The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 23, 2023

Mirror with Six Circular Flowers

寶相花鏡

600s

China, Tang dynasty

(618-907)

Bronze

Diameter: 16.6 cm (6 9/16 in.); Overall: 1.5 cm (9/16 in.); Rim: 0.9 cm (3/8 in.)

Gift of Drs. Thomas and Martha Carter in Honor of Sherman E. Lee 1995.341

Location

239 Chinese Ceramics and Metalwork

Fun Fact

This mirror was made to commemorate the end of a war.

Inscriptions

Inscription

【】【】【】膽，知幽察微。珠慚朗潤， 月謝光輝。【】兵既弭，福慶斯歸。

Inscription Translation

[This mirror can unveil one's] gall. It can fathom the hidden and the subtle. Its clarity and lustre put the pearl to shame, And the moon to pale. [Now] that the war has ended, Let's celebrate the rising fortune at the wake.

Provenance
?–1995
Thomas and Martha Carter, Madison, WI, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
1995–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Chou, Ju-hsi. Circles of reflection: the Carter collection of Chinese bronze mirrors. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Reproduced: cat. no. 57, pp. 67, 108, 120
Chou, Ju-hsi, and Claudia Brown. Clarity and Luster: New Light on Bronze Mirrors in Tang and Post-Tang Dynasty China, 600-1300 : Papers from a Symposium on the Carter Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2005. Reproduced: P. 2 www.jstor.org
Exhibition history

Circles of Reflection: The Carter Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 17-November 26, 2000); China Institute Gallery, New York, NY (February 6-June 2, 2002); Elvehjem Museum of Art, Madison, WI (December 20, 2003-February 29, 2004).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1995.341