Mirror with Deities and Animals Surrounded by Rings of Squares and Semicircles (late 100s CE): Art, History and Details

Mirror with Deities and Animals Surrounded by Rings of Squares and Semicircles (late 100s CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Inscription: I made this bright mirror, By refining three metals. It is fitting for immortals, distant from the worldlings, And for those who are in command of virtues and the Way. Here too we will find respect for the wise and the able. They can be engraved in infinite ways. Here is BoYa playing the music. A multitude of fortunes underscore the yang force. The mirror shines brightly on the world. May you live long as the metal and stone. May you reach the height of dukedom. Even this master be given to live a long life.

Object facts

• Title: Mirror with Deities and Animals Surrounded by Rings of Squares and Semicircles
• Date: late 100s CE
• Culture: China, Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 15 cm (5 7/8 in.); Overall: 1.3 cm (1/2 in.); Rim: 0.5 cm (3/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Han Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1995.333

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.

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.