Incense burner - Bronze

A bronze medieval censer, circa 1200

This bronze censer takes the shape of a small temple, which recalls Heavenly Jerusalem. The craftsman and writer Theophilus Presbyter’s (1070-1125) "Schedula diversarum atrium" prescribes that the ideal form for a censer is the Heavenly City itself, and explains the preferred use of an architectural form and detail for these objects. A near-identical censer, which was excavated near Genoa and dated to the 12th or early 13th century, is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (inv. no. 67.292), see fig. 2. Another similar example is the famed 12th-century Gozbert censer in the Cathedral Treasury in Trier, which is more elaborate in its design and probably slightly earlier in date. Finally, a last comparable example can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, see object 10.18.4.a. b, see fig. 3 below.