Depicting Scent: Incense Burners in the French Engravings of the 18th Century

Abstract

This article is devoted to the comparative study of images of the incense burner, i.e. a device for filling the interior with a pleasing scent. The author refers to materials from French design and book engravings of the eighteenth century. The article contains descriptions and results of a comparative analysis of engraved images of incense burners in the works of French decorators and illustrators of the eighteenth century. A comparative study of incense burners as a sketch of an interior item and as the entourage of a book illustration makes it possible to trace the changes in their typology, style, and semantics over the eighteenth century. The article refers to engraved sketches of incense burners in the projects of French architects and ornamentalists of the eighteenth century, such as J. Bйren, B. Turreau, J.-M. Oppenord, J.-F. Blondel, J.-Ch. Delafosse, J.-F. de Nefforge, J.-F. Boucher, R. De La Londe, and J.-F. Forty. Secondly, it draws upon book engravings depicting incense burners created by such artists as C. Gillot, L.-F. Dubourg, H.-F. Gravelot, F. Boucher, Ch. Eisen, J.-J.-F. Le Barbier, K.-P. Marillier, J.-M. Moreau le Jeune, J. de Sиve, and A. Borel. As a result of the description and analysis of images, the author determines the genres and features of the iconography of the incense burner. A comparative analysis of design and book engravings helps address the problem of the genesis of the image of the incense burner in illustrations. The author substantiates the direct influence of design engravings on the images of incense burners in book illustrations and at the same time, the absence of a “literal” influence of literary texts, pointing out the stable continuity of images of the incense burner in similar works of illustrators for different editions of the same literary text. In a comparative aspect, the article analyses the semantics of images of the incense burner in the design and book engravings, noting the predominance of the sensual-hedonistic connotation of the images of the incense burner over the eighteenth century.