Detail of an Incense Burner in the Form of a Castle in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2020

Title: Incense Burner in the Form of a Castle (Räucherburg)

Artist: Abraham Jamnitzer (German, Nuremberg)

Date: ca. 1590

Culture: German, Nuremberg

Medium: Silver (chased, partially gilded), fir, pearwood, ebony

Dimensions: 13 × 11 13/16 × 15 1/16 in., 2.2 lb. (33 × 30 × 38.3 cm, 1 kg)
Height of silver piece: 8 1/4 in. (21 cm)

Classification: Metalwork-Silver

Credit Line: Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe


Fashioned by the son of master goldsmith Wenzel Jamnitzer, this incense burner was kept in the grand ducal Kunstkammer of Baden-Baden. It was likely taken out to decorate banquet tables, where the heady smoke emanating from the base would have permeated the room. The fragrance had both a celebratory and a medicinal function; incense was considered a means to cleanse the air of harmful vapors.

Text from: www3.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/785223