Holy smoke : censers across cultures / edited by Beate Fricke ; authors and contributors: Claudia Brittenhan, Beatrice Caseau, Nathan Dennis, Jas Elsner, Beate Fricke, Milette Gaifman, Margaret Graves, Kiersten Neumann, Yao Ning, Karen Stern, Allison Stielau.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stielau, Allison, author.

Brittenhan, Claudia, author.

Caseau-Chevallier, Béatrice, author.

Caseau, Claire-Marie, author.

Dennis, Nathan, author.

Elsner, Jaś, author.

Gaifman, Milette, 1971- author.

Graves, Margaret S., author.

Neumann, Kiersten, author.

Stern, Karen B., author.

Ning, Yao, author.

Contributor:

Fricke, Beate, editor.

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Standardized Title:

Holy smoke (Hirmer)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Censers--Comparative studies.

Censers.

Physical Description:

336 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 31 cm

Other Title:

Censers across cultures.

Place of Publication:

Münich : Hirmer, [2023]

Summary:

"The fragrant smoke of incense filling the air can be witnessed in any tradition, whether polytheistic or monotheistic, whether in the Ancient Near East, or Medieval Europe. Censers are ubiquitous among religious paraphernalia, and on a truly global scale. Focusing on case studies not only places the censer in a constellation of other religious artefacts, but also relocates the importance of rituals that have long been placed at the margins of the study of religion, art and ritual. Emerging from this, we hope, is a better grasp of the role of sensorial elements in the fostering of the devotional practices of world religions." -- Publisher, band across cover.

Contents:

Introduction : censers across cultures / Beate Fricke

The art of smoke and fire : braziers and censers in Mesoamerican tradition / Claudia Brittenham

"I burn as incense for you" : censers in Assyria and beyond / Kiersten Neumann

Censers real and imagined : Jews and incense from antiquity through the present / Karen Stern

The incense burner in Greek art of the fifth century BCE / Milette Gaifman

Vessels of holy fire : the censer and the womb of the mother of God in early Byzantine and Coptic devotion / Nathan Dennis

Between matter and magic, over land and sea : a Middle Eastern censer in Sweden / Margaret Graves

Swinging through time : censers in the Latin West / Beate Fricke

The censer in and after the Reformation : authority, rebellion, transgression / Allison Stielau

Visualizing the incense smoke : the portrait of the Ming emperor Xizong (1605-1627) / Yao Ning

The substance of incense from Roman antiquity to the Middle ages / Beatrice Caseau, Claire-Marie Caseau

Afterword : censers and sensation / Jas Elsner.

Notes:

Item comes from publisher wrapped in a sheet of carbon paper, which, when removed, smudges the covers to give the impression of smoke.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

9783777439488

3777439487

OCLC:

1372391801