Automata

Automata, already recorded in
classical Greece, were kinetic devices that mimicked animal or human appearance
and movements. This automata depicts a devil enchained whose internal mechanism
enables him to move independently in order to frighten visitors. The
mechanical function is at the back and is activated by a handle, which enables
the head to turn to the right and to the left, the eyes to rotate, and the
mouth to open wide, showing his tongue and emitting a strange noise. The torso, whose extreme naturalism recalls
Christ at the Column by Bramante (today
in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan), may have been created reusing a Lombard
wooden statue of the early sixteenth century. The automata was one of the key pieces of the most famous Wunderkammer in Milan, created by
Manfredo Settala.