Harvard Art Museums > 1943.52.156: Circular Mirror with Painted Decoration of Human Figures and Horses Mirrors Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Circular Mirror with Painted Decoration of Human Figures and Horses , 1943.52.156,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, May 18, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/204277. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 1943.52.156 Title Circular Mirror with Painted Decoration of Human Figures and Horses Classification Mirrors Work Type mirror Date 1st century BCE Places Creation Place: East Asia, China, Hunan province, Changsha Period Han dynasty, Western Han period, 206 BCE-9 CE Culture Chinese Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/204277 Physical Descriptions Medium Cast Bronze with decoration cold-painted in mineral pigments; reputedly from Changsha, Hunan province Dimensions Diam. 22 cm (8 11/16 in.) Weight 637.5 g Provenance Recorded Ownership History Grenville L. Winthrop purchased from C.T. Loo & Co., New York (May 1942) Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop Accession Year 1943 Object Number 1943.52.156 Division Asian and Mediterranean Art Contact am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu Permissions THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS. The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Commentary A bronze mirror with similar cold-painted decoration of horses and figures against a bright red ground was excavated in 1963 from a Western Han tomb dated to the first century BCE at Hongmiaopo, Xi'an, Shaanxi province. For illustration see Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji [Compendium of Chinese Bronzes], vol. 16: Tongjing [Bronze mirrors] (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1998), no. 44, pp. 43-44. Also illustrated in Imperial China: The Art of the Horse in Chinese History (Lexington, Ky.: Kentucky Horse Park, 2000), cat. no. 124. Publication History Michael Sullivan, "Pictorial Art and the Attitude toward Nature in Ancient China", Art Bulletin (March 1954), vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 1-19, pl. 2 Sueji Umehara, "Sengoku-jidai no saigakyo" (Painted Bronze Mirrors of the Period of Warring States), Bijutsu Kenkyu (The Journal of Art Studies) (November 1954), vol. 178, pp. 153-72, color pl. 1 Michael Sullivan, The Birth of Landscape Painting in China, University of California Press (Berkeley, 1962), pl. 6 Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), no. 056, pp. 58-59 Kazuo Miyamoto, "The Chronology of the Painted Bronze Mirror and its Meaning", The Shien (or the Journal of History) (2000), No. 137, pp. 159-191, p. 170, ill. 7.1 Susan Costello, "An Investigation of Early Chinese Bronze Mirrors at the Harvard University Art Museums" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 2005), Unpublished, pp. 1-25 passim Exhibition History S427: Ancient Chinese Bronzes and Jades, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/20/1985 - 04/30/2008 Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
