Mirror with Xiwangmu (c. 317–400 CE): Art, History and Details

Mirror with Xiwangmu (c. 317–400 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This mirror depicts Xiwangmu, Queen Mother of the West, and her husband, Dongwanggong, King Father of the East, surrounded by mythical figures and animals. One of the earliest and most powerful goddesses in the Daoist pantheon, Xiwangmu can be identified by her U-shaped crown. Legend says that the two deities meet once a year representing the meeting of yin and yang, the two forces that constitute the universe. This mirror shows a band of 14 squares around the center containing a long inscription.

Object facts

• Title: Mirror with Xiwangmu
• Date: c. 317–400 CE
• Culture: China, Six Dynasties period (220–589 CE)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 18.5 cm (7 5/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Southern Dynasties
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1983.213

Collection credit

The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Chinese Art Society of America, and Elizabeth Lyons. An Exhibition of Chinese Mirrors. New York: [The Society], 1951.
• Bulling, Anneliese Gutkind. The Decoration of Mirrors of the Han Period: A Chronology. Ascona: Artibus Asiae, 1960.
• Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York. Important Chinese Works of Art: The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Bull. 6 December 1983.

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.