About the Artwork
Every fifteen minutes, the rooster atop this clock comes to life, its wings flapping and its beak opening and closing as if to crow. When the clock strikes the hour, individualized figures promenade around an enthroned emperor within the domed canopy that resembles a crown. These figures represent the four princes and three archbishops who elected each ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. The clock’s base bears two engraved inscriptions that allude to its iconography: Hane Crei, (Rooster’s Crow) and Coervorsten (prince-electors).
The silver panels on the clock’s sides are engraved with landscapes that evoke some of the empire’s vast lands in central and northern Europe, which encompassed parts of nine present-day countries. The helmeted heads of soldiers with flowing moustaches seem to watch over these landscapes, and the entire clock rests on a base adorned with lush fruits and flowers and supported on the backs of four roaring lions. The clock’s silver and gilt copper case encloses a sophisticated network of gears, springs, and chains, called a movement. This mechanical wonder represented the pinnacle of technology, engineering, and metalworking and would have been an impressive centerpiece within its owner’s collection.
“The Rooster’s Crow” Automaton Clock
ca. 1585
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German
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Gilt copper, brass, silver, steel (partially blued)
Overall: 24 7/16 × 16 1/2 × 16 1/2 inches (62.1 × 41.9 × 41.9 cm), 34.8lbs
Timepieces
European Sculpture and Dec Arts
Museum Purchase, Ernest and Rosemarie Kanzler Foundation Fund
2023.601
Public Domain
Markings
Engraved on the socle beneath front face: Hane Crei Engraved on the socle beneath back face: Coervorsten
Provenance
Until 1897, a baronial collection (Bavaria, Germany);March 19, 1897, purchased at auction through (Hugo Helbing, Munich) by Carl Kallenberg [1825–1900] (Lindau, Germany);
1900, by descent to Siegfried Kallenberg [1867-1944], Munich, Germany.
Until 2021, an aristocratic collection (Italy);
2021–2023, (Menno Hoencamp, Mentinck & Roest)(Ingen, Netherlands);
2023- present, purchased by the Detroit Institute of Arts
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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Katalog von Antiquitäten, Kunstsachen und Ölgemälden alter Meister: aus dem Nachlasse der in München verstorbenen Herren Baron W. von K. und Bildhauer Heinrich Goeschl, sowie aus dem Besitze des Herrn F. S. Rosenlehner in München etc..., Munich, March 29,1897. p. 24 no. 325.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
German, “The Rooster’s Crow” Automaton Clock, ca. 1585, gilt copper, brass, silver, steel (partially blued). Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, Ernest and Rosemarie Kanzler Foundation Fund, 2023.601.
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