Mirror with Dragon Arabesques
Eastern Zhou dynasty, Warring States period or early Western Han dynasty, 3rd/2nd century B.C.
- Medium
- Bronze
- Classification
- Metalwork
- Dimensions
- Diam.: 20.8 cm (8 3/8 in.); Thickness: D.: 0.2 cm (3/16 in.)
- Culture
- China
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Samuel M. Nickerson Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The mirror in ancient China, usually held by hand with a cord, was a thin bronze disk with one face polished to a reflective sheen. The backs of mirrors were cast with elegant and dynamic designs that often reflect then-contemporary textile designs. The ground of interlocking T's on this mirror is known from textile finds as well as from impressions of deteriorated fabrics preserved in the surface corrosion of bronzes. Superimposed on, and contrasting with, this rectangular ground are flowing dragon- and bird-headed figures reminiscent of those seen in embroidered designs. The interplay of lines and curves is characteristic of the decorative art of the third and second centuries B.C.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
