Bronze thymiaterion (incense burner)
Incense burners were popular items among the Etruscans, who often buried their dead with them. This example is typical of a type normally associated with Vulci, the site of extensive bronze-working activity throughout much of Etruscan history. A robust nude youth, a descendant of the Greek kouros type, stands on a triangular platform supported by a tripod with lion's-paw feet. The shaft rising from his head terminates in a plant-like form that originally supported a small bowl for the incense.
Artwork Details
- Title: Bronze thymiaterion (incense burner)
- Period: Archaic
- Date: late 6th century BCE
- Culture: Etruscan
- Medium: Bronze
- Dimensions: total H. 13 3/4 in. (34.9 cm); H. of figure 3 3/4 in. (9.6 cm)
- Classification: Bronzes
- Credit Line: Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1897
- Object Number: 97.22.22
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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