Circles of Reflection: The Carter Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors
见日之光：卡特藏中国铜镜

Functionally used for more than cosmetic purposes, Chinese bronze mirrors embellished with detailed ornament were connected from early times to the royal courts. Imperial patronage resulted in ever-widening acceptance. Many mirrors were intended as gifts or regarded as tokens of affection. Others served political, religious, or mythical functions. Symbolically, the mirror was held in high esteem: as kin to the sun and the moon, its light penetrated to the depth of the human soul, as the symbol of the historian’s discipline. It was also a source of light and illumination in the netherworld. This exhibition featured more than ninety bronze mirrors, from pocket size to about fifteen inches in diameter, dating from the Warring States period (ca. 475–221 BCE) to the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), a span of roughly 2,500 years.