id: 126088 accession number: 1948.308 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1948.308 updated: 2022-07-21 09:00:28.806000 Feline Incense Burner, 1150–1200. Iran, Khurasan, Seljuq period of Iran (1037–1194). Copper alloy, cast, engraved, chased, and pierced; overall: 35.5 x 11 x 32.5 cm (14 x 4 5/16 x 12 13/16 in.); head: 17.8 x 9.5 x 12.5 cm (7 x 3 3/4 x 4 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1948.308 title: Feline Incense Burner title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1150–1200 creation date earliest: 1150 creation date latest: 1200 current location: 116 Islamic creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: Iran, Khurasan, Seljuq period of Iran (1037–1194) technique: Copper alloy, cast, engraved, chased, and pierced department: Islamic Art collection: Islamic Art type: Metalwork find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 35.5 x 11 x 32.5 cm (14 x 4 5/16 x 12 13/16 in.); Head: 17.8 x 9.5 x 12.5 cm (7 x 3 3/4 x 4 15/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Exhibition of Persian Art: 7000 Years of Art in Iran opening date: 1961-10-19T04:00:00 The Exhibition of Persian Art: 7000 Years of Art in Iran. Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France (organizer) (October 19, 1961-January 31, 1962). title: Islam and the Medieval West opening date: 1975-04-06T04:00:00 Islam and the Medieval West. University Art Museum, Binghamton, NY, Binghamton, NY (organizer) (April 6-May 4, 1975). title: Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture opening date: 1975-09-24T04:00:00 Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 24-November 16, 1975). title: Art of the Islamic World (Islamic art rotation) opening date: 2021-05-21T04:00:00 Art of the Islamic World (Islamic art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (May 21, 2021-May 31, 2022). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Kunstschatze aus Iran. DIE WOCHE, Zurich, Switzerland (6/6/1962). --- PROVENANCE (Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: ?-1948 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1948- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Arabic inscriptions in Kufic script against a background of scrolling arabesques run along the back and neck of the feline form. digital description: wall description: In Iran during the 1000s and 1100s, vessels in the shape of animals gained popularity, especially as incense burners. Felines were favored in Persian art and this piece may represent a caracal, a type of lynx. The head of the creature was cast separately and is removable to fill its body with hot coals and incense. Qur’anic verses on the neck and spine remind worshippers to set work aside, attend prayer, and then disperse to seek God’s bounty. The diffusion of perfumed smoke through the burner’s pierced palmette design may have served as a sensorial reminder of this teaching. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS “Part II. Annual Report Issue for the Year 1948.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 36, no. 6, 1949, pp. 111–142. page number: Mentioned: p. 117 url: www.jstor.org/stable/25141566 Shepherd, Dorothy G. "A Lion Incense Burner of the Seljuk Period". The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art. 44 (6): 115-118. page number: Reproduced: cover & p. 117; Mentioned: p. 115-118 url: www.jstor.org/stable/25142215 The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 707 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n129 Persian Art Before And After the Mongol Conquest.: [Exhibition] April 9-May 17, 1959. the University of Michigan, Museum of Art, Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, Museum of Art, 1959. page number: Mentioned: cat. no. 46, p. 30; Reproduced: p. 57 url: Ghirshman, Roman. Sept mille ans d'art en Iran: Petit Palais, Octobre 1961-Janvier 1962. Paris: Association francaise d’action artistique, 1961. page number: Reproduced: p. 176, pl. CVIII url: Kühnel, Ernst. Islamische Kleinkunst: ein Handbuch für Sammler und Liebhaber. Braunschweig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1963. page number: Reproduced ill no. 127; Mentioned: p 166-167 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 208 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n232 Educational Research Council of Greater Cleveland, The Human Adventure, III: Medieval Civilization. Grade 5, Vol. 3 (1st edition, 1965-1966) page number: Reproduced: p. 71 url: Melikian-Chirvani, Assadullah Souren. Le griffon iranien de Pise Matériaux pour un corpus de l'argenterie et du bronze iraniens III. Wiesbaden: [s.n.], 1968. page number: Reproduced: p. 72; Mentioned: p. 71-73 url: Grabar, Oleg. "The Visual Arts, 1050-1350." Cambridge History of Iran. 5 (1968): 626-658. page number: Reproduced: pl 11; Mentioned: p. 645 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 208 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n232 Kühnel, Ernst and Katherine Watson, translator. Islamic Arts. London: Bell, 1970. page number: Reproduced: fig.127; Mentioned: p. 161 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 264 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n284 Zorzi, Alvise. Marco Polo: Venezia E L'oriente. Milano: Electa, 1981. page number: Reproduced: p. 114; Mentioned: p 118p. url: Baer, Eva. Metalwork in Medieval Islamic Art. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1983. page number: Reproduced: fig. 41; Mentioned: p. 57 url: Isurāmu jidai no dosei hakogata kōro [イスラーム時代の土製箱型香炉 = Clay cuboid incense burners of the Islamic period]. Nara-shi: Shiruku Rōdo-gaku Kenkyū Sentā, 2006. page number: Reproduced: p. 101 url: "Clay Cuboid Incense Burners of the Islamic Period," Bulletin of the Research Center for Silk Roadology 25 (2009) 101. page number: p. 101 url: Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. page number: Reproduced: P. 132, fig. 4.2; Mentioned: P. 33, 133 url: Gertsman, Elina and Barbara H. Rosenwein. The Middle Ages in 50 Objects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. page number: Mentioned: p. 22-25; Reproduced: p. 23 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 226–227 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1948.308/1948.308_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1948.308/1948.308_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1948.308/1948.308_full.tif