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Collections Online Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University

Incense Burner in the Form of a Woman with Two Children

Artwork Tombstone
CultureMessapian
TitleIncense Burner in the Form of a Woman with Two Children
Date500–400 BCE
MediumTerracotta
DimensionsObject: 8 1/4 × 3 1/2 × 3 9/16 in. (21 × 8.9 × 9 cm)
Overall: 8 1/4 × 3 1/2 × 3 9/16 in. (21 × 9 × 9 cm)
Credit LineEskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number85.5.3
This artwork is currently off display. You may be able to see this artwork by filling out an art viewing room request.
Incense burner is in the form of a woman with children, who carries a baby in her right arm and rests her left hand on head of an older standing child. She balances a basket on her head, which serves as the incense burner, and wears a long cape draped from her head and shoulders. The facial features, clothing and basket are painted with geometric motifs.

Incense burner is in the form of a woman with children, who carries a baby in her right arm and rests her left hand on head of an older standing child. She balances a basket on her head, which serves as the incense burner, and wears a long cape draped from her head and shoulders. The facial features, clothing and basket are painted with geometric motifs.

1985, Indiana University Art Museum purchase from Michael Ward, Inc., New York, NY

?–1985, with Michael Ward, Inc., New York, NY [1]

Possibly: before 1985, Private Collection, Japan [2]

Notes:

[1] Michael L. Ward (b. 1943) was an antiquities dealer, maintaining a gallery in New York (NY) from 1982 to 2010.

[2] In a memo to IUAM curator (probably in December 1984), Michael Ward states that the "figure comes from a Japanese private colletion [sic] and was purchased, I believe, a number of years ago on the London market."

Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

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"Incense Burner in the Form of a Woman with Two Children | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=85.5.3