Octafoil Mirror with Hunters and Prey (late 600s–early 700s): Art, History and Details

Octafoil Mirror with Hunters and Prey (late 600s–early 700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Corrosion has covered this mirror's surface with an uneven layer of green patination. Otherwise, this medium-sized mirror is strong in impact and dynamic in movement. The border arrangement is typical, with eight compartments for four types of decoration arranged in pairs across the same axis. Other than the cloud scrolls, which have been radically transformed so as to be almost unrecognizable, the rest are fine portrayals of insects and plants—a typical arrangement for Tang mirrors, perhaps of the eighth century. The chief focus, of course, lies in the inner circle, which has gained in size and dimension. At its center is a crouching beast. Action is most apparent in the sequence of the hunt, with hunters on horses, shooting with bow and arrow at the prey, or carrying a long lance for the attack. The prey includes bear, deer, rabbit, and boar—their size and pose being sufficiently varied. The insistence on horror vacui (fear of empty spaces) is apparent; wherever the likelihood of a vacant space exists, the maker of the mirror has inserted a plant to fill the void. The result is a fast-paced whirling motion that never ends.

Object facts

• Title: Octafoil Mirror with Hunters and Prey
• Date: late 600s–early 700s
• Culture: China, Tang dynasty (618-907)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 20 cm (7 7/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Tang Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1995.365

A detail from the museum

Four stylized mountains in diminutive scale represent the cardinal directions around the animal-shaped knob at the center of the mirror.

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.
• Yen, Chuan-Ying. "The Decorative Motifs on Tang Dynasty Mirrors." Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 9 (2005): 1-23.

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.