Mirror with Four T's (300s BCE): Art, History and Details
Mirror with Four T's at the Cleveland Museum of Art: 300s BCE, bronze. Explore the work's context, creator attribution and collection history.
Mirror with Four T's (300s BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.
The work and its context
The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:
The symbolic significance of the ancient Chinese mirror lies in its circular form and reflective quality that make it resemble the sun and the moon. "By the light of the sun, the world is made bright," so said a mirrorsmith. When the mirror was taken with its owner for use in the afterlife, it reflected the soul and brought eternal brightness to the next world.
Object facts
- Title: Mirror with Four T's
- Date: 300s BCE
- Culture: China, Warring States period (475–221 BCE)
- Type: Metalwork
- Technique: bronze
- Dimensions: Diameter: 10.4 cm (4 1/8 in.); Rim: 0.5 cm (3/16 in.)
- Collection: China - Zhou Dynasty
- Department: Chinese Art
- Accession number: 1995.281
A detail from the museum
The prominent T's on this mirror represent four gates in Chinese mythology that relate to transformation.
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.
Sources
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