Astronomical table clock 1568

Editor: So, this is the Astronomical Table Clock, crafted around 1568 by Jeremias Metzger. It's metal and gold, currently housed at the Met. It feels less like a clock and more like a miniature golden palace celebrating the cosmos. I mean, it’s so intricate! What strikes you when you look at it? Curator: The audacity of it all, really! Imagine someone pouring over this object, probably by candlelight, etching stories into metal, wrestling with concepts of time and the universe in miniature form. Don’t you find it dizzying, the layers upon layers of meaning? The Renaissance was obsessed with knowledge, with understanding both the heavens and humanity's place within them, and this clock is the perfect example of that! Editor: Absolutely, "dizzying" is the perfect word. There is so much going on, I almost don’t know where to look! But… a clock? Wouldn't that be a really hard way to tell the time? Curator: Possibly! Practicality probably took a back seat to symbolic weight. It’s as if Metzger was attempting to capture the entire cosmos, compressing all of creation into this single, exquisite object. A display of wealth and power and intelligence and, maybe most importantly, faith in human ingenuity. Don’t you wonder about the patron who commissioned it? What did they want to say about themselves with this elaborate object? Editor: I hadn't thought about the patron's role... a symbol of power indeed. I came in thinking it was just a fancy clock, but now it seems like a whole universe of stories wrapped in gold! Curator: Precisely! And that, my dear, is the enduring magic of art – to continually surprise us with the unexpected depths hidden beneath the surface. Every tick of that clock echoes with ambition, artistry, and the unending human quest to understand it all.