Mirror with Dragon Arabesques
China (probably from Hunan province)
Eastern Zhou dynasty, Warring States period or early Western Han dynasty, 3rd/2nd century B.C.
- Medium
- Bronze
- Classification
- Metalwork
- Dimensions
- Diam.: 16 cm (6 5/16 in.); Thickness: D.: 0.5 cm (3/8 in.)
- Culture
- China
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia
- Credit line
- Samuel M. Nickerson Endowment
- 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. Tight spirals and triangles that form the ground pattern of this mirror are distinctive to south-central and southern China. These fanciful configurations seem to have been inspired by painted lacquers and embroidered and woven textiles distinctive to that area, which was occupied by the Kingdom of Chu.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
