A Bronze Mirror

KORYO DYNASTY (12TH-13TH CENTURY)

Details

A Bronze Mirror
Koryo dynasty (12th-13th century)
Of lotiform outline cast on the back in high relief with a dragon rising above a ship in storm-tossed waves and clouds, men stand in the bow and stern of the boat and large mythical fish leap out of the cresting waves in the middle left and upper right, a four-character inscription in seal script above the mast of the ship reads huang pi ch'ang ch'on (clear immense bright heavens), a pierced knop is cast at the center; the underside of the mirror polished smooth
6 5/8in. (16.8cm.) diameter

Lot Essay

For a nearly identical mirror see Robert J. Moes, Korean Art from The Brooklyn Museum Collection (New York: Universe Books, 1987), no. 26. The catalogue note remarks that while the iconography is not known it may represent the dragon guiding a boat of souls to the spirit world or the Eight Immortals en route to their home on Peng Lai island.

Two other mirrors of this design and period are in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (17.175.26; 22.141.9).

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