Censer
Artist
Unknown, Italian
DateEarly 16th Century
CultureCentral Italian
MediumGilded copper
ClassificationMetalwork
ProvenanceEmile Gavet, Paris (cat. #621, ill.), approximately 1870s-1880s; sold to Mr. and Mrs. William K. and Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt, Gothic Room, Marble House, Newport, Rhode Island, 1889-1982; transfered to Mrs. Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt Belmont in divorce; purchased by John Ringling, 1928; bequest to The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 1936
Credit LineBequest of John Ringling, 1936
Object numberSN7077
The proper name for a censer in the Western Church is a thurible, from the Latin thuribulum and the Greek thyos, meaning incense. In its design, the censer allows both for controlled burning and the escape of scented smoke. This finely wrought pierced bronze-gilt footed sphere (SN7075) was probably meant to be used and displayed on an altar. The upper portion is crested with the cast figure of a Roman soldier clad in armor, and opens with a five-part hinge to a cup-lined lower portion. The sphere is cut and pierced with elegant scrollwork, and a band of pseudo cabochon jewels, and raised on an engraved base. This censer, which takes the form of a Gothic church (SN7077), has a cover in the form of two rows of pierced Gothic windows alternating with flying buttresses, which rise to a steepled roof.
On View
Not on view
Second half of the thirteenth century
Second half of the 14th Century
Unknown
Case: Late sixteenth or early seventeenth century; Wax: mid-sixteenth century