Incense burner with floral pattern

Incense burner with floral pattern

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This incense burner is an unusual example of how Chinese works were sometimes modified when they came to Europe. The censor’s form is a typical Chinese archaistic reinterpretation of an ancient food vessel, but its decoration—Chinese tree peonies in a landscape setting—was most likely chased from the vessel’s original surface by a European metalsmith. A mark on the base (“ALPH GIROUX PARIS”) reveals that the vessel was once in the collection of Alphonse Giroux (1775/76-1848), a French dealer in luxury goods. It is most likely that the cold-work surface decoration was added in his workshop, reflecting the hybrid nature of Chinoiserie in eighteenth-century Europe.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.