Mirror with Deities, Chariot, and the White Tiger (100–200 CE): Art, History and Details

Mirror with Deities, Chariot, and the White Tiger (100–200 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Depicted on the mirror back are two Daoist deities: the King Father of the East (Dongwanggong) and the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu). Completing the design are the White Tiger of the west (one the Four Spirits representing the four cardinal directions, including the Green Dragon of the east, the Red Bird of the south, and the Dark Warrior of the north) and a chariot drawn by three horses. The reason for the redundancy of two symbolic images relating to the west is not known.

Object facts

• Title: Mirror with Deities, Chariot, and the White Tiger
• Date: 100–200 CE
• Culture: China, Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 18.3 cm (7 3/16 in.); Overall: 1.7 cm (11/16 in.); Rim: 0.9 cm (3/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Han Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1995.332

A detail from the museum

The meaning of the complex imagery on this mirror's back is not fully understood.

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.