About the Artwork
Imagine this peacock animated by fragrant smoke wafting through the openings in its back, neck, and beak. Made to contain incense in its hollow body, it would have delighted the nose as much as its elegant plumage and finely engraved feathers enchant the eye.
Most likely produced for a sultanate court in the Deccan region of southern India, this incense burner may have been displayed in a palace room or courtyard. For people in the Deccan sultanates, the scents emerging from this charming sculpture were not only enjoyable — they were believed to nourish the mind, body, and soul. According to esoteric sciences practiced by some members of the courtly elite, pleasant fragrances could also affect supernatural beings, driving away evil spirits or attracting good ones.
Cast in two parts that bisect the bird just below its outstretched wings and with a hinge below the tail to facilitate opening, the burner is marked by soot deposits that attest to its history of use. A curved handle connected to a stand was once likely attached to the back, just below the hinge, to provide stability.
Peacock-shaped Incense Burner
late 15th - mid 16th century
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Indian
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Brass
Overall: 11 3/4 × 7 3/4 × 7 1/2 inches (29.8 × 19.7 × 19.1 cm)
Metalwork
Asian Art
Museum Purchase, Ernest and Rosemarie Kanzler Foundation Fund
2022.1
Public Domain
Markings
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Provenance
1971-76, purchased by Anthony Jack (London, UK);1976, consigned to (Spink and Son, London, UK);
1976, purchased by Bashir Mohamed (London, UK);
2021, consigned to (Prahlad Bubbar, London, UK);
2022-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest FeedbackPublished References
Zebrowski, Mark. Gold, Silver & Bronze from Mughal India. London, 1997, p. 94, (pl. 87).
Michell, George, Mark Zebrowski. Architecture and Art of the Deccan Sultanates, The New Cambridge History of India 1.7. New York, 1999, p. 234 (fig. 172).
Haidar, Navina Najat, Marika Sardar, et al. Sultans of Deccan India 1500–1700: Opulence and Fantasy. New York, 2015, pp. 206–7, cat. no. 100.
Bubbar, Prahlad. Sublime Form. Exh. cat., Frieze Masters. London, 2021, cat. no. 11 (n.p.).
Cole, Alison, Luke Syson. “Obscure objects of desire: five of the best works in Frieze Masters’ new Stand Out section.” Art Newspaper. Accessed on October 14, 2021.
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/10/14/obscure-objects-of-desire.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Indian, Peacock-shaped Incense Burner, late 15th - mid 16th century, brass. Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, Ernest and Rosemarie Kanzler Foundation Fund, 2022.1.
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Hi, I'm Katherine Kasdorf. I'm the Associate Curator of Arts of Asia and the Islamic World at the Detroit Institute of Arts. And we're standing in the gallery for Arts of the Islamic World next to this fabulous, peacock shaped incense burner from the Deccan region of Central to Southern India.
Probably made for a sultan at court sometime between the late 1400s and mid-1500s, this peacock comes from a long tradition of metal sculpture in Southern India. It's cast brass in two parts, with a hollow body so that it could accommodate the incense. But there are so many wonderful sculptural details. It has this really expressive face with its beak slightly open, and there's a hinge under the tail so that you can open the top of the bird and put the incense inside. When someone lit the incense and closed the top, fragrant smoke would rise through the holes in the peacock's body and through the opening in its beak. It would've had a very animated effect, thinking about its intended function.
This work is really multisensory and dynamic visually. The peacock is finely detailed and expressive. The artist even took care to represent the different textures of the feathers on the peacock's body, neck, and tail, and the scales on its legs. When it was being used as an incense burner, scented smoke would've curled upward from the neatly cast holes of the back and neck, animating the bird, and echoing the curling ends of its tail. The people who saw it in action must have beheld it with wonder, marveling at the dynamic effects of the smoke issuing from the peacock's body and enjoying the smell of the incense.
Animal-shaped objects like incense burners, pitchers, other functional objects were popular throughout the Islamic world and in South Asia during this time period and before. There are actually a couple of other peacock-shaped incense burners from the Deccan region of Southern India that we know about, but they're actually quite a bit smaller than this one. So this is one of the largest examples that we know of. Animals were a big source of inspiration for artists, and they still are. And as you explore the gallery, you can look for a lot of other animal-shaped objects. There are so many fabulous works at the DIA, but this one is just so much fun to look at. It's just a beautiful work of art all at the same time, so I hope that you enjoy exploring it too.
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