Mirror with Six Circular Flowers (600s): Art, History and Details

Mirror with Six Circular Flowers (600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Around the mirror’s central knob, there are six floral designs set within circles, separated by candelabra-like dividers. These flower designs later became known as "baoxiang hua 寶相花" or "flowers of precious appearance", which often remind people of Buddhist connections. The design also includes a ribbon of inscription, praising the mirror’s clarity and celebrating the end of a war.

Object facts

• Title: Mirror with Six Circular Flowers
• Date: 600s
• Culture: China, Tang dynasty (618-907)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 16.6 cm (6 9/16 in.); Overall: 1.5 cm (9/16 in.); Rim: 0.9 cm (3/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Tang Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1995.341

A detail from the museum

This mirror was made to commemorate the end of a war.

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.
• Chou, Ju-hsi, and Claudia Brown. Clarity and Luster: New Light on Bronze Mirrors in Tang and Post-Tang Dynasty China, 600-1300 : Papers from a Symposium on the Carter Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2005.

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.