Emblem of a Censer: 'Terrible and Sweet'
A smoking incense-burner with its motto, and a partial two-wheeled cart, in red chalk
The upper part of the sheet carries an emblematic device of a censer trailing clouds of incense, glossed by the two-word motto 'terrible and sweet.' Below, drawn in red chalk, is a partial study of a two-wheeled cart carrying a small pitched-roof box or house. The pairing of image and motto follows the emblem (impresa) tradition, while the cart is a separate mechanical sketch.
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Censer and clouds of incense as an emblem
An incense-burner sends up billowing clouds of smoke, forming an emblematic device paired with its motto. The image supplies the body of an impresa whose meaning the motto completes. The caption names the subject as a censer and clouds of incense.
Motto: 'Terrible and sweet'
The two-word legend 'terrible and sweet' accompanies the smoking censer as its allegorical motto. It sets a paradox of the fearsome and the gentle against the emblem's rising incense. The phrase belongs to Leonardo's store of emblematic sayings.
Partial two-wheeled cart
At the lower part of the sheet stands a partly drawn two-wheeled cart carrying a small box or house with a pitched roof. A shafted framework runs forward from the wheeled axle. The catalogue records it as a partial figure of a two-wheeled cart.