Incense Burner (100s BCE): Art, History and Details

Incense Burner (100s BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Both elaborate and functional, the Etruscan thymiaterion, or incense burner, typically comprises at least three main parts—tripod stand, shaft, and, at the top, a shallow bowl for incense. Often, a figural support is incorporated, here in the form of a youthful male nude, perhaps the wine god Dionysos. Below him, the tripod stand features cloven hoofs, while above him a spotted cat or panther climbs toward a rooster or other crested bird. Holes in each corner of the square upper plate likely held additional animals or other ornaments.

Object facts

• Title: Incense Burner
• Date: 100s BCE
• Culture: Etruscan
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 61 cm (24 in.)
• Collection: GR - Etruscan
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1952.96

A detail from the museum

The circular depression on the top of this object likely held incense.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
• Cooney, John D. “A Miscellany of Ancient Bronzes.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 58, no. 7 (1971): 210–18.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.