Tea at Trianon: The Tympanum Player

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, November 6, 2010

The Tympanum Player

Marie-Antoinette's android.

This famous android was a collaborative effort by two Germans. Clockmaker Peter Kintzing created the mechanism and joiner David Roentgen crafted the cabinet; the dress dates from the 19th century. Automatons were in circulation and aroused much curiosity. Roentgen probably sent the tympanum to the French court and Marie-Antoinette bought it in 1784. The queen, aware of its perfection and scientific interest, had it deposited in the Academy of Sciences cabinet in 1785. The tympanum is a musical instrument that plays eight tunes when the female android strikes the 46 strings with two little hammers. Tradition has it that she is a depiction of Marie-Antoinette.

P. M. Doolan said...: I wonder was Roentgen related to the Roentgen who inevented the x-ray machine?; November 6, 2010 at 6:58:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: I don't know but it would be worth looking into!; November 6, 2010 at 9:55:00 AM EDT
Julygirl said...: Fascinating!; November 6, 2010 at 10:00:00 PM EDT
lara77 said...: The fact that Her Majesty the Queen deposited this remarkable work of art with the Academy of Sciences probably ensured its survival over the centuries. If it had been left at Versailles the savages of the republic would have sold it to the highest bidder!; November 7, 2010 at 5:44:00 PM EST
elena maria vidal said...: It shows the queen was interested in science, quite unlike the usual portrayal of her.; November 7, 2010 at 5:55:00 PM EST