Search engine for discovering works of Art, research articles, and books related to Art and Culture
ShareThis
Javascript must be enabled to continue!

Lobed Circular Mirror with Decoration of Two Phoenixes and Two Lotus Plants

View through Harvard Museums
This eight-lobed, circular mirror has a narrow raised outer rim that is completely unembellished. This gives way to a wide inner decorative border that's slightly sunken and embellished with relief-decoration of discrete lotus buds, leaves, and blossoms within the center of each lobe. The main circular field of decoration is relatively wide. On either side of the hemispherical knob is a symmetrically disposed pair of phoenixes, each one with bows and tassels in its mouth, and clutching a lotus blossom in its claws. Between the two phoenixes, there is a cut lotus blossom stalk above (at the twelve-o'clock position) and a cut stalk of lotus with a large leaf on top and two lotus buds on either side below (at the six-o'clock position). There are localized areas of green and red patina on the reflecting side of the mirror, including pseudomorphs of fabric in the green patina.
Department of Asian Art Edmund Lin (1928-2006; Professor Harvard Medical School) Boston; by bequest to the Harvard Art Museum Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum Bequest of Edmund Chi Chien Lin
image-zoom
Title: Lobed Circular Mirror with Decoration of Two Phoenixes and Two Lotus Plants
Description:
This eight-lobed, circular mirror has a narrow raised outer rim that is completely unembellished.
This gives way to a wide inner decorative border that's slightly sunken and embellished with relief-decoration of discrete lotus buds, leaves, and blossoms within the center of each lobe.
The main circular field of decoration is relatively wide.
On either side of the hemispherical knob is a symmetrically disposed pair of phoenixes, each one with bows and tassels in its mouth, and clutching a lotus blossom in its claws.
Between the two phoenixes, there is a cut lotus blossom stalk above (at the twelve-o'clock position) and a cut stalk of lotus with a large leaf on top and two lotus buds on either side below (at the six-o'clock position).
There are localized areas of green and red patina on the reflecting side of the mirror, including pseudomorphs of fabric in the green patina.

Related Results

Small Circular Mirror with Loop Handle and Geometric Decor in Relief
Small Circular Mirror with Loop Handle and Geometric Decor in Relief
This small circular bronze mirror is slightly irregular in shape and decorated very simply, with radiating lines raised in relief around the central loop handle. Although now cover...
Circular Mirror with Articulated Lip and Decoration of Flying Birds and Blossoming Plants
Circular Mirror with Articulated Lip and Decoration of Flying Birds and Blossoming Plants
A well-articulated, relief lip encircles the periphery of this circular mirror; on the mirror's decorated back, a single bowstring line rises in relief about one centimeter in from...
Lotuses and Birds
Lotuses and Birds
Painted with ink and colored pigments on paper, this magnificent eight-panel folding screen boasts a continuous scene of a lotus pond with tall, luxuriant stalks of lotus flowers, ...
Small Jar with Three Loop Handles and Ascending Lotus-Petal Decor
Small Jar with Three Loop Handles and Ascending Lotus-Petal Decor
The walls of this small, ovoid jar rise at a steep angle from the circular footring, expanding to the widest point at the shoulder, where they angle inward to form the virtually fl...
Kingfisher Over a Lotus Pond
Kingfisher Over a Lotus Pond
Ren Yi (also known by his sobriquet Bonian) was born in Shangyin (modern Shaoxing), Zhejiang province. The son of a portrait painter, Ren Yi learned to paint at a young age and in ...
Circular Dish with Angled Side Walls and Decoration of Two Fish in a Lotus Pond
Circular Dish with Angled Side Walls and Decoration of Two Fish in a Lotus Pond
This circular dish has steeply angled side walls that rise from the circular, flat base. The dish was potted over a hump mold placed at the center of the potter's wheel. The mold s...
"The Former Deeds of Bodhisattva Medicine King," Chapter 23 of the Lotus Sutra (Hokekyō)
"The Former Deeds of Bodhisattva Medicine King," Chapter 23 of the Lotus Sutra (Hokekyō)
Of the numerous sutras (Buddhist texts) brought to Japan, the Lotus Sutra (Japanese: Myōhō-renge-kyō; Sanskrit: Saddharma-pundarika sutra) became the most popular and influential. ...
Fickur med châtelaine samt etui
Fickur med châtelaine samt etui
Of gold with enamel, miniature painting, oriental pearls and jargons, dial of enamel, works with s. k. spider canal. Bottom shell convex. On this in cover enamel a figure scene in ...

Back to Top