Page 1 - Met Museum Ghandara Incense Burner

A Buddhist Incense Burner from Gandhara

ELIZABETH ROSEN STONE

unique bronze incense burner in the four figures. They are nearly identical; the slight dif-
collection of Shelby White and Leon Levy ferences can be accounted for by minor touch-ups to
.(Figure 1, Colorplate 3) is now on loan to The the impressions. The same is the case for the wings.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. While of extraordinary One mold was used for the right wing and another for
aesthetic merit, the burner also stands as a paradigm the left. The wax models for the body and for the
for the unique position ancient India occupied as an wings of each figure were then joined, and a mold
inheritor of classical art that arrived via the sea route suitable for the final casting was created from them.
through Alexandria, mingled with Near Eastern tradi- Standing on the burner's base is a decorative fluted
tions through Parthian art in Gandhara, and was then shaft (Figure 5) which supports the functional portion
transmitted, through the intermediary of Buddhism, of the censer. Although the shaft and the base are
to the Far East. Nevertheless, it is incontrovertibly aligned by a small lip, the bottom piece seems never to
Indian. Similar objects are known throughout the have been permanently attached and would fall off if
ancient world, but Indian examples were hitherto one lifted the burner by the shaft alone. As we shall
known only through illustrations on Buddhist narra- see below, similar smaller objects were carried and
tive reliefs in Gandhara. held by the shaft, but the Gandharan incense burner
The bronze will be studied in relationship first to its is far too heavy to be carried about and must have
predecessors in the Greco-Roman and Near Eastern stood on the floor or on an altar. At the bottom of the
worlds and then, briefly, to its successors in the Far shaft (Figure 6) is a torus-shaped wreath with two dif-
East. But most importantly it will be studied for what it ferent decorative motifs, alternating so as to divide the
is: a unique and important extant example of Indian torus into four sections.
art made at the very beginnings of Buddhist art in The shaft supports the functional portion of the
Gandhara and bearing, in a formative version, much censer, which has three main parts. At the bottom is a
of the symbolism which was eventually used through- round tray or disk (Figure 7) which may have served
out the Buddhist world. to catch embers. The central portion of the tray shows
The Levy-White incense burner measures 82.6 cen- a lotus surrounded by a vine scroll, and several birds
timeters high and is composed of numerous individ- are shown as if perched upon the disk. The most
ual bronze elements which are mechanically joined to remarkable feature of this burner is that five leaves (see
or suspended from the body. All of the individual Figure 8) hang from hooks on the disk. Four appear to
parts were made using the lost-wax process, and there be vine leaves, each with a human head at the spot
is no indication that any of the parts were made at where the leaf blade joins the stalk. The fifth leaf is of
another time, or in another place.1 The incense an another type and has no human head. Although
burner rests on a square base (Figure 2) with four one might guess that the leaf which does not match the
winged male figures as corner supports (Figure 3). others is a later replacement, there is no evidence for
The winged figures were cast separately and secured this, as the technique of casting and the metal is no dif-
to the base by conspicuous rivets. From the back (Fig- ferent from the others.2 The leaves alternate with the
ure 4), one can clearly see the method of manufac- remains of what once must have been bells.
ture. For each of the bodies, wax was pressed into a The burner itself is a round bowl decorated with
shallow mold. The same press mold was used for all lotus leaves. It is surmounted by a conical pierced lid
(Figure 9) whose function is to contain any flames
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2004 and at the same time release the aromatic smoke of
Metropolitan Museum Journal 39 the burning incense. The middle band contains two

The notes for this article begin on page 95. 69

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