Costa Rican Censer Cover with Mythical Animal

Carlos Poveda, Paris

European Private Collection, acquired from the above in the 1980s

Gillett Griffin, et al., eds., Ancient American Art, 3500 BC-AD 1532: Masterworks of the Pre-Columbian Era, Milan, 2011, p. 143

Consisting of an openwork circular platform surmounted by a fantastic mythological beast distinguished by the reptilian’s long, toothy jaws with serrated emanations extending along the snout, the whole suggesting a caiman or crocodile with supernatural attributes; with remains of white, blue and red pigment.

Such elaborate covers were set atop tall lidded incense vessels with the smoke emanating dramatically from the holes in the head and body.

For a similar example, see Elizabeth P. Benson, ed., Between Continents / Between Seas: Pre-Columbian Art of Costa Rica, New York, 1981, p. 193,  pls. 90 and 92.