Bronze mirror with dragon and phoenix design, early Six Dynasties period, China, mid 3rd century. Artist: Unknown

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Bronze mirror with dragon and phoenix design, early Six Dynasties period, China, mid 3rd century. A bronze mirror from the Kingdom of Wu, with a large flat boss cast in low relief with a thin outer band of dragons and flying spirit figures between line borders, the broad inner band bordered with semi-circles enclosing dragons, apsara with halo, phoenixes and tigers. The boss handle is imposed on a quatrefoil pattern enclosing fabulous animals separating four pairs of phoenixes holding up a standard in the broad band. The inclusion of an apsara with a halo, a Buddhist motif, at this early period marks this as one of the earliest objects with Buddhist related decoration.

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Size: 2214px × 2831px
Location:
Photo credit: © The Museum of East Asian Art/Heritage Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 3rd, art, artefact, artifact, asian, beast, bronze, buddhism, century, china, chinese, country, creature, decoration, dragon, dynasties, east, kingdom, location, metal, mirror, museum, mythical, mythology, object, pattern, patterned, phoenix, religion, religious, unknown, wu