Octafoil Mirror with Lunar Palace (early 1100s–mid-1200s): Art, History and Details

Octafoil Mirror with Lunar Palace (early 1100s–mid-1200s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Bronze mirrors typically have one polished and one decorated side and were used in tombs for ritual purpose or served as disks for reflection. This mirror depicts the imagined scene of the moon in Chinese mythology. Legend says that the goddess Chang E consumed the elixir of immortality that she stole from her husband, the archer Yi, and flew to the moon. Chang E’s palace, the Broad Cold Palace (Guanghan gong) on the left side of the composition, is juxtaposed with a tall pine tree symbolizing longevity.

Object facts

• Title: Octafoil Mirror with Lunar Palace
• Date: early 1100s–mid-1200s
• Culture: China, Jin dynasty (1115–1234)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 21.3 cm (8 3/8 in.); Overall: 0.9 cm (3/8 in.); Rim: 0.8 cm (5/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Jin Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1995.375

A detail from the museum

A rabbit and a toad, both creatures believed to live on the moon, can be seen in the center.

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.
• Wang, Eugene Y. "Mirror, Moon, and Memory in Eighth-Century China: From Dragon Pond to Lunar Palace." Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 9 (2005): 42–67.
• Kim, Yŏng-wŏn. Miguk Met'ŭrop'ollit'an misulgwan sojang Han'guk munhwajae [미국 메트로폴리탄 미술관 소장 한국 문화재 = Korean art collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, U.S.A]. Haeoe Sojae Munhwajae Chosa. Taejŏn: Kungnip munhwajae yŏn'guso = National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, 2012.

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.