Automaton Exhibition, Maillardet

This 1826 engraving of the automaton exhibit shows several automata that were once displayed in the Henri Maillardet London show that Lady Delacour takes her daughter Helena to see in Belinda (1801), including the Harpsichord Player (center) and one of his drawing or writing automata (left). Maillardet's automata are small, resembling youth. They perform creative, artistic work that children learn through repetitive mechanical exercizes, thus offering a commentary on the paradoxes of education, as a disciplinary process designed to produce adults capable of thinking for themselves and directing their own actions.