Comments on: Cornelis Drebbel’s Perpetuum Mobile in the Linder Gallery

By: Richard SantaColoma

Richard SantaColoma — Mon, 10 May 2010 13:36:08 +0000

Since I took the photo used in your blog post, I thought it might be OK to post a link to a page I had made (link above), where it came from, which looks into the workings of these devices. Your readers might be interested in some of the ideas I have explored, and the comparisons to the other known illustrations of Drebbel’s perpetuums. The emergence of the Lidner example is of course the first new one in some time… and also, very rare. Until it was posted online, I had held hope that it would advance our understanding of these… unfortunately, as you say, it is shadowy, and so will not reveal anything. While I am posting (I have not yet read Gorman’s book), has this painting yet been thought a Stalbemt, like the Prado and Walter’s collectors galleries? If not, why not? Great site, BTW… Rich.

By: Francis Franck

Francis Franck — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:29:38 +0000

On http://www.drebbel.net/1621%20PtPM.pdf you’ll find an article written by Heinrich Hiesserle von Chodaw in 1621 containing a functional description and a drawing of the instrument shown in this painting.

By: Hubert

Hubert — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:20:02 +0000

About Drebbel, take a look at http://www.drebbel.net and read the dissertation of Dr. Vera Keller: Cornelis Drebbel; Fame and the making of modernity (Princeton, 2009)