as tribute to high-ranking Ottoman officials during
the second half of the sixteenth century.262 They are now referred to as the Turkish Automaton
(ca. 1580 Innsbruck, Kunsthistorisches Museum) (fig. 47); the Sultan on Horseback (ca. 1570

261

Wenceslas Wratislaw, The Adventures of Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz in the Turkish Capital of
Constantinople . . ., trans. A.H. Wratislaw (London: Bell and Daldy, 1862 ), 64.
262

Klaus Maurice, Die deutsche Rderuhr. Vols. 1-2. (C.H. Beck: Mnchen, 1976 ), 667-670, Otto Kurz,
European Clocks and Watches in the Near East (London: The Warburg Institute University of London, 1975) and
Gottfried Mraz, The Role of Clocks in the Imperial Honoraria for the Turks, in Klaus Maurice and Otto Mayr eds.
The Clockwork Universe (Washington: Smithsonian Museum of Art, 1980), 37-48. That gifts intended for the
Ottomans remained in collections in the Holy Roman Empire is attested by the fact that the 1578 inventory of Holy
Roman Emperor Maximilian IIs possessions records two watches von der Trckhischen Verehrung uberblieben
along with several silver vessels and a clock with a glass case. Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des
Allerhchsten Kaiserhauses. Vol. 13 (1892), XCI ff. No. 490, No. 623 and No. 176

120
Dresden, Mathematisches und Physicalische Salon) (fig. 48); the Sultan on Horseback (ca. 1570
Moscow, The Kremlin Museum) (fig. 49); the Sultan on Horseback (ca. 1580 Vienna,
Kunsthistorisches Museum) (fig. 6); and the Pashas on Horseback (ca. 1585 Newark, the
Newark Museum of Art.) (fig.49).263
All of the surviving objects, like those listed by Wratislaw, mirrored, by their subject
matter, their intended audience. Not only do they portrayin gold and silvermustachioed
figures clad in caftans, wielding swords and crowned with turbans, but the performance of the
animated figures would have been familiar to their recipients as well. Remarkably, all of the
surviving automata, and many of those listed in diplomatic accounts of imperial ambassadors
who traveled to Constantinople, display scenes of Turks in ceremonial processions.264 These
remarkable cross-cultural diplomatic gifts, the focus of this chapter, are invaluable for our
understanding of the diplomatic relationship forged between the Holy Roman Empire and the
Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century.
The automata discussed here are but a fraction of scores of automata, clocks, and
precious vessels that were given as diplomatic tribute payment by Holy Roman Emperors to
263

The Turkish Automaton is first mentioned in the inventory of the Archducal Kunstkammer at Schlo
Ambras in 1619. Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhchsten Kaiserhauses. Vol. 20 (1899 ),
LXXXI no. 1784. C. Leitner, ed. Katalog der Sammlung fr Plastik und Kunstgewerbe (Wien: Kunsthistoriches
Museum, 1966 ), 42 no. 77 and Elisabeth Scheicher and Alfred Auer eds. Kunsthistoriches Museum, Sammlungen
Schloss Ambras. Die Kunstkammer. (Innsbruck: Kunsthistoriches Musem, 1977 ), 49. An Italian diplomat described
the object in his account of the Kunstkammer in 1659: uno che rappresenta Maometto secondo Imperatore de
Turchi a cavallo. Il Turco doro massiccio, il cavallo dargento: e quando vuol battere le ore muove tutte due le
gambe davanti a guisa di Corbetta, e manda fuori dall bocca e dale nari tanti nitriti, quanti esser dovriano li tocchi
delle ore, fu donato dal Turco a Mattia Imperatore. As quoted by Otto Kurz, European Clocks and Watches in the
Near East. (London: The Warburg Institute University of London, 1975 41 no. 2 the original text can be found in G.
Campori, Lettere aristiche inedite.( Modena: Soliani, 1866 ), 113. Philip Hainhofer recorded a the automaton of a
Turkish Sultan in the Dresden Kunstkammer during his visit in 1629 Des Augsburger Patricier Philip Hainhofer
Reisen nach Innsbruck und Dresden, in Oscar Doering ed., Quellenschrifft fr Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttechnik
des Mittelalter und der Neuzeit. Wien: (Verlag von Carl Graser und Co., 1901 ), 173. To my knowledge, there exist
no contemporary references to the automata in Vienna, Newark, or Moscow.
264

A.H. Loebl in, Zur Geschichte der Trkenkriege von 1593-1606 (C.H. Beck: Mnchen, 1899 ),
Appendix A and B.

121
Ottoman officials between 1547 and 1593. A result of a peace treaty signed by Archduke
Ferdinand I (1503-1564) and Sultan Slyeman the Magnificent (1494-1566) on July 19, 1547,
this transfer of wealth and goods was referred to by German speakers as the Trkenvererhrung or
the Turkish gifts.265 A diplomatic euphemism, the expression implied that the Hapsburg
rulersArchduke Ferdinand I (later Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I (r. 1558-1564), Holy
Roman Emperor Maximilian II (1527-1576, r. 1564-1576), and Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph
II (1552-1612, r. 1576-1612)willingly gave unreciprocated gifts to the Ottomans: the rhetoric
attempted to transform the obligatory nature of tribute into an act of disinterested prestation.
The Trkenvererhrung has been amply studied by historians and art historians of the
early modern periodall of whom have tended to view the tribute as a means to cement
Hapsburg-Ottoman relations and feed the Ottoman elites demand for luxury goods. Examples
of such interpretations include Otto Kurzs European Clocks and Watches in the Near East
(1975); Gottfried Mrazs The Role of Clocks in the Imperial Honoraria for the Turks (1980); J.
Michael Rogers The Gorgeous East: Trade and Tribute in the Islamic Empires (1991); Lisa
Jardines Worldly Goods (1996); and Julian Rabys The Serenissima and the Sublime Port: Art
in the Art of Diplomacy (2007).266 What such accounts lack, though, is an in-depth analysis of
the automata and their fascinating imagery.

Why were these objects, so crucial to the

265

Verehrung is the modern German spelling of the term. The late middle-German spelling is
vereegung. It is also interesting to note that in certain contexts, the term verehrung is also a synonym for
reverence (reverentz).
266

Otto Kurz, European Clocks and Watches in the Near East (London: The Warburg Institute University
of London, 1975 ), and Gottfried Mraz, The Role of Clocks in the Imperial Honoraria for the Turks, in Klaus
Maurice and Otto Mayr eds. The Clockwork Universe (Washington: Smithsonian Museum of Art, 1980 ), 37-48. J.
Michael Rogers, The Gorgeous East: Trade and Tribute in the Islamic Empires, in Circa 1492: Art in the Age of
Exploration, ed. Jay A. Levenson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991 ), Lisa Jardine, Worldly Goods
(London: Macmillan, 1996 ), Julian Raby, The Serenissima and the Sublime Port: Art in the Art of Diplomacy, in
Venice and the Islamic World 828-1797, ed. Stefano Carboni, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007).

122
maintenance of peace and the well-being of the Holy Roman Empire, manufactured in the form
of Ottoman Types? While it may seem unusual that the automata represented Turks, this
was the case for most, if not all, of the figurative works sent to Constantinople on behalf of the
Holy Roman Empire during the period of the Trkenvererhrung. Presenting Ottomans with
three-dimensional images of themselves had no parallel in diplomacy among Christian
sovereigns. Lifelike and sculptural objects (objects that cast shadows) were explicitly proscribed
by the Hadith. Unlike the Koran, which does not openly prohibit lifelike images, several
passages in the Hadith claim that makers of mimetic works unlawfully compete with the creative
acts of Allah, and that the improper use of mimetic objects can lead to idolatry.267 Moreover,
the transportation of automata was greatly hindered by their very constitution. Unlike textiles,
jewelry, books, goblets, medallions, and paintingsconventional diplomatic giftsautomata
were generally heavy, voluminous, and breakable. They were not easily conveyed over long
distances and thus were ill-suited as gifts with which envoys could travel. How were automata
that represented Turks supposed to function in the Ottoman-Hapsburg diplomatic theater? It is
remarkable that in the research on the Trkenvererhrung, not only is there almost nothing written
directly on the automata, let alone their particular form of mimicry, but the problem of why they
were considered appropriate and efficacious has not been addressed explicitly.
Informed by recent interest in cross-cultural diplomatic prestation, this chapter
documents the role automata played in Hapsburg-Ottoman diplomacy in the context of the
Trkenvererhrung, and it analyzes the importance Hapsburg rulers placed on automata in the
267

There are two instances in the Koran where image use is questioned. Sura 21:53-55 and Sura 42: 9-11.
Numerous passages in the Hadith deplore the use of lifelike two- and three- dimensional images, for instance
Bukhari Vol. 4 55:71 and Bukhari Vol. 7 62:110. For an excellent summation of Islamic image prohibition and its
probable origins see, Erica Cruikshank Dodd, The Image of the Word: Notes on the Religious Iconography of
Islam, in Eva R. Hoffman, ed. Late Antique and Medieval Art of the Mediterranean World (London: Blackwell,
2005), 185-189.

123
diplomatic theater in the second half of the sixteenth century. It relates how the rulers of the
Holy Roman Empire negotiated their subordinate position in a diplomatic milieu.268 I argue that
the automata that formed part of the tribute payment can be understood not as mere luxury goods
or (to borrow Arjun Appadurais phrase) potential commodities that helped maintain the status
quo, but as objects that redefined the diplomatic encounter between the Ottoman and Holy
Roman Empires.269 I do this by dwelling on the objects ability to mimic Ottoman processions, a
mimicry that betrays reverence (Vererhrung) and troubles the stability of the east-west
opposition featured in much of the scholarship on encounters between Christendom and Islam.
THE TRKENVERERHRUNG
The peace agreement established between Sultan Slyeman and Archduke Ferdinand was
the product of seventeen years of negotiations concerning control of the kingdoms of Bohemia
and Hungary.270 In the end, Ferdinand was permitted to rule Habsburgisch Ungarn and the
Knigreich Bhem, while Slyeman controlled what sixteenth-century German speakers referred
to as Osmanisch Ungarn and the Siebenbrgen (fig. 51).271 A crucial component of this peace

268

Natasha Eaton has attempted to understand this phenomenon in her examination of the diplomatic gift
exchanged between the English East India Company and the Mughal Court in late eighteenth-century India. See,
Natasha Eaton, Between Mimesis and Alterity: Art gift and diplomacy in colonial India, in Michael J. Franklin
ed., Romantic Representations of British India (London and New York: Routledge, 2006 ), 84-112.
269

Arjun Appadurai, Introduction: commodities and the politics of value, in The Social Life of Things:
Commodities in a cultural perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983 ), 3-63. On the theorization
of agentive objects in cross cultural encounters see, Christopher Pinney, Creole Europe: The Reflection of a
Reflection, Journal of New Zealand Literature, No. 20 (2002), 125-161 especially, 154-157.
270

In 1515 Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) saw an opportunity to eastwardly expand the
empire. He brokered a crucial marriage between his grandson, Ferdinand I to Anne of Bohemia (1503-1547). A
stipulation of the marriage contract stated that upon the death of Annes brother, Louis II (1506-1526) King of
Hungary and Bohemia, the crowns would go to Ferdinand. Maximilian also negotiated a second marriage alliance in
1515, in order to bolster the Hapsburg claim to the throne. He gave the hand of his granddaughter, Mary of
Hungary, to King Louis II. To reference the printed and published reports or Berichte penned by imperial
ambassadors in Constantinople and sent to Ferdinand I, see Anton Gevay ed. Urkunden und Aktenstcke im 16. Und
17. Jahrhundert. Aus Archiven und Bibliotheken (Vienna: sterreiches Nationalarchiv, 1893 ), vols. 1-3.

124
treatyand the condition on which the Hapsburgs were allowed to hold sway over their portion
of Hungary and Bohemiawas the annual payment of 40,000 ducats to the Sultan.272 The treaty
also specified that the peace and the division of land between the two empires could be renewed
every five years, as long as the Austrian princes paid the honorarium in full and on time in
Constantinople.273 The Hapsburgs dutifully satisfied these Ottoman mandates to maintain a
pacific, if often discordant, relationship with the Ottomans until the outbreak of the Trkenkrieg
in 1593. The agreement signed by both Ferdinand I and Slyeman did not stipulate that the gold
coin was to be supplemented by precious objects.274 These addenda or, sweeteners, to the coin
were taken, in accordance with early modern diplomatic practices, as givens.275 Despite the fact
that gifting luxurious objects to a foreign potentate was standard practice in the early modern
diplomatic theater, other aspects of the Trkenvererhrung were unique.
The exceptional nature of the Trkenvererhrung comes into sharp focus when we
consider conventional diplomatic occasions and missions in the early modern period. In the
sixteenth century there were two categories of diplomatic occasions: ceremonies and
271

Habsburgisch Ungarn stretched from Dubrovnik in the south to the tributary of the Vistula (or in
German the Weichsel) river in the north and across Bratislova in the west to present day Miskolc in the east and the
Knigreich Bhem which encompassed modern day Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. These regions
correspond to almost the entire region of the Balkans, with the exclusion of present-day Croatia, and the western of
half of present-day Ukraine. Consequently, the central plains of Hungary were under the control of the Ottomans
and they organized them into frontier provinces (beglergegilik). Halil Inalick, ed. An Economic and Social History
of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994 ), 304.
272

The Ducat was the standard gold coin throughout the empire. It was not, however, imperially sanctioned
until 1566. On average, four silver Gulden was the equivalent of one golden ducat and seventy-two Kreuzern
equaled one Guldin. Gulden, in Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, Bd.7 4 Aufl. (Leipzig: Bibliographisches
Institute, 1885-1892 ), 922.
273

Daniel Goffman, The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2002 ), 73.
274

Loebl (1899): 44.

275

See Lisa Jardine, Worldly Goods (London: Macmillan, 1996) especially Chapter Two The Price Of
Magnificence. 91-132.

125
negotiations. In the former case, a nuncio of the sovereign principal graced a ceremony, such as
a marriage, baptism, coronation, or funeral as a stand-in for his employer. In the latter case a
procurator, who was often a trained jurist, voiced the interests of his principal and arranged,
among other ventures, marriage alliances, terms of war, and trade agreements. Generally, there
were also two forms of diplomatic missions. The first was a singular mission, where an embassy
traveled to a single court to negotiate a dispute or witness a ceremony and then directly returned
to the court of his employer. The second is referred to by historians of diplomacy as a circular
mission, where an envoy traveled to a number of courts without returning to the principals
court for an extended period of time.276 The nature of the diplomatic occasions and missions of
the Trkenvererhrung do not correspond to these standard forms. Rather, the Hapsburg presence
in Constantinople was what M.S. Anderson has termed an Embassy of Obedience.277 That is,
the diplomats representing the Holy Roman Empire were sent to the Sublime Port to affirm the
Ottoman Empires subjugation of the most powerful sovereign in Christendom.

A further

peculiarity of the Trkenvererhrung was the fact that the representatives of the Holy Roman
Empire were resident ambassadors and sometimes lived in Constantinople for decades at a time.
The resident imperial ambassadors had two chief functions: to ceremoniously present the Sultan
and Ottoman officials the tribute payment once a year and to provide the Holy Roman Emperor
with gossip issuing from the center of Ottoman power.278 Throughout the sixteenth century the

276

Anthony Cutler, Gift and Gift Exchange as Aspects of the Byzantine, Arab and Related Economies,
Dumbarton and Oaks Papers, Vol. 55 (2001) 251. On the regularity of the practice of gift giving in an early modern
diplomatic context see, Garrett Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1971 ),
101-107.
277

M.S. Anderson, The Rise of Modern Diplomacy 1450-1919 (London and New York: Longman, 1993 ),

16.

126
Holy Roman Empire had only one other diplomat in residenceat the Papal court in Rome.279
Diplomats sent to other major European powers, such as France, Spain, Venice, and England,
only remained at the courts for short periods of time and then returned to Vienna.
The Trkenvererhrung also differed from other diplomatic engagements in that it was a
unilateral venture; the Turks did not send ambassadors to the imperial court in Vienna.280 The
Ottoman government presented itself as possessing an unshakeable sense of superiority and as
being uninterested in reciprocal diplomatic relations with their powerful adversary.281
Additionally, the imperial diplomat who resided in Constantinople was kept prisoner in his own
home. He was permitted to speak neither with Ottoman citizens nor with individuals attached to
the Sultans court. In one of his Turkish Letters the famed imperial diplomat Ogier Ghiselin de
Busbecq (1521-1592), who resided in Constantinople from 1554 to 1562, describes how, after
being locked in his residence in Constantinople for months, he crafted a battering ram out of a
ceiling beam and tried to break open the locked iron gates guarding the main entrance to his
residencein vain.282 (Of course, diplomats adept at bribery found circuitous ways to acquire
intelligence pertaining to the workings of the Ottoman court and the Sultans military
campaigns.) This oppressive surveillance and control of the German imperial diplomat contrasts

278

The latter portion of the ambassadors duties was taken seriously. The imperial representative was
required to write reports to the Holy Roman Emperor no less than every four days. See Gevay (1893): Vol 1. pgs. iiv.
279

Mattingly (1971): 98.

280

Anderson (1993): 10.

281

It was not until the Hapsburgs and the Ottomans signed the peace of Zsitva-Trok in 1606 that the
Hapsburg ruler was considered equal to the Ottoman Sultan. Inalcik (1994): 423.
282

Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, The Turkish Letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, trans. Edward Seymour
Forster (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005 ), 39

127
starkly with the circumstances of other imperial ambassadors who were incorporated into the
everyday lives of the courts of Christian sovereigns.283
In other ways, too, imperial diplomatic relations with Ottoman court were exceptional.
The volume of gifts sent to Constantinople, for example, far exceeded Hapsburg diplomatic
practices of prestation. In April of 1565 six silver drinking vessels (Trinkgeschirre) were sent to
the Papal court in Rome.284 In August of the same year, an embassy representing the emperor
traveling to Florence was armed with only one pendant, (eine Kette) for Cosimo I de Medici
(1519-1574).285 Three years later, a variety (allerlei) of gilded silver goblets were given to an
imperial envoy travelling to London to bequeath to Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603).286 Compare
these numbers to an account book drafted in 1556 by the Militrzahlmeister in Vienna that lists
over 340 Ottoman individuals, not including the Sultan, who were to receive gold coin, drinking
vessels, small clocks, or automata in that year alone (fig. 52).287

Ottoman officials often

requested additional gifts. For example, in 1549, Ferdinand I personally commissioned an


elaborate silver vessel and armor for the Pasha in Ofen, and seventeen years later Maximilian II
took it upon himself to ensure that an unnamed individual in Constantinople received an extra
clock.288

283

Francois de Callires, The Art of Diplomacy, ed. M.A. Keens-Soper and Karl w. Schweizer (New York:
Leicester University Press, 1983), 56.
284

Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhchsten Kaiserhauses. Vol. 7 (1888), cxix Reg.

4980.
285

Ibid: cxix Reg. 4991.

286

Ibid: cxxvii, Reg. 5113.

287

Wilfried Seipel, Kaiser Ferdinand I. 1503-1564: Das Werden der Habsburgermonarchie (Vienna:
Kunsthistorisches Museum ), 302.

128
To be sure, the Germans were not alone in bestowing resplendent objects on the Sultan
and Ottoman administrators. In 1560 the chief of the Colchians delivered a brilliant ruby that
functioned as a serving vessel and twenty white falcons to Sleymans camp outside of
Edirne.289 Four years earlier, the Persian ambassador had presented the Sultan with carpets of
the finest texture, Babylonian tent-hangings embroidered on either side in various colors, a
harness and trappings of exquisite workmanship, scimitars from Damascus adorned with jewels
and shields of wonderful beauty.290 Venetian Doges and merchants also presented the Ottoman
court with bolts of vibrant textiles, colorful glass, and precious and finely wrought metal work.
For example, in 1584 the Venetian senate granted money to be spent on robes made of cloth-ofgold for the Sultans personal tutor, Hoca Sadeddin (1536-1599) and two of the Sultans sisters.
During the same year a scholar at the Sultans court, by the name of Mehmet, was presented with
windowpanes and glass lamps from the Republic, while the Sultan, an ardent hunter, received
several gyrfalcons. It is noteworthy that the Colchians, Persians, and Venetians gave gifts to
sustain and cultivate mercantile relationships with the Ottoman Empire or to alleviate tensions
over military or political blunders, such as when the Venetians sank Ottoman trading ships off
the coast of the Republic in 1523.291 However, these gifts were not a form of tribute nor were
they annually presented, as was the case with Trkenvererhrung.
288

Dem Nassadistch Obersten Andreas Tarnoczj zu Komorn, welche fr dem Pascha von Ofen als
Geschenke bestimmt sind als: ein silbernes und vergoldetes doppeltes Trinkgeschirr von 4 mark 12 Loth Wiener
Gewicht, das nebst dem dazuhrigen Futteral von mert Pappierer, Goldschmied zu Wien, geliefert wurde, weiters
ein Panzerhemd, wleches von Karl Schwetkhowicz um 175 Gulden rheinisch gekauft wurde. Fr Sammtliche
Objeckte erscheinen 270 Gulden 35 Kreuzer rheinisch in Ausgabe. and Hanns Runckl, Uhrmacher zu Augsburg,
erhlt fr eine Uhr, welcher Kaiser Maximilian II. nachtrglich einer Person in Constsantinople verehrte, 38
Gulden. Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen, vol. 7 (1888 ), CV Reg. 4852 and CXXI Reg. 5019.
289

Ibid: 131

290

Ibid: 62

291

On the Venetian Gifts see, Raby (2007): 94-96.

129
Nor was the Holy Roman Empire the sole provider of clocks and automata to the
Ottoman court. In 1547 the King of France, Francis I (1494-1597), sent Slyeman a clock that
also served as a table fountain.292

In 1583, the first official English ambassador to

Constantinople, William Harborne (1542-1617), gave the Sultan Murad III (1546-1595):
One clocke valued at one hundred pounds steerling: over it was a forest with trees of
silver, among which were deer chased by dogs, and men on horseback following, men
drawing water, others carrying mine oare on barrows: on the toppe of the clocke stood a
castle and on the castle a mill. All of these were of silver. And the clock was round beset
with jewels.293
To cite just more instance, Catherine de Medici gave the widow of Sultan Selim II (1524-1574),
Nur Banu (1525-1583), a clock avoir de figures in 1574.294 Like the Venetian presents, these
gifts were given to promote or solidify trade relationships with the Sultan, as was the case of the
gifts from King Francis I and William Harborne, or they were given on a specific occasion.
Catherine de Medicis present was bestowed on the widowed Sultana during the festivities that
surrounded her husbands funeral.
My brief account of the Trkenvererhrung has called attention to its exceptional role in
sixteenth-century diplomatic and prestation practices. Some questions, however, remain. We do
not know, for example, whether Ottoman sultans desired the automata presented to them by
imperial envoys.295 We do know the Grand Vizier Mehmet Sokollu (1506-1579) betrayed an

292

Kurz (1975) 24.

293

H.G. Rawlinson, The Embassy of William Harborne to Constantinople 1583-8, Transactions of the
Royal Historical Society, 4th series, 5 (1922 ), 7.
294

Kurz (1975): 30 no. 1.

130
interest in aniconic, German clocks. Two drawings of clocks sent from his court to Augsburg
(dated to 1576) have been preserved in Vienna (figs. 53 and 54).296 Each sketch represents an
order for a spherical clock.

Turkish instructions, which had been translated into German,

requested that equal attention be paid to the objects external appearance and internal
mechanisms. It was also specified that small bells strike the hours and be visible through crystal
hemispheres. Finally, the sketches indicated that the clocks silver casing should be richly
ornamented with a swirling foliage motif and banded ornament. According to Otto Kurz and
Gottfried Mraz, several similar requests from high-ranking Ottoman officials survive in the
archives in Vienna.297
At least three letters in the Hofkammerarchiv in Vienna penned by the imperial envoy
David Ungnad (d. ca. 1600) admonish Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II (1527-1576) against
commissioning objects that included modeled metal work (getribne arbeyt), pictorial

295

We do know that starting in 1477, after the Ottomans signed a peace treaty with Venice, Sultans began
requesting aniconic clocks from the Ventians. In Fra Francesco Surianos account of his pilgrimage to the Holy
Land, Il Trattato de Terra Santa e dell Oriente (written in 1479 and published in 1524) he states that Sultan Mehmet
II requested the Signoria of Venice send artisans adept at crafting lenses (christallini), striking clocks (horioli da
sonare) and a good painter (bono dipintore) to Constantinople. It is uncertain if Mehmet commissioned more
clocks. An inventory of the Topkapi Palace Treasury (the Enderun Hazinesi) taken in 1505 lists just one clock
among numerous pieces of Chinese porcelain, chests of ivory, rose-water sprinklers, and a pair of scissors encrusted
with diamonds. According to the Venetian merchant Marino Sanuto, Slyeman also fancied simple, yet
technologically sophisticated, clocks. In a diary entry dated 1531, Sanuto records that he saw a gold ring set with
the face of clock in Venice that was to be sent to the Sultan. Kurz notes that the oft cited passage in Surianos
account does not appear in the manuscript, only in the printed edition of 1524. Ibid: 21-22 no. 2. On the treasury
inventory of 1505, see Cengiz Kseoglu, The Topkapi Saray Museum, trans. J.M. Rogers (Little, Brown and
Company: Boston, 1988), 31. For a discussion of Sanutos diary and its importance in understanding Slyemans
desire for Venetian luxury objects, see Glru Necipoglu, Sleyman the Magnificent and the Representation of
Power in the Context of Ottoman-Hapsburg-Papal Rivalry, Art Bulletin, Vol. 71 No.3 (September 1989 ), 403.
296

Hofkammerarchiv, Vienna, Reichsakten, 190 fols. 855 and 856. This source will be hereafter
abbreviated HKA, RA.
297

Mraz, for instance cites a request made by Ahmad Pasha for aniconic clocks in 1573. The note from the
imperial envoy that accompanied the sketches reads: Ahmed Pasha, who last year vainly awaited clocks made in
the form according to the model he had sent, now asks that in his name we petition your Imperial Majesty that
you order made for and sent two clocks of the form designated by the pattern enclosed. Mraz (180): 43, Kurz
(1975): 25.

131
representations (Pildtwerch), or the phases of the moon (Monschein) for the tribute
offerings.298 The enduring practice of offering animated and figurative objects to the Ottomans
as part of the yearly honorarium is all the more distinctive if we take the preferences of Mehmet
Sokollu, Ungnads letters, and Islamic image prohibition into account.
What happened to the tribute offerings after they were ceremoniously presented to the
Sultan and other Ottoman officials remains unclear. The majority of the tributespecie, clocks,
automata, silver, silver-gilt, and gold vesselswas likely sent directly to the mint to be melted
down, for during the Trkenverehrung Ottoman currency had been severely debased.299 This
hypothesis is supported by the evidence of the first surviving inventory of the Erderun Hazinesi,
the Topkapi Palace Treasury, taken after 1593. Compiled in 1680, the inventory lists only a few
German clocks and astronomical instruments.300

If the automata were not immediately

destroyed for their intrinsic value, it is possible that they were placed in the treasury among the
heathen (gebr) objects, which, according to the incomplete inventory, encompassed paintings,
playing cards, illustrated books, and objects crafted from silver.301 Since no complete inventory
or contemporary account of the Topkapi Palace Treasury dating to the second half of the
sixteenth century survives, the fate of these objects will, perhaps, remain obscure.

TRIBUTE

298

Ein gevierte vhr in dises Papiers grsse, die gerecht sey. Dise vhr solle nuer shlechtlich geez, ohne
Monschein. Pildtwerch oder getribne arbeyt gemacht werden. HKA, RA 190, 854 and 857.
299

Derin Tereziglu, The Imperial Circumcision Festival of 1582: An Interpretation, Murqarnas, Vol. XII

(1995) 86.
300

Kseoglu (1988): 21.

301

Ibid: 23.

132
When an automaton such as the Turkish Automaton was given to an Ottoman official it
acquired the status of tribute, which distinguished it from conventional diplomatic gifts, because
there was no expectation that it would be replaced by a material counter-gift. Tribute was a oneway transaction. The exchange of gifts between rulers in early modern Europe was a regular
practice that was linked to the actual mechanisms of domestic, international, and dynastic
politics. Gifts were exchanged in order, among other things, to secure protection, guarantee
marriages, establish trade agreements, acquire land, and to rise up the governmental ranks. In
short, rulers bestowed gifts on other rulers to create or reaffirm social and political bonds.302
Countless records of gifts of this nature appear in the Rechnungen of the imperial
Hofzahlamt, which recorded all the expenditures of the Holy Roman Emperor. For instance, on
March 7, 1553 Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II paid for two gilded drinking vessels and two
pendants, which were intended to be given to four unnamed government officials in Swabia for
Trkenhilfe.303 On November 10, 1576 Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II bought two clocks
in Augsburg and one in Regensburg for the recently widowed Cathrine de Medici (15191589).304 And nineteen years later, Rudolph sent the Russian Tsar Fyodor I Ivanovich (1557-

302

On giving and receiving gifts in the late medieval and early modern periods see, Natalie Zemon Davis,
The Gift in Sixteenth-Century France (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000) V. Groebner, Liquid Assets,
Dangerous Gifts: Presents and Politics at the End of the Middle Ages (University Park: Pennsylvania State
University Press, 2002) J. Osborne, Entertaining Elizabeth I: The Progress and Great Houses of her Time (London:
Thames and Hudson, 1989), Dagmar Eichberger, The Culture of Gifts: A Courtly Phenomenon from a Female
Perspective, in, Dagmar Eichberger, ed. Women of Distinction: Margaret of York/Margaret of Austria (Leuven:
Brill, 2005), 286-295, J.F. Bestor, Marriage Transactions in Renaissance Italy and Mausss Essay on the gift, Past
and Present, Vol. 164 (1999), 6-46.
303

March 7, 1553 Von dem Brger zu Ulm Michael Reichart wurden zwei vergoldete Trinkgeshirre um
202 Gulden 30 Kreuzer rheinisch und zwei goldene Ketten zu je 100 Kronen Gewicht um 325 Gulden 20 Kreuzer
rheinisch gekauft, welche als geschenke fr die vier Obereinnehmer der Trkenhilfe im Schwbischen Kreis
bestimmt Waren. Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorichen Sammlungen, vol. 7 (1888), CX Reg. 4864.
304

Herr (Augerius) von Bussbeckh kauft im Auftrage Kaisers Rudolf II drei vergoldete Schlaguhren,
welche als Ehrengeschenke fr die verwiwete Knigin von Frankreich betstimmt waren, und zwar die zwei besten

305

1598) two pendants, a medallion, and an astronomical clock.

133
Although we know that

diplomatic gifts, such as these, regularly inspired a material counter gift, archival traces of direct
transactions are few and far between.306 An exceptional instance occurred in 1600. During the
fall of that year the Augsburgian merchant Johan Christoph Fugger received a letter from his
agent at the imperial court in Prague describing the arrival of the embassy of Persian Shah Abbas
I (r. 1588-1629) to Rudolph IIs Hradcany Palace.

According to Fuggers informant, the

embassy, which numbered no fewer than thirty men and was accompanied by a wilden Mann,
traveled over India by foot, sailed around Africa, and caravanned across Europe to negotiate
joining forces with Rudolph II against the Ottoman Empire.307 Despite the fact that gifts are not
mentioned in the letter, we know the embassy did not come empty-handed. The 1607-1611
inventory of Rudolph IIs Kunstkammer records the diplomatic gifts Abbas I gave to the Holy
Roman Emperor.308 In addition to a bezoar stone harvested from the stomach of a camel,
Rudolph was presented with silk stockings, carpets, gems, and numerous gold vessels. Two years
later, as a gesture of reciprocity, Rudolph sent an unnamed student of the Dutch artist Cornelis
Cornelisz van Haarlem (1562-1638) to Bijapur to paint a portrait of the Shah in the guise of
bei Alexius Koch, Brger und Goldschmied zu Regensburg, und bei Christof Prestlein, Brger zu Augsburg, die
dritte be idem Kaufmann Philipp Jacob Tucher in Augsburg. Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorichen Sammlungen, vol. 7
(1888), CLXVII Reg. 5356.
305

Der Gesammtwerth mehrerer von dem Kaiserlicen Kammergoldschmied Zacharias Glckhner


gelieferter goldener Kettern und Medaillon, zweier von Christof Schsser und einer dritten von Paulus Glockher
gelieferter Uhren mit dem astrolobis und schlagwerch, welch Gegenstnde dem zum Grossfrsten von Moskau
abgeorndeten Gesandten als Ehrengeschenke mit geben worden waren, wird auf 2355 Gulden 14 Kreuzer
veranschlagt. Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorichen Sammlungen, vol. 7 (1888), CCXXV Reg. 5547.
306

Suzanne B. Butters, The Uses and Abuses of Gifts in the World of Ferdinando de Medici (1549-1609)
I Tatti Studies: Essays in the Renaissance, Vol. 11 (2007 ), 243-354.
307

Victor Klarwill, ed., Fugger-Zeitungen: ungedruckte Briefe an das Haus Fugger aus den Jahren 15681605 (Wien: Rikola Verlag, 1923), 223.
308

Kunstkammerinventar Kaiser Rudolfs II 107-1611, Rotraut Bauer and Herbert Haupt eds. Jahrbuch der
Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, Vol. 72 No. 36 (1976), Fol. 39 Nos. 325f-327 fol. 53 Nos. 504-510, fol. 210
Nos. 1330-1335.

Cupid and flanked by Venus and Bacchus.

309

134
This portrait is now lost, but Rudolph was later

informed that upon seeing the painting for the first time, the Shah held it on his knees and stared
at it for two hours.310
In this instance, the recipient of the initial gift was, in a sense, obliged to reciprocate.
And by returning the gift, expectations of reciprocity were met, social bonds were maintained,
and parity between the two rulers was established.311 This, however, was not the case in the
annual unilateral bequest of tribute from the Holy Roman Emperor to the Ottoman Sultan. The
disparity of material exchange between the Holy Roman Emperors and Ottoman rulers during
the Trkenverehrung crystallized the degree and direction of subordination between the giver
and receiver. Given that the Ottomans never offered a counter-gift, a normative gift economy,
like that described above, did not pertain in the case of tribute; the power dynamic in this
diplomatic encounter was clearly defined and the tribute worked to articulate it as unilateral.
But, as we shall see, this was not entirely the case. Despite the fact that the automata given as
tribute did not incur a mutual transaction, I want to suggest that they promoted a degree of
interaction by mimicking Ottoman processionsceremonies that transformed the Sultan into a
figuration of power.312

309

It should be noted that several of the artists at Shah Abbass court were experimenting with western
motifs. See, Sheila R. Canby, ShahAbbas: The Remaking of Iran (London: The British Museum, 2009), 52-56.
310

Otto Kurz, Knstlerische Beziehungen Zwischen Prag und Persien zur Zeit Kaiser Rudolf II: und
Beitrge zur Geschichte seiner Sammlungen, in E.H. Gombrich ed., The Decorative Arts of Europe and the Islamic
East (London: Dorian Press, 197), 5.
311

For the classic texts on the social dimension of the exchange of gifts see, Bronislaw Malinowski,
Argonauts of the Western Pacific: Ann Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of
Melanesian New Guinea (1922; reprint, Prospect Heights: Waveland Press, 1984), and Marcel Mauss, The Gift: The
Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies, trans. W.D. Halls (New York: W.W. Norton, 1990).
312

Clifford Geertz, Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1981 ), 131.

135
PROCESSIONS
Ottoman ceremonial processions were rigorously choreographed, highly charged, lengthy
theatrical displays that made metapolitical claims about the Sultans absolute sovereignty and his
relationship to his court, his subjects, and foreign powers.313 This very public form of statecraft
took place regularly, and was often the only opportunity for foreign diplomats to catch a glimpse
of the Grand Turk. (Ottoman Sultans rarely left the Topkapi Palace and, with few exceptions,
when foreign visitors came to pay their respects the Sultan was shielded from view by a
curtain.)314 Every Friday the Sultan, astride his imperial steed, with his entourage of viziers,
commanders of the imperial guard, foot soldiers, sword and standard bearers, holy men, dwarves,
hounds, camels, and falcons slowly wound their way from the Imperial Gate of the Topkapi
Palace, down the Divan Yolu (Council Road) to a series of monumental royal mosques.315
Additionally, during the celebration of a rite de passage such as the ascension of a new Sultan,
the wedding of the Sultans sister or daughter, the presentation of a new born royal child, or the
circumcision of a royal son, the Sultan and up to one thousand Ottoman officials paraded from
Topkapi Palace to the Hippodrome where tents, stages, and seating arrangements were erected

313

The processions of the Ottoman Sultans changed very little over the sixteenth century. The ceremonies
were organized according the Procession Registers that were kept in the palace archives, and the Master of
Ceremonies (the Tesrifacti) made sure that all the protocol guidelines were strictly followed. See, Nuhran Atasoy,
Processions and Protocol in Ottoman Istanbul, in Karin Adahl, ed. The Sultans Procession: The Swedish Embassy
to Sultan Mehmed IV in 1657-1658 and the Ralamb Paintings (Istanbul: Forskningsinstituet, 2006 ), 169-170.
314

Grlu Necipoglu, Architecture, Ceremonial, and Power: Topkapi Palace in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth
Centuries (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990 ), 25
315

Ibid: 30

316

for public festivities in honor of the event.

136
Often, these public festivities were complemented

by boat processions along the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus.


Many European diplomats took an intense interest in Ottoman ceremonies and
processions. In the sixteenth century numerous short treatises on the practices of Ottoman
officials were published and widely distributed. Such accounts include Benedict Curipeschitzs
Itinerarium der Botschaftsreise des Josef von Lamberg und Niclas Jurischitz durch Bosnien,
Serbien, Bulgarien nach Konstantinopel (1530); Benedetto Rambertis Libri tre delle cose de
Turchi, Nel primo si descrive il viaggio da Venetia Constantinopoli, con gli nomi de luoghi
antinchi moderni; Nel seconda la Porta, cio la corte de Soltan Soleymano, Signor deTurchi;
Nel Terzo il modo de reggere il stato & imperio suo. (1539); Junis Begs and Alivse Grittis
Opera nova la quale dechiara tutto il governo del gran turcho, (1537); Antoine Geuffroys
Briesve description de la court du grant Turc et ung sommaire du regne des Othmans, (1542);
and of course Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecqs Turkish Letters (1580). These short and early
accounts gave way to more scrupulously detailed seventeenth-century descriptions of the
Ottoman court, like Salomon Schweiggers Einen newe Rebeschreibung au Teutschland Nach
Constantinople und Jerusalem (1608) and Stephan Gerlachs Stephan Gerlachs de Aeltern
Tage-Buch/ der von zween Glorwrdgsten Rmiscen Kysern/ Maximiliane und Rudolpho,
Beyderseits den Ander dieses Nahens//An di Ottmanische Pforte zu Constantinopel
Aberfertigen/ und durch den Wohlgeborhenen Herrn Hn David Ungnad/ glcklischstvollbrachter Gesandschaft, (1674).

316

Derin Tereziglu, The Imperial Circumcision Festival of 1582: An Interpretation, Murqarnas, Vol. XII
(1995 ), 86.

137
To these written sources can be added a wealth of visual material representing Ottoman
processions.317

The earliest examples include Pieter Coecke van Aelsts woodcut The

Procession of Slyeman the Magnificent through the Hippodrome (1533) (fig. 55), Jan Swart van
Groningens Reiterportrait Sleimans des Grossen mit Gefolge (1545) (fig. 56), and Domenico
de Franceschis woodcut in nine sheets of Sleyman riding in procession from the Imperial Gate
to Friday Prayer (1563).

In addition to printed images, envoys and artists accompanying

embassies often produced albums of drawings that attempted to capture Ottoman statecraft. The
most detailed depictions can be found in four albums: one by the Austrian envoy Albert Wyts
(1574, MS. Vienna, sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 3325*); a second by the author of
the Neuwe Chronica Tiirchkischer Nation von Turcken selbsbeschreiben (1590), Johannes
Lewenklau (sometimes Lwenklau), who traveled to Constantinople in 1584 with the imperial
envoy Heinrich von Liechenstein (ca. 1585 MS. Vienna, sterreichische Nationalbibliothek,
Cod. 8615) (fig. 57); a third, signed by the elusive Zacharias Wehme, is preserved in Dresden
(1592, Schsische Landesbibliothek, no. 12a); and an anonymous album, now known as the
Travelers Picture Book with Scenes of Life in Istanbul at Oxford (1588, MS Bodl. Or. 430) (fig.
58).318
Pictorial accounts of Ottoman processions attempted to capture the appearance of
Ottoman state ritual. However, in representing these events artists had to segment the flow of
images processions of this sort generatedpanting dogs, bouncing horsehair standards, fluttering

317

On printed processions see, Larry Silver, Triumphs and Travesties: Printed Processions of the Sixteenth
Century, in Larry Silver and Elizaboth Wyckoff, eds., Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Drer and
Titian (New Haven: Davis Museum and Cultural Center and Yale University Press, 2008 ), 15-32.
318

On the identification of various figures in the Lewenklau Album, see, H.W. Rudolph, Ein Nachtrag zum
Portrtbuch des Hieronymus Beck von Leopoldsdorf. Bildnesses Orientalischer Herrsche und Wrdentrger in
Cod. Vindob. 8615, Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen Museums Wien, Volume 1 (1999 ), 189-207.

138
disembodied heron feathers, marching golden dwarves, flapping falcons, prancing armored
horsesinto static components. And by doing so the most crucial elements of the procession
movement and an elapse of timewere excluded. Artists tried to compensate for the fact that
motion and temporality were permanently deferred in their images.

One strategy was to

manufacture images on a large-scale, in order to include as many participants in the procession


as possible as well as to evoke the span of time such an event encompassed.319 Pieter Cocke van
Aelsts woodcut of one of Sleymans processions exemplifies this tendency.320 Spanning
almost fifteen feet in length, van Aelsts friezewhich the artist claimed was based on his own
eyewitness account of a procession in 1533depicts seven scenes and was printed on no fewer
than ten separate sheets, each measuring 35 x 87 centimeters.321 In the sheet that incorporates
the Sultan, now referred to as Customs and Fashions of the Turks or Procession of Sleyman the
Magnificent through the Hippodrome, the Flemish printmaker chose to depict one of, if not the
most, dramatic moments in the procession: Sleyman parading through the Hippodrome. Here,
Sleyman, in strict profile atop his horse and echoing monumental Roman Imperial equestrian
portraits, is strategically represented at the moment before he crosses in front of the Pharonic
obelisk of Tutmosis III (1479- 1425 BCE) that was brought to Constantinople by Emperor

319

For an overview of the composite print phenomenon in the sixteenth century see, Horst Appuhn and
Christian V. Heusinger eds., Riesenholzschnitte und Papiertapeten der Renaissance (Uhl: Unterscheidheim, 1976)
and for a more recent account, Larry Silver and Elizaboth Wyckoff, eds., Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the
Age of Drer and Titian (New Haven: Davis Museum and Cultural Center and Yale University Press, 2008).
320

It should be noted that van Aelst was not the first artist to produce a composite-print of a parade of
Turks. Between 1529 and 1530, Erhard Schn produced a frieze of fifteen prints, accompanied by the text of Hans
Sachs, which featured the atrocities of the Turks after the siege in Vienna. See, Keith Moxey, Peasants, Warriots,
and Wives: Popular Imagery in the Reformation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 76-77.
321

Karl van Mander claims that van Aelst was in Istanbul to negotiate for a sale of tapestries to the Sultan
on behalf of Willem Dermoyen of Brussel. See, Astrit Schmidt-Burkhardt, Pieter Cocke van Aelst: Sitten und
Gebruche der Trken, in Europa und der Orient 800-1900, ed. Gereon Sievernich and Hendrik Budde
(Guttersloh: Bertelsmann Verlag, 1989), 137.

139
Theodosius (347-395) in the fourth century. This striking placement allows the artist seamlessly
to align the two eastern empires of Egypt and Byzantium with the Ottoman Empire that replaced
them, while the ruined Classical architecturecracking column drums, crumbling entablatures,
falling archessignals the Ottomans supposed lack of appreciation for the remnants of the
empires they inherited.322 Yet, insofar as this compositional strategy appears laboriously staged,
the rhetoric of the remainder of the image softens its artfulness by suggesting that it represents a
random punctum temporis.323 Van Aelst went to great lengths to render almost all the figures in
the sheet as if they had been instantaneously arrested in their own idiosyncratic activity.
Compare Sleymans statuesque posture to the figure in the right foreground who is turning his
back to viewer as he gracefully lifts and extends his left foot. Or, consider the two figures on
horseback behind the Sultan, who enter from stage left. The direction they face is indicative of
their movement through the image, but when the artist placed the caryatid on the edge of the
sheet, he obscured the horses bodies. This partial masking enhances the horses action. The
picture not only relies on a lack of geometrical clarity to suggest instantaneity, it also depends on
the looks, gestures, and implied conversations among the foot soldiers who lead the Sultan, as
well as the figure descending the stairs of the classical building in the middle ground on the right,
the birds that fly over head, a riderless horse being hurried across the path of the procession, and
the winding path of countless figures that inch toward the Fatih Mosque on the left horizon.
Combined, all of these elements support the images autoptic claims and imbue it with a
temporal dimension. Yet despite van Aelsts effort to present a believable record of his visual
322

On the European reaction to what they perceived to be the Ottomans skewed sense of history, see
Amanda Wunder, Western Travelers, Eastern Antiquities, and the Image of the Turk in early Modern Europe,
Journal of Early Modern History, vol. 7 Nos. 1-2 (2003), 89-119.
323

On problems of representing a punctum temporis in painting see, E. H. Gombrich, Moment and


Movement in Art, Journal of the Warburg and Courtald Institutes, Vol. 27 (1964), 293-306.

140
encounter with the Sultan, the picture betrays a visible tension between the static, sculptural
nature of the Ottoman rulerwhich epitomizes his authority in the imageand the dynamic
logic of the procession. One of the reasons behind giving Ottoman officials automata that
represented Ottomans lies in the objects ability to resolve this conflict.324

OTTOMANS, AUTOMATA, AND TEMPORAL INTEGRATION


At the outset of the Trkenvererhrung, in 1548, Archduke Ferdinand I and Holy Roman
Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) made the imperial governor of Swabia responsible for
overseeing the Turkish gifts, and this post remained in the care of that office until 1593, when
the annual tribute was halted.325 The governor exchanged and raised money for payment to the
Turks.326 He was also entrusted with commissioning silversmiths, goldsmiths, and clockmakers
to create objects that would serve as supplements to the funds that constituted the major portion
of the tribute offering.327

The governors may have shown clockmakers prints or drawings of

Ottoman ceremonies, for several of the automata betray a reliance on such models. As Otto Mayr

324

Remarkably, scholars accept a theory that van Aelsts motivation for creating the composite-print, was to
cajole the Sultan into commissioning his own set of tapestry designs. See, Lisa Jardine and Jerry Brotton, Global
Interests: Renaissance Art between East and West (London: Reaktion Books, 2000), 82-87 and Thomas Campbell,
Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002 ), 251-252.
325

Mraz (1980) 40.

326

Rechnungen from the Hofzahlamt in Vienna note that during first year of the Trkenverehrung the
empire sent 72,709 Gulden and 13 Kreuzern to the Sultan, and 1000 Ducats and three vessels, made entirely of
silver, to the Pasha in Ofen (Budapest). This amount of money stayed relatively stable throughout the years of the
Trkenverehrung. For instance, in 1549, the Sultan received 72,779 Gulden 35 Kreuzern, and in 1550 he received
68,508 Gulden and 16 Kreuzern. Ibid 39. On average, four silver Gulden was the equivalent of one golden ducat
and seventy-two Kreuzern equaled one Guldin. Gulden, in Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, Bd.7 4 Aufl. (Leipzig:
Bibliographisches Institute, 1885-1892 ), 922.
327

Anthony Cutler has argued that many of the reliquaries and luxuries exchanged between the imperial
Byzantine court and foreign courts functioned in the same fashion. See, Anthony Cutler, Gift and Gift Exchange as
Aspects of the Byzantine, Arab and Related Economies, Dumbarton and Oaks Papers, Vol. 55 (2001 ), 251.

141
and Klaus Maurice have observed, the Sultan on the automata in Vienna, Dresden, and Moscow
are likely based on van Aelstss woodcut. It is also possible that Ferdinand, Maximilian, or
Rudolph provided models for the automata which convey Ottoman processions. The 1596
inventory of the Archducal Kunstkammer at Ambras records Ain lange rolln wie der Trggisch
Kaiser geen Kurchen ret, and the 1607-1611 inventory of the imperial Kunstkammer in Prague
contained, Ein buch von der hand gemalt, sein allerley trkische trachten und ire cermonien328
As in the van Aelst woodcut, the referential relationships of these source materials to their
sources were presumed.
The surviving automata are all of average size, measuring about forty centimeters in
height and twenty centimeters in width. Each automaton includes a figure of the Sultan, with the
exclusion of the Newark piece which is comprised of four figures that all appear to be Pashas.
The Turkish Automaton at Ambras is the most mechanically complex and unique in its subject
matter.329 Executed around 1580, this spectacular object is populated by three Ottoman figures
and bristles with finely wrought ornamentation. The Sultan is identified by his central position,
richly festooned caftan, bulbous turban and drawn saber.

The internal mechanism of this

automaton causes the Sultan to roll his eyes and lift his saber, while his two attendants move
their oars as if paddling the Sultan across the choppy and fish infested Bosphorus in one of the
many ceremonial processions that took place on the water around Constantinople.

The

remaining automata display scenes of Turks on horseback, galloping or majestically prancing,


alone or in a group.

328

Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorichen Sammlungen des aller hchsten Kaiserhauses, Vol. 7 (1888), ccxl and
Bauer and Haupt (1976 ),: Fol. 382 No. 2713
329

Location: Kunsthistorisches Museum Sammlungen Schlo Ambras, Innsbruck-Ambras, Inv.n.


KK_7482, Literature: Maurice (1976): fig. 271, Maurice and Mayer (1980): 242.

142
The most extravagant of the automata were surely given to the Sultan. For instance the
imperial diplomat Stephan Gerlach (1546-1612) tells us that in 1590 Holy Roman Emperor
Rudolph II gave Sultan Murad III an automaton in the shape of a castle. When the object was
activated the gates of the structure opened and a Sultan on horseback, followed by several Pashas
on horseback, emerged. The figures, which were made entirely of silver, rode in a circle before
disappearing behind a second gate embedded in the face of the fortress.330 Although much
simpler in its composition, a surviving automaton, now in Newark, approximates Gerlachs
description (fig. 50).331 The octagonal silver base of the object is festooned with eagles in flight
and aniconic curved motifs, which recall the Ottoman crescent. Resting atop the base is a second
octagonal structure, with engaged pillars on all corners. Each pair of pillars frames an arch,
through which one can see the objects movements (recall Mehmet Sokollus request). Swirling
vegetal motifs crawl up the sides of the arches and terminate in a tulip in full bloom. All of this
extensively wrought and ornamented silver served as the foundation for the animation of
Ottoman ceremony and pomp. Four figures process on horseback in pointed caps, possibly
klahs, carrying swords on their hips that serve as the cardinal points of the procession, which
moved clockwise in a circle around the raised timepiece. In front of and behind each equestrian
figure strut two turbaned figures clutching spears. Although neatly organized around the two
types of figures, the automaton is dominated by the riders whose social status is greater than
those of their earthbound counterparts. As well as conveying the look, action, and social rank of
an Ottoman official these features promoted the objects purported novelty, because the recipient
was, most likely, intended to recognize a version of himself in the object.

330

A.H. Loebl in, Zur Geschichte der Trkenkriege von 1593-1606 (C.H. Beck: Mnchen, 1899 ), 117.

331

Location: Newark Museum, Newark, Inv. n. 14.346, Literature: Maurice (1976): fig. 273.

143
Three extant automata evidence a similar configuration (figs. 48 and 49). An automaton
of a Sultan on horseback, now in Vienna, depicts the Ottoman official atop a richly saddled steed
and accompanied by an Ottoman attendant holding the leash of a dashing hound, a small African
holding a shield, and a Sultan in miniature grasping the chain of a seated ape (fig. 6).332 When
active the horse tapped the sumptuous silver base of the object with its left front hoof and rolled
its eyes while the Sultan turned his head from side to side, as if looking to the crowd that lined
the streets during the processions through Constantinople. Giving the Sultan such a varied and
exotic entourage, the object signals the Ottoman Empires expansion into the Continent of Africa
and re-performs, for Ottoman eyes, the ceremonial pomp at events such as royal
circumcisions.333
Although not embellished with representatives of the Sultans court and conquered
domain, the automaton which was destroyed in the 1945 bombing of Dresden was a multi-media
affair (Fig. 48).334 This work was distinguished by the inclusion of actual horsehair for the
mounts tail and leather or rope reins which, in all likelihood, extended from the empty rings at
the base of the horses bit and terminated in the left hand of the Sultan. This unexpected
incorporation of organic material punctures, in the words of Christopher S. Wood, is the
membrane between figuration and reality.335 The horsehair is not a representation of a horses
tail, in the sense that the gilt body is a representation of the Sultan. It differs because it is the
thing (horsehair) itself, not a signifier that refers to an absent referent. This was not the first time
332

Location: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Inv. N. KK_6857, Literature: Maurice (1976): fig. 275.

333

Tereziglu (1995): 82-84.

334

Location: Formerly Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon, Dresden, Literature: Maurice (1976): fig. 276.

335

Christopher S. Wood, Forgery, Replica, Fiction: Temporalities of German Renaissance Art (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2008 ), 316.

144
props were used to fabricate lifelikeness. Donatellos equestrian portrait of Galtamelata in Padua
(1453) (fig. 59) included actual spurs that were worn by the Venetian condottiere, figures that
formed the extravagant program of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian Is tomb held actual
candles and daggers (fig. 60), and the sculptures that populated the reconstruction of the Holy
Sepulchre at Varallo (fig. 61) wore clothes and dined at tables before dishes of roasted lamb.336
But unlike Donatellos equestrian portrait, the colossal puppets of Maximilians tomb, or
statues on the Sacro Monte, the accoutrements on the Dresden automaton did not merely make
the object appear as though it were capable of doing somethingthey accentuated what it did.
As the horse raised and lowered its head, the reins slackened and tightened, while the tail trailed
behind as it lurched forward. By way of its supplemental props and animation the automaton
overcomes the tension between the rigid figuration of the Sultan and the dynamic logic of the
procession, because it is able to animate the representation without forfeiting any of the Sultans
stateliness.

Furthermore, unlike two-dimensional images of the Sultan performing Ottoman

pomp that exist outside of experienced time and space, the automata populate and participate in
the viewers experience of space and flow of time, as do processions.
Surprisingly, however, despite their paradoxical ability to recreate Ottoman processions
while maintaining an unchanging image of the Sultan, the automata do not say much about the
specific Ottomans that perform these rituals. They offer little information about the figures
particular physiognomy or psychology. As such, the automata are references that only point to a
specific target; they do not fully describe it. I will turn later to why these stereotypical images of

336

On Donatellos equestrian statue see, John Pope-Hennessy, Italian Renaissance Sculpture (New York:
Vintage, 1985), 53-54. On the figures at Varallo see Alessandro Nova, Popular Art in Renaissance Italy: Early
Response to the Holy Mountain at Varallo, in Claire Farago ed., Reframing the Renaissance: Visual Culture in
Europe and Latin America 1450-1650 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 113-126. And for Maximilians tomb
see, Wood (2008): 314-315.

145
the Sultan may have been considered appropriate gifts. First, however, let us consider how these
generic images of Ottoman rulers corresponded to other contemporaneous representations of the
Sultan in Christendom.

THE TRUE IMAGE OF THE SULTAN


Representations of Ottoman rulers produced at the same time as the automata include
prints published and widely dispersed in European array of portrayals that aimed to identify
and catalogue the Turk.337 Bronwen Wilson has traced the publication of both costume and
portrait books featuring Ottoman rulers and military leaders, calling attention to their diverse
mechanisms for conveying difference and sameness to a European audience.338 In Venice,
costume books such as Nicolas de Nicolays Les quatre premiers livres des navigations et
peregrinations orientalis (1567) influenced how Ottomans were represented in a variety of
contexts.

For instance, Francesco Sansovinos Informatione (1570) (a text that urged the

Venetian Senate to wage war with their Muslim neighbors) published woodcuts copied after the
engravings in Nicolays treatise (fig. 62 and 63). These illustrations placed sartorial display in
the foregroundelaborate headdresses, colorful caftans, and beard lengthsto distinguish the
Ottoman enemy. Similarly, popular portraits, of Ottoman rulers, such as the anonymously
published Selin (1580), (fig. 64) stop short of portraying physiognomic or psychological
individuality.

Crude features are brought together with turbans and blandly ornamented

337

For an excellent treatment of images of Turks in Venetian and German painting in the beginning of the
sixteenth century see, Julian Raby, Venice, Drer and the Oriental Mode (New York: Islamic Art Publications,
1982).
338

Wilson makes this persuasive argument in two publications: Bronwen Wilson, Reflecting on the Turk
in late sixteenth-century Venetian portrait books, Word and Image, Vol. 19 Nos. 1-2 (2003) and Bronwen Wilson,
The World in Venice: Print, the City, and Early Modern Identity (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005) see
especially Chapter IV, Reproducing the Individual: Likeness and History in Printed Portrait Books, 222-255.

146
garments to convey to the viewer a spurious image of Sultan Selim II (r. 1566-1574). Only the
label, which reads Selin imperator de Turchi, clearly indentifies the schematic portrayal as a
specific personage.
Images of the Sultans in Portrait Books stand in stark contrast to those in costume
books, for these were charged with realistic detail. Little of this detail, however, was grounded
in actual knowledge about the figures represented. Many of the portraits published in, for
instance, Theobald Mllers Musaie Ioviani imagines artifice manu ad vivum expressae (1577)
Pietro Bertellis Vite degl imperatori de Turchi con le loro effigie (1599) portray Ottoman rulers
that had long been dead. Bertellis portrait of Sultan Mehmet II (r. 1444-1446 and 1451-1481)
(fig. 65) offers far more visual information about the deceased Sultan than the image of Selim II,
which is general to the extreme. Mehmets portrait is distinguished by physiognomic detail. The
skin of the Sultans face is aged. It puffs and wrinkles below his eyes and is furrowed along his
brow. His illuminated Roman nose arcs downward, calling attention to his parted and thin lips.
This portrait-like specificity is situated atop a thick neck with loose jowls that seamlessly blends
into the Sultans sloping shoulders. Mehmet daintily grips his scepter, fingers unevenly grasping
his royal attribute. The body is rendered in three-quarter view displaying his robe, the drapery of
which lays in random patterns, bunched at his right elbow and falling in irregular folds down his
breast. This detail serves to give the impression that this is an image of a specific historical
individual.
In comparing these two modes of representing Ottoman Sultans, we might conclude that
the automata given as tribute function like the image of Selim. The three-dimensional figures
lack of a secure identity would surely bolster such a claim. To equate the sultans on the
automata, and their lack of particularity, with images like that of Selim II, though, would be to

forget about their intended audienceOttoman rulers.

147
Whereas stereotypical images of

Ottomans in Europe promoted the circulation and proliferation of racial and cultural
otherness,339 the automata, in their evocation of Ottoman processions, re-present to the sultan
and other Ottoman officials how the Sultan represented himself to his subjects and foreign
diplomats.340 Furthermore, the lack of individuality the automata betray resonates with how
Islamic artists represented high-ranking Ottoman officials.

As Esin Atil explains, all

representations of [Ottoman] rulers were executed from memory and based on accepted models
of an ideal type.341 Such iconographic conventions can be seen in a number of Ottoman
portraits. Take, for example, the Portrait of Admiral Haireddin, by Haidar Reiss Nigari (1540
Istanbul, Topkapi Sarayi Msezi) (fig. 66) and the anonymously produced Portrait of Sultan
Ahmed (ca. 1615 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) (fig. 67). The way the automata
approach physiognomy suggests the ruler they animate is more than merely a historical figure; it
suggests that the figure is an ideal type that exceeds space and time. At one level, then, the
automata communicated the Holy Roman Emperors reverence for the Sultan and their
acceptance of the Sultans transcendental authority. Yet, at another lever, the three-dimensional
and animated representation of the Ottoman ruler transgressed Islamic image prohibition (a
proscription which the Holy Roman Emperors were repeatedly reminded of) and afforded the
rulers of the Holy Roman Empire the opportunity to demonstrate their Empires technological
acumen. This claim, that the automata were objects that permitted the Hapsburgs to present

339

Homhi K. Bhabba, The other question: the stereotype and colonial discourse, in Visual Culture: The
Reader, eds. Jessica Evans and Stuart Hall (London: Open University Press, 2004 ), 372.
340

See Note 52.

341

Esin Atil, The Image of Sleyman, in Slyeman the Second, ed. Halil Inalick and Cemal Kafadar
(Istanbul: Isis Press, 1993 ), 334.

148
themselves as masters of mimetic technology, is amply borne out when we take into account the
challenging and at times insurmountable problems the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire faced in
procuring the automata and transporting the objects from central Europe to Western Asia.

TRAFFICKING AUTOMATA
Scheduling the manufacture and shipment of the automata was often burdensome.
Generally, the automata and other Turkish gifts were to be completed by late July in order to
travel to Constantinople under the most favorable weather conditions.342 This time frame,
however, was problematic for clockmakers.

On October 29, 1581, Holy Roman Emperor

Rudolph II wrote to the Governor of Swabia, Maximilian Ilsung, requesting Ilsung commission a
clockmaker in Augsburg to make several rings set with clockwork for the Ottoman Pasha in
Ofen.343 Ilsung wrote back to the emperor and apologetically stated that he had spoken with a
master clockmaker in Augsburg (unfortunately the name is not mentioned) who stated that the
rings could not be delivered until the following autumn, at the earliest. According to Ilsung, the
clockmaker was unable to craft clockwork mechanisms during the fall, winter, and spring
months due to poor lighting and frigid weather conditions.344 Delays in receiving the tribute
from Augsburg frequently required that envoys postpone their trips to Constantinople.

342

In

There are many entries in the Hofzahlamt-Rechnungen which record payments to Augsburgian artisans
for the extra gifts that were sent along with the tribute payment. On February 8, 1566 the documents state: On
September 5, 1568:Dier Kaiserliche Uhrmacher Gerhart Eenmoser erhlt fr zwei von ihm gefertigte und der
Kammer gelieferte uhrlein, welcher Kaiser Maximilian II. durch die kurzlich anwesend gewesene trkische
Botschaft nach Constantinople bersendent halte, 68 Gulden rheinisch ausbezahlt. Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen
Sammlungen, vol. 7 (1888 ), Pg CXXI Reg. 5136.
343

It should be noted that a letter written by Pietro Aretino dated October 2, 1531, states that Sleyman
bought a gold ring set with clockwork, which was manufactured in Venice. Kurz (1975), 22.
344

Mraz (1980), 48.

149
Wratislaws memoirs we read: We spent several months of that year (1591) at Vienna, waiting
till the jewelry, watches, and other special presents, which our ambassador was to offer not only
to the Turkish emperor, but also to his pashas and grandees, were brought from Augsburg.345
Regular scheduling conflicts notwithstanding, automataand other objects comprised of
clockworkwere still steadily commissioned and sent to Constantinople.
The emperors eagerness to convey these mimetic machines to the court in
Constantinople becomes even more pronounced when we consider the numerous obstacles that
beset the objects intercontinental travel.346 Once complete, objects were brought by Augsburg
merchants to Vienna on barge by way of the Danube. In Vienna, the Military Paymaster
(Militrzahlmeister) recorded the objects worth and their final destinationthe Ottoman
Empireand they were then handed over to the imperial envoy, who accompanied the cargo to
Constantinople.347 The envoy, servants, military protection, wagons of food, wine, gold coin, and
gifts traveled over land by caravan to Ofen. This stop was crucial because the Pasha in Ofen
always received honoraria from the Holy Roman Emperor, and it provided the envoy an

345

Wratislaw (1862): 1f.

346

The travel routes from Vienna to Constantinople were roughly the same for the Imperial Ambassadors
throughout the period of the Trkenverehrung. For a more detailed and precise description of the routes see, Stephan
Gerlach, Stephan Gerlachs de Aeltern Tage-Buch/ der von zween Glorwrdgsten Rmiscen Kysern/ Maximiliane
und Rudolpho, Beyderseits den Ander dieses Nahens//An di Ottmanische Pforte zu Constantinopel Aberfertigen/
und durch den Wohlgeborhenen Herrn Hn David Ungnad/ glcklischst-vollbrachter Gesandschaft (Frankfurt,
1674) Salomon Schweigger, Einen newe Rebeschreibung au Teutschland Nach Constantinople und
JerusalemMit hundert schnen newen Figuren/ dergleichen nie wird geweysen seyn/ In III. Unterschiedlichen
Bchern Auffs fleissigst eigner Person verzeichnet und abgerissen Durch Salomon Schweigger (Nrnberg, 1608)
and Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, The Turkish Letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, trans. Edward Seymour Forster
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005).
347

Regrettably, only lists from the mid 1560s and onward survive (we therefore, cannot say with certainty
that automata were given as tribute before this time). We do know through letters and memoirs of Venetian
merchants that Ferdinand I began sending elaborate clocks with astronomical and moving figures during the 1540s.
According to Paolo Giovio, Ferdinand sent Sleyman celestial clock with moving figures, so large that twelve men
had to carry it. Giovio also believed that the clock had been originally crafted for Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian
I. Kurz has suggested that the object might have been the famed Theoria planetarum which numerous craftsmen
and scholars worked on in Nuremberg during Maximilian Is reign. See Kurz (1975): 23 nos. 1 and 2.

150
opportunity to discuss issues directly concerning the problematic Hungarian territory, which the
Pasha oversaw. 348 Once the gifts had been ceremoniously bestowed on the Pasha the caravan
was transferred back to a series of bargesnumbering about fifteenon the Danube.349 Ogier
Ghiselin de Busbecq described the experience of traveling down the river after he was received
by the Pasha in Ofen:
The vessel on which I traveled was towed by a rowing boat with twenty-four oarsmen;
the other boats were propelled each by a pair of longer oars. We never halted day or
night, except for a few hours when the unhappy rowers and sailors refreshed themselves
from their incessant toil with food and rest. The rashness of the Turks seemed to me
quite remarkable; they never hesitated to continue their voyage in spite of the densest
darkness, the absence of any moon and violent gales and they had continually to
encounter danger from the mills and the trunks and branches of trees, which projected
from the banks. It frequently happened that the violence of the wind caused my boat to
come to such a violent collision with the stumps and boughs of trees which overhung the
stream that it seemed in immanent danger of being broken in pieces. In fact on one
occasion part of the deck was carried away with a large crash.350
Having survived the torrents of the river, the barges docked at the Serbian city of Nish. From
there, the caravan traveled southeast, down an ancient Roman road, through the foothills of the
Balkan Mountains to Sophia. Once the diplomatic corps took rest and sustenance in the capital

348

Ogier Ghiselin Busbecq, briefly mentions his first encounter with Pasha in his first Turkish Letter: . .
.we were introduced into the presence of the Pasha, who had recovered from his illness. We tried to mollify him
with presents, and then complained of the insolence and misdeeds of the Turkish soldiers and demanded back the
places which had been taken from us in violation of the truce and which he had promised in his letter to my
sovereign to restore on condition that he sent a representative. Busbecq (2005): 12.
349

There is a seventeenth century (1628) gouache painting of the Count of Kuefstein delivering gifts to the
Pasha at Ofen at Schlo Greillenstein in Lower Austria. See H. Tietze, Die Denkmale des politischen Bezirkes Horn
(Vienna: Schroll, 1911 ), 482.
350

Busbecq (2005): 12-13.

351

of Bulgaria, they set off southward through the Balkan valleys.

151
If the party survived the

valleyswhose open spaces made them vulnerable to brigandage and extortionthey then had
to traverse a rugged mountain pass known as The Narrow Gates, or Capi Derwent near the
Turks before descending to the ancient Macedonian city of Philippolis. From there they headed
along the banks of the Maritza River to Adrianopolis, before trudging through the tulip-filled
fields on the outskirts of Constantinople.
Clockwork automata had an additional disadvantage of being sensitive to changes in the
weather and climatic conditions, and often required repair when they reached their destination.
A Viennese clockmaker, Wolfgang Teissenreider, visited the Pashas court in Ofen from
September 9 until December 9, 1562 to repair gifts that had been sent from Vienna.
Teissenreider was unable to finish his work in the autumn of 1562 and, according to
Rechnunungen from the Hofzahlamt, he was paid for his time and travel expenses to return to
Ofen from March 26 until August 15 1563.352 Eight years later, the Viennese clockmaker
traveled with Caspar Minkwitz, an imperial envoy, to Constantinople, because many of the gifts
had become seriously defective.353 After many failed attempts to transport working clocks and
automata to Constantinople the Empire made it a rule to send a clockmaker along for the
voyage.354

351

In fact, a man who intends to go among the Turks must be prepared, as soon as he has crossed the
frontier, to open his purse and never close it till he leaves the country. Meanwhile he must sow money broadcast
and pray that it may not prove unfruitful. If there is no other result, it is at any rate the only method of softening the
fierce heart of the Turk, who hates all other nations. Money acts like a charm to sooth their otherwise intractable
minds. Ibid: 25. On piracy and brigandage in the sixteenth century see Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean: And
the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Vol.2, trans. Sian Reynolds (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1995), 865-890.
352

Mraz (1980): 40.

353

Ibid: 40-41.

152
Sending clockmakers to Constantinople ensured that the automata and other clocks would
be operative when they were presented. It also suggests that the emperors may have wanted to
transfer German artisanal and technological skills to the east.355 If the diffusion of technology
was one of the desired byproducts of sending clockwork objects to the Ottoman capital, it was
not entirely unsuccessful. Beginning in the last quarter of the sixteenth century a small colony of
German clockmakers established itself across from the Golden Horn in Galatea. The settlement
flourished and produced small watches and wall clocks (Telleruhren), until the mid-eighteenth
century when English exports of pendulum clocks, watches, and movements began to dominate
the international market.356 Although the Hapsburgs may have succeeded in transplanting a
miniature Augsburg to the Bosphorous, this technological colonization does not fully explain
why the rulers of Christendom were determined, regardless of the time involved or the costs, to
repeatedly send automata to Constantinople. But why did the practice of gifting automata endure
under such conditions?
We might conclude that the automata, in all their preciousness, were a means for
Ferdinand I, Maximilian II, and Rudolph II to parade magnificence. To claim that these
objects were intended to assuage the insecurities of the Holy Roman Emperors, however, is to
assume that their gifting, circulation, and display were after-effects of a cemented social and
political situation.

If, however, beneath the most stringently choreographed and regulated

diplomatic encounters there lies the fluid give and take that sustains the political relationship,
354

Kurz (1977) 25.

355

On the transmission of technological knowledge by itinerant artisans see, Peter Mathias, Skills and the
Diffusion of Innovations from Britain in the Eighteenth Century, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol.
25 (1977), 93-113 and more recently by Joel Mokyr, The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge
Economy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002) passim.
356

Kseoglu (1988): 33. On Englands monopoly of clockwork in the eighteenth century see, GH. Baile,
et.al, Brittens Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1956), 77-140.

153
why would objects exchanged in a diplomatic context somehow not participate in such
conciliations?
The animated three-dimensional images of the Ottoman officials performing stately
rituals must have been received in Constantinople with admiration and wonder. We can imagine
that shortly after receiving such an object an Ottoman official would have wound it up, and, thus,
became the spectator of his own empires pomp. No longer an actor in the drama, the Sultan,
Grand Vizier, or Pasha was engaged as an observer. This uncanny displacement may well have
amplified the objects ability to communicate deference by promoting the Ottomans sense of
superiority. At the same time, however, by gifting such hyper-mimetic objectsobjects which
occupy the same spatial and temporal fabric as the viewer, and therefore compete with the
creative acts of Allahthe Holy Roman Emperors transgressed the diplomatic rules of decorum
and asserted their control over such mimetic technology. To put it another way, the automata
themselves stage competing and overlapping claims of power. Seen in this light the automata
enable an alternative account of the fraught power relationship between Islam and Christendom.
In lieu of the traditional narratives of the West dominating the East, and the Easts reactionary
behavior in response to its oppression, we must focus attention on the ways in which power was
in constant flux. And it is crucial that such subtle, almost imperceptible, negotiations were
handled by objects.

154

155

Figure 1

156

Figure 2

157

Figure 3

158

Figure 4

159

Figure 5

160

Figure 6

161

162
Figure 7

163

Figure 8

164

Figure 9

165

Figure 10

166

Figure 11

167

Figure 12

168

Figure 13

169

Figure 14

170

Figure 15

171

Figure 16

172

Figure 17

173

Figure 18

174

Figure 19

175

Figure 20

176

Figure 21

177

Figure 22

178

Figure 23

179

Figure 24

180

Figure 25

181

Figure 26

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Figure 27

183

Figure 28

184

Figure 29

185

Figure 30

186

Figure 31

187

Figure 32

188

Figure 33

189

Figure 34

190

Figure 35

191

Figure 36

192

Figure 37

193

Figure 38

194

Figure 39

195

Figure 40

196

Figure 41

197

Figure 42

198

Figure 43

199

Figure 44

200

Figure 45

201

Figure 46

202

Figure 47

203

Figure 48

204

Figure 49

205

Figure 50

206

Figure 51

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Figure 52

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Figure 53

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Figure 54

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Figure 55

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Figure 56

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Figure 57

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Figure 58

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Figure 59

215

Figure 60

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Figure 61

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Figure 62

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Figure 63

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Figure 64

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Figure 65

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Figure 66

222

Figure 67

223
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APPENDIX
MUNICH
Diemer, Peter. Johann Baptist Fickler, Das Inventar Der Mnchner Herzoglichen Kunstkammer Von 1598 :
Abhandlungen. Neue Folge ;; Heft 125; Variation: Abhandlungen (Bayerische Akademie der
Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse) ;; n.F., Heft 125. Mnchen: Verlag der
Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, in Kommission Beim Verlag C.H. Beck Mnchen, 2004.
3390 Auf einem uberlengten stckl, von Hebeno ein grien geschelzterberg, darauf
ein viereckhet gulden gestell in die vierung mit rundafelin versezt, auf welchem sizt
ein Aff von gold, geschmelzt, mit einer blawen Kappen, und ein Paketen in der handt,
vor im ein gulden Pulpit, darauf ein gesangbuech, der wirt von einem urwerckh
bewegt, das der Aff mit der Paketen die Mensur schlegt. Neben dem Affen ligen ain
Hirsch, ain stuckh wildt von goldt, wai geschmelzt, ain gulden Rech. Oberst neben
dem berg ain gulderner baum mit da in und groen schmaragt versezt, underst neben
dem berg ain anderer geschmeltzter baum. Auf der seitens des stckhels wrt ein
Deckhel frgeschoben, darunder ein tfel in dem ein wald, darinen hirschen und
Rech, von minature gemahlt, in mitten am frschub ain Porten an deren baiderseits
ain Pyramis mit rubin am fue versezt, oben auf geschmelzt, am Spiz ein Perlin
hinder iedem ein Pyramis ain gulden turlen, auf der objerseitten zwai schubladin, so
mit gulden, geschmelzten hirshkpfl heraugezogen werden. In dem groern ligen
ain guldene Reichpfeiffen, auch in dem clainern schubldl, das ein falsch, an idern ein
geschmelzt gulden hirshkpfl. Das fueteral hiezu ist inwendig mit weiem Attla
gefertet, von auen mit Plawen sammet uberzogen.
Hainhofer, Phillip. Die Reisen der Augsburg Phillip Hainhofer nach Eichstdt, Mnchen,
Regensburg in den Jahren 1611, 1612, und 1613. Vol. 8. Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins fr
Schwaben und Neuberg, 1881.
Ain schwartzer Berg aus lapide elidio, darob sitzt ain af (sic) mit einem musicbuch
vor Ihme, der schlgt den tact und rhret die aguen, und umb ihn hero siztzen etliche
their, alle gulden und geschmelzt, sihet als wan der wolf den gnsen predigte,
DRESDEN
HStA Inventar Nr. 1
Fol. 254r Vorguldt kunstreich Schiff oder nave mit einer virtel und stunden
schlagenden Uhr, welch alle 24. Stunden mu aufgetzogen werden, oben mit dreyen

243
mastbaumen, uf welchen die Buknechte im Mastkrben umbgehen, und die Viertel
und Stunden auf den glcklein mit hammern schlagen. Inwendigk die Rom. Key.
Mayt. auf den Keyerlichen stul sitzendt, und vor deselben die sieben Churfrsten und
Herolden mit erzeigung ihrer Reverenz zu endtfalunge der lehen umgehendt,
Degleichen zehen Trommeter und ein Heerpauker, die da Wechselweise zu tisch
blasen, auch ein Drommelschleger und drey Trabandten sambt 16 kleinen stucklein,
deren man II. Laden Khan, und von sich selbsten abgehen, darbey ein Futter, stehet
auf einer grnen langen tafel mit tuch behengt.

HStA Inventar Nr. 2


Fol. 121r Kunstlich men und vorguldt schieff oder Nave, mit einer virtel und
stunden schlagen: den Uhr, welch alle 24. Stunden mu ufgezogen werden, oben mit
drey mastbeument, auf welchen die Bleuchte im Mast-Korben umbgehen, und die
viertel und stunden uf den Glcklein mit Hammern schlagen, Inwendigk di Rom.
Key. Mayt: auf dem Keyserlichen stull sitzend und vor derselben die siben
Churfrsten und Herolden mit erzeigung ihrer Rerentz zu entfahlunge der lehen
umbgehendt, Degleichen 10 Trommetter und ein Heer: Bauker, auch ein
Trommelschlager und sieben trabanten, samt 16. Kleinen stuckhen so man alle
lobrennen und abschlieen kann, und von sich selbst lo gehen, Darzu ein futter
gehrigk.

HStA Inventar Nr. 3


Fol. 363v Die Geburt Christi von Kupfer gemacht, versilbert und vergoldet und mit
allerlei Bildwerk gezieretist Churfrst Christian, hochlblicher Gedchtnis von
derselben geliebten Gemahlin zum Heiligen Christ verehret worden anno 1589.

HStA Inventar Nr. 4


Fol.496r. Ein schon gro uhrwergk, darinnen die Geburth Christi wie auch der
Hirten und Weisen auf dem Morgenland ihre Bildwergk zu finden, welch in
ablauffung des Uhrwergks herumb gehen und sich voer dem Kindlein neigen, oben
auch sich mit zweyen flgeln voneineander thut, die Engle gleichsamm wie vom
Himmel herabgflihen undt durch ein Pfeifenwergk, Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich
hehr singenn: Entlich Joseph wiegt und Maria durch ein Pfeifwergk singet Joseph
lieber Joseph mein. Is alles von Kupffer und Messing vergldet und versilbert, und

244
ist Churfrst Christiano I zu Sacen Hochseeligten gedechtnis und deroselben
vielgeliebten Gehahl zum Heyligen Christ verehrt wordern. Anno. 1589.
Fol. 269v Ein New groe Spiegeluhr vom Kupffer gemacht und verguld, schlegt
Viertel und Stunden, wecker, weiset den Calendar und die Sieben Planeten, stehet
auff einem berlengten gehese, in welchen des Bacchi Opffer, Spectacul und
Triumph in Schlagen herumb gehet und vor ohme eine Kessel Trummel geschlagen
wird
Hainhofer, Philipp. Des Augsburger Patriciers Philipp Hainhofer Reisen Nach Innsbruck Und
Dresden. Doering, Oscar,; B. 1858. Quellenschriften fr Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttechnik des
Mittelalters und die Neuzeit.; Neue Folge.; Bd. 10;. Wien, C. Graeser, 1901.
Pg. 163 Ain grosse uhrwerckh in welchem die minuten viertel, und ganze stunden, auch
des monats schein zu sehen, un kan allerle lieder auf der welt (meherle melody zu
geben auf glockenwerckh zu schlagen) gesetzt werden, treibt auch ain pfeiffelwerckh,
desgleichen ain instrumentem musicale und ainem heerpaucker samt etlichen
trommerteren mit ihrem blaswerckh.

245
Pg. 166 Zwa schner uhren, deren aine ain Elephant, die andere ain schwan, und so
man ihnen ain glass wasser frhaltet, dasselbige aussauffen.
Ain schnes weis- und schlag uhrwerck, darinn der guguk mit seinem Schnabel und
geschre die viertel stunden andeutet, die stunden mit den flglen schlegt, und bem
schwaif zucker aussprizt.
Zway schne von gantzem silber secundum longitudinem and latitudinen
ausgethaille globj, welche alles coelestis durch ain uhrwerckh von dem Hercule,
terrestris aber vom Atlante auf ainem tisch fortgetragen, und an stat trinckgeschirren
gebraucht knnen werden.
Pg. 167 Allerle schne uhrwerk, wie ain thurn, daran die Romische Kaserliche
brustbilder von silber. Auf ainem gang steen dis hausleuthe und blasen durch ain
pfeiffwerck, oben schlagen ains ieden planeten die minuten, and wirt sonst das
uhrwerk durch ein Cristallin Kugeln im lauf aines schneckengangs getriben, wan es
unden einfellt, steigt es in moment omit verwunderung aines minuten zaigers wider in
die hohe.
Ain schnes uhrwerk, welches auf glocken allerle Weynachtlieder schlegt, etliche
engel under der mutter Mariae und des Kindlein Jesu augen bewegt.
Pg. 168 Zwe schne hundlein, darinn uhrwerk mit bewegung ihrer augen zu
befinden. Ain vehrlein mit dem pelican und seinem iungen, wann es schlegt, so
bewegen sie sich.
Ain beer, wan es schlegt, so bewegt er die augen die tanzen, rssel, und baucket
darbe ain wadmann des horn ansetzt als ob er blies.
Ain schnes uhrwerk, wie Nessus dem Herculi sein weib entfhret, von ganzem
silber, schnen rubin, smaragden und perlen geziert, gehet auf ain tafel fort, schiesset
auch pfeil von sich, bewgt samt etlichen hunden kopf und augen.
Ain Schiff, so auf ainer tafel etliche bootsleuth darinnen forttreiben, wan es still
stehet, aine thr sich aufthut, siben Churfursten des Reichs heraugehen, Reverenz
fr Ka. Ma bezeugen Ka. Ma. mit dem scepter und haupt gleichsam die lehen
gibt, etlich trommeter wechselweisse blasen, ain heerpaucker auf den Kesselbauken
schlegt in dem Mastbaum die Schlaguhren, und sonsten anderen bewegung vil zu
sehen, vom Johann Schlothaimer zu Augsburg gemacht ist worden.
Pg. 173 Ain schnes uhrwerk, wie die Indianer die Elephanten mit ainem thurn und
kasten, samt etlichen personen fhren, schlegt ain mohr im fortgehen auf ainer tafel
auf der pauken ain bogen von sich.

246
Ain ander schn uhrwerk, darin da lmmtlein Gottes die stund bleket, die engel
allerle passions instrumenta zur creuzigung Christi herumbtragen auch allerle
Osterlieder auf glockenwerk spilen.
Pg. 174 Ain uhr, darinn der Baccus sein fest celebriert, bewegt das maul im
herumbtragen, al ob er von ainer braatwurst esse trinkt auch zum offtern, darber
zween Philosophi die kopf schttlen, circul und sphaeren herumbwenden, und ein
Satyrus fr dem Baccho pauket.
Pg. 176 Ain schnes vhrwerck, darinnen die geburt Christj samt der rase der
weysen aus Morenland, wie auch der engel herabfahrung vom himmel, ochs und esels
sprung, suchung und anbetung her hirten zu sehen, auch etlich Weihenact gesang
durch ain pffeifenwerck zu hren, vom Schlotthammer.
Ain schner grosser pfau, welcher in herumbgeben schret, den kopf wendet, die
augen glisset, entlichen den ganzen lieb, und ain rad oder aine wannen mit dem
schwanz drehet aufrichtet auch zucker fallen lasset.
Pg. 176 Ain Uhrwerk in ainer pulferflaschen in Dolchen knpfen in ainmen
Kriechenden schneken: item in Kriechenden spinnen in ohrengehengen.
Pg. 179 Ain schnes von wachs possierte kindlein welches, wann es gewiegt wirt,
den leib, fsse, augen und rme rhren thut.
Tobias Beutel, Chur-Frstlicher Schsischer stets grnender hoher Cerdern=Wald auf dem
grnen Rauten-Grunde der(Dresden, 1671)
N2. Der funftlich beweglichen Sachen und Uhrwercke werden zum wenigsten hundert
stuck gezehlet/ die vorneumsten sind: Das grosse Astronomische Uhrwerck/ so
Chur=frst Augsto (hochstseeligsten Andectens) 1600.Rthlr.gecostet; Ein Uhrwerk von
der Geburt Christi; Zwen in Form wie Schiffe/ als Papegonen/ ein als ein Pfau/ Ouctguct/
Lamb/ und andere thiere. n2.
AMBRAS
Die Kunstkammer: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Sammlungen Schloss Ambras, [Innsbruck.
Fhrer.]. Fhrer durch das Kunsthistorisches Museum ;; 24;. Wien, 1977.

247
CCL Mer ain schne runde vergult uhr, so umb und umb mit schn getribnen
fgurn, oben be idem ziager mit aim mann und weibskopf und ain kugel, die den
tage und nacht zaigt.
CCL Widerumb ain schne hoch vergulte hur, oben das gehes be idem glggl
durchbrochen, oben auf die Fortuna auf ainer runden kugl, auf allen seiten mit
schnen figurn, so funf ziager hat, mit lidern geheis, mit rottem sammet gefedert.
CCL Ain uhrwerk in aim gulden ring one zaiger; bemelte zwai stukh ligen in ainem
gsttle.
CCL Mer ain hlzener Pachus auf ainem hlzen fuesz.
CCL Mer ain stcklein, darbei ist Vulcanus, hat ain hammer in der hand and schlage
auf ain glggl.
CCL Mer das uhrwerch mit den tromettern, so Herzog Wilhelm in Bayern geen
Thurnegg hat vereht. (Trompetenautomat, Wien) (Gift)
Pg. CCLXVII Automaton in Silbercammer, Ain hoches schnes alts gschirr, auf
dem luckh siczt ain Kaiser in seinem tron under aim gwelb auf seiln (columns),
darunder ain uhrwerch, unden herumb die siben curfrsten, so da, wann uhrwerck
gericht ist, im crcl umbgeen und sich vor dem Kaiser naigen, kombt her von
Cardinal Otto von Augsburg, wigt 39 marckh 6 lot.
Hainhofer, Philipp. Des Augsburger Patriciers Philipp Hainhofer Reisen Nach
Innsbruck Und Dresden. Doering, Oscar,; B. 1858. Quellenschriften fr
Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttechnik des Mittelalters und die Neuzeit.; Neue Folge.;
Bd. 10;. Wien, C. Graeser, 1901.
Pg. 42 Ain Uhrwerk, welches ain Elephant ist, der ain thurn trgt, aulsung des
Uhrwerchs an 4. Orten geschtz lonet.
PRAGUE
Kunstkammerinventar Kaiser Rudolfs II 107-1611, Rotraut Bauer and Herbert Haupt eds.
Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien,
(1496) In einer runden gemalten laden 5 kleine uhrlein beysamen, das eine darunder
ist formirt als ein bchlin, unnd ein mayenkefer ist bey disen 5 urlein, auch mit
rederwerckh, der geht auf einem tisch, such mehr uhrn hinden folio 338

248
(257) In einem grossen schwartz hiltzin 8-eggeten hoch zugespitzten futral ein
silbern vergulte schaln gleich einem brunnen, wie mans dann mit einem uhrschlissel
kan auffziehen und mit wein springen lassen, oben auf steht ein Judit mit Holoferni
haubt, daraus rotter wein springen kan, die schalen is mit vil stainen, blument, und
tierlein geziert, ein schn werkh, das weiblin geht umb.
(1751) Das grosse silbern schiff mit den trometern, welchs man kan wie ein uhr
auffziehen, das es auff einem geht, in nussbaumin kasten mit 2 fligl.
(1753) Item des Hanns von Weli kriegschiff oder naven von holtz geschnitzt und
gemalt.
(2056) Ein kindlein, welches den kopf und f bewegt, in seinem bettlin und
wiegen.
2139 (374) Ein hoch uhrwerckh gleich ein turm, geht mit kugeln, die einer larven
au dem maul farn, sein futtral ist mit schwartz samet und gulden passement
verbrembt.
2140 (375) Ein gefiert uhrwerckh mit zappenleder umbfangen, mit crystalline gleser,
darzwischen 2 kugelen von cristall hin und wider lauffen, weiset wie andere uhrn,
vom Christoff Marggrafen ge:
2141 (376) Ein ander uhrwerckh von C. Marggrafen mit einer perspectif und
gemalten landtschafft, darin laufft helffenbainin kgelin hin und wider uff 2 sthline
saitten, zeigt und schlegt, ste uff seinem futter oder kstlin.
2142 (377) Ein uhr oder rederwerckh, ist ein pfaw, geht und wendt sich ringsumb,
shreitt und macht eine wannen mit seinem schwaiff von rechten federn, steht auff der
tafel der kc:.
2143 (90) Ein von wachs und natrlichen farben possiert weibsbrustbild in einem
nubaumin kasten, welche zurugk im kopf wirt uffzogen wie ein uhr, die verwendt
die augen, auf der tafel.
2144 (378) Ein klein werckhlin uff einem ebinen fu stehendt, mit 4 piramiden
vergult, oben auf ist ein storgkennest, die schnadern mit den schnbeln und thun die
fligel auf, wan mans aufzeucht wie ein uhr, uf der tafel.
2145 (379) Ein ander werckh vom C. Marggraven mit veyelbraunem samet
berzogen, ist ein waxin bild, schlegt uff der cittern, mit dem kopf und hand sich
bewegendt, man zeuchts auf wie ein uhrwerckh, schlecht ein fantasia.

249
2146 (380) Ein uhrwerckh so von Don Giuley verlassenschafft kommen, hatt 3 turm
und 4 schlagwerckh, hatt ein Bachustriumph mit der bauggken under andere zierd
mehr.
2147 (381) Das grosse music und schlagwerckh mit vilen figurn und gutten stainen
versetzt, welches Gerg Beyrlin ud N. Sand von Augsburg Ihr. May: verkaufft.
2148 (384) Ein wreck ebenim geheu, hatt unden zwen uffzg, hatt ein
pfeiffwerckh, macht ettlichen figurn ein dantz und intrada, oben auf ist ein vergultter
berg, da erscheint ein jger, der blasst auf seinem horn und jagt Hirsch, rech, und
bern.
2149 (423) Ein spinnredlin mi taller zugehr von holtz, wan man es umbtreibt,
schlecht es uff messin saitten dem pergamascho und ein fantasy.
2193 (425) Ein dockenwerckh, so man aufzeucht wie ein uhr, ist in einem grienen
kstlin, ein Pfeiffer, ein trommelschlager und ein landtsknechtin, recht beklaidet und
thut jades sein wesen.
2194 (426) Ein jung knblin in einem langen rckhlin beklaidet, welches man auch
wie ein uhr aufzeucht, schlegt natrlich die trummel und geht umbher.
2195 (427) Ein messin hund ligendt mit uhrwerck, ligt uff ebenim kestlin, riert die
augen, dabey ein Trk, zaigt mit seinem stab die stund, hatt ein schlagwerkh vom
Jerg Frommller.
2196 (428) Ein messing vergultte schiltkrott, die durch uhrwerckh auch geht, vom
Frommller.
Folio 366 (2403) Der nubaumin kasten in forma eines tabernaculs, darin ein waxin
brustbild, so durch rederwerckh die augen verwendt.
Folio 368 (2420) Ein kleinotlin in einem blolichten seckhelin in gemalten ledlin
ligendt, ist inwendig der englische gru und bewegen sich der engel und die Maria
mit kopf und hendt, hatt Herman Dort, ein Westphelling goldschmeid gemacht.
Folio 368 (2421) Ein anders kleinodlin mit einem Saint Hieronymo, der bewegt den
kopf und schlegt sich mit dem stain an die brust, in einem veyelbraun daffetin
seckelin in obgemeltem schchtelin.
Folio 368 (2422) Ein ander kleinotlin uff die obige manier, darin ein HIS. kindlein
sitzendt und sich mit hendt und kopflin bewegendt, auch in veyelbraunem seckelin.
Folio 368 (2423) Ein ander kleinotlin gar klein, darin ein Saint Francescho, der sich
mit kopf und hand bewegt, ist auch in veyelbraunem seckelin.

250
Folio 368 (2424) 1.1. kleine runde gemalte schechtelin, ist in jedem ein bewegende
schiltkrott, so sich mit fe und kpflein bewegen.
Folio 368 (2425) Ein schnegg darauff ein kindlein mit einem apfel in einer und in
der andern hand ein blmlein heltt udn so der schnegg auffgezogen ist, gehet e ruff
einem tisch fort, in schwartz liderm mit goldt uffgetruckhtem futral.
Folio 368 (2426) Ein kleine schiltkrott mit uhrwerk, welche auch geht.
Folio 368 (2427) Ein grosse spinne mit uhrwerckh so uff einem tisch fortlauff wann
siuffgezogen wirt.

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