Incense burner made of brass inlaid with silver and black paste with slight traces of gilding. Spherical in shape, it is composed of two half-spheres pierced with small holes that are connected by a hinge and attached to each other by a hook; decorated with interlacing scrolls with small leaves in reserves in the form of fleurons or two-pointed circles.
Probably north-west Iran or south-east Anatolia, workshop of Zayn ad-Din 'Umar, late 15th/early 16th century Diameter: 9 cm
(hinge and closure fitted previously but not original, missing the inner metal structure that allowed the stability of the stove)
Book consulted: Expositions Paris-New York 2006/2007, Venise et l'Orient 828-1797, Institut du Monde Arabe - Metropolitan Museum of Art, cat. pp 212-225.
This incense burner is one of those inlaid metal objects - basin, bucket, box, candlestick, tray - that are misnamed _x001f_véneto-Saracenic_x001f_ and whose decoration is made up of knots and fine scrolls covering the entire surface. The Europeans of the late Middle Ages were attracted by these highly refined objects of Islamic art, which were thus imported into the West via Venice and other ports on the Mediterranean coast. Although they came from Mamluk Syria or Egypt, they were probably made in northwestern Iran or southeastern Anatolia. The inlay work on this incense burner is in the manner of the master craftsman Zayn ad-Din 'Umar, who left his signature on several pieces, including a lidded box acquired by the Medici family, now in the Bargello collections (inv.
317B, fig.).
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