Mirror with a Pair of Phoenixes (1100s): Art, History and Details

Mirror with a Pair of Phoenixes (1100s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This exceptionally large bronze mirror features magnificently long-tailed phoenixes with cloud scrolls, motifs that can also be seen on the silk boots nearby. While the mirror, according to its inscription Zhang Zhigao from Jinling (Nanjing) was made in southeast China, the boots were made in the northern part of China then occupied by the Khitan people. The inscription is placed to the right of the mirror’s central knob. Mirrors typically have one polished and one decorated side and were used in part in tombs for ritual purpose or served as disks for reflection.

Object facts

• Title: Mirror with a Pair of Phoenixes
• Date: 1100s
• Culture: China, Song dynasty (960–1279)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 35.1 cm (13 13/16 in.); Overall: 1.3 cm (1/2 in.); Rim: 0.8 cm (5/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Song Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1995.389

A detail from the museum

A union of male and female birds, the phoenix often symbolizes the yin and yang of Chinese philosophy, which equates to universal balance and harmony.

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.
• Spee, Clarissa von. "From the SIlk Road to the Imperial Court: Chinese Textiles in the Cleveland Museum of Art." Arts of Asia 48, no. 3 (May-June 2018): 50–56.

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.