The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of August 13, 2022

Mirror with Xiwangmu

西王母鏡

c. AD 317–400

China, Six Dynasties Period

(AD 317–581)

Bronze

Diameter: 18.5 cm (7 5/16 in.)

The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 1983.213

Location

240A Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy

Description

This mirror depicts Xiwangmu, Queen Mother of the West, and her husband, Dongwanggong, King Father of the East, surrounded by mythical figures and animals. One of the earliest and most powerful goddesses in the Daoist pantheon, Xiwangmu can be identified by her U-shaped crown. Legend says that the two deities meet once a year representing the meeting of yin and yang, the two forces that constitute the universe. This mirror shows a band of 14 squares around the center containing a long inscription.

Provenance
?–1983
Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Bull
December 6, 1983
(Sotheby's New York, NY. Important Chinese Works of Art: The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Bull. 6 December 1983 sale, Lot 8, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1983–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Bulling, Anneliese Gutkind. The Decoration of Mirrors of the Han Period: A Chronology. Ascona: Artibus Asiae, 1960. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 95–96 and pl. 79
Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York. Important Chinese Works of Art: The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Bull. 6 December 1983. Mentioned and Reproduced: Lot 8
Turner, Evan H. "Year in Review for 1983." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 2 (1984): 38–79. Mentioned: no. 258, p. 79; Reproduced: no. 258, p. 62 www.jstor.org
Little, Stephen. Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China: the Cleveland Museum of Art, February 10-April 10, 1988. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1988. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 12
Wilson, J. Keith, and Anne E. Wardwell. "New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 8 (1994): 270–347. cat. no. 29, p. 347 www.jstor.org
Exhibition history

The Year in Review for 1983. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 22-April 8, 1984).

Mirrors: Art and Symbol. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 3, 1994-January 27, 1985).

Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-April 10, 1988).

Asian Autumn: New Objects/New Insights: Cleveland's Recent Chinese Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 18-December 31, 1994).

Escaping to a Better World: Eccentrics and Immortals in Chinese Art (Chinese art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 13-November 6, 2022).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1983.213