Page 15 - Met Museum Ghandara Incense Burner

Figures 24 and 25. Base of an incense burner (left) and its lid (right). Tuch el-Karamus, Egypt, late 4th century B.C. Silver. Egypt-
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ian Museum, Cairo, JE 38089, JE 38090 (photos: Michael Pfrommer, Studien zu alexandrinischer und grossgriechischer friihhel-
lenistischer Zeit [Berlin, 1987], pls. 2, 3)

in the closed burner are streams of smoke. Although
the burner in the sketch is of an early date and from a
different country, this illustration is the only one I
have seen that shows what the Levy-White incense
burner would look like if it were used closed. Compar-
ing the Dubroff incense burner with painted depic-
tions of incense burners is helpful in understanding
its function. While we have been unable to provide
such a comparison
for the Gandharan incense burner,
illustrations of contemporary and later Gandharan
narrative reliefs will likewise help explain the Gand-
to
haran burner. What we will see then is that it was
used not closed but
apparently open.
Hellenistic incense burners are in fact closer in form
to the Gandharan An exquisite jewel-like gilt
example.
collection and
silver burner also in the Levy-White
also on loan to the Metropolitan (Figure 23)
Museum
The Greek burner has
provides a fine comparison.65
or
no top lid, and we do not know if it ever had one. It
was made of precious metal, rather than bronze, with
exquisite craftsmanship. However, the two objects
have several features in common. Four winged
figures support the square base on both (see Figures
66
23 and 38). On each base is the same type of
fluted shaft. There is no disk for embers on the
Greek example, but the top of the bowl has an egg- Figure 26. Reconstruction of the incense burner in Figures 24
and
with a chicken on the lid.
Egyptian Museum, Cairo,
25,
and-dart motif, which the Gandharan artist adapted JE 38092 (after Michael Pfrommer, Studien zu alexandrinischer
into a lotuslike form. On the tray of the Greek und grossgriechischer fruhhellenistischer Zeit [Berlin, 1 987] ,
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burner is an incised row of smilax or ivy leaves, a pl. 2)
83