Mirror with a Coiling Dragon (700s): Art, History and Details

Mirror with a Coiling Dragon (700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Cast in high-tin and low-lead bronze by the lost wax method, this mirror has a dark and lustrous patina known as heiqigu (literally, “black lacquer antique”). It bears a design of a coiling dragon among trailing clouds. With a small, elongated head connecting to an S-curve of the neck that is as sinuous as the body and tail, the dragon of the Tang period is unique.

Object facts

• Title: Mirror with a Coiling Dragon
• Date: 700s
• Culture: China, Tang dynasty (618-907)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 10.2 cm (4 in.); Overall: 1.1 cm (7/16 in.); Rim: 0.8 cm (5/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Tang Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1995.367

A detail from the museum

The patina of this mirror is known as heiqigu (literally, “black lacquer antique”).

Collection credit

Gift of Drs. Thomas and Martha Carter in Honor of Sherman E. Lee

Further reading listed by the museum

• Chou, Ju-hsi. Circles of Reflection: The Carter Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000.
• Wang, Eugene Y. "Mirror, Moon, and Memory in Eighth-Century China: From Dragon Pond to Lunar Palace." Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 9 (2005): 42-67.
• Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. Accumulating Culture: The Collections of Emperor Huizong. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.