374 - Censer depicting the Heavenly Jerusalem

Censer depicting the Heavenly Jerusalem Germany or Italy, 19th century, in the 13th-century style made of silver, silver plated metal, and gilded metal, repoussé and engraved (possibly incorporating antique elements); Featuring four turrets with openwork windows of double arches, set within a poly-lobed frame, surmounted by rosettes adorned with profiles of saints; angels occupy the four lower niches; apocryphal Neo-Gothic inscriptions engraved on the roofs of the turrets; resting on a matching fluorite pedestal. (Lid missing, elements to be reattached; some additions and restorations.) Total height 26 cm; height of pedestal (matching) 7.5 cm Provenance: Private collection, France The miniature architecture reproduces the forms and towers of the holy city of Heavenly Jerusalem, as described by Saint John in the Book of Revelation. This subject, highly prized in the 12th and 13th centuries in Germany—particularly in Cologne—as well as in Italy, is widely represented in the works of art from this period. This is a reworked liturgical object in the Byzantine style. Suspended from a chain, the vessel is used to burn incense to perfume the church during services. The Gozbertus censer, made of gilded bronze around 1100 in Trier, certainly served as a model for this work. Another key reference is the famous vermeil censer from the treasury of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, a major work of 12th-century Byzantine goldsmithing. Bibliographic References - The Treasure of St. Mark’s in Venice, exhibition catalog, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, March 24–June 25, 1984. - P. Williamson, *The Wyvern Collection: Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture and Metalwork*, London, 2018, pp. 74–75, nos. 37 and 38. Expert: Ulrike Christina Goetz - +(0)6 07 21 98 57