Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Disc with a phoenix and a dragon

  • loan

Glossary

phoenix

  • phoenix

    Mythical bird known as hōō in Japan. The Islamic tradition appropriated the far-eastern iconography of the phoenix and used it to represent another mythical bird, the simurgh.

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • The Barlow Collection by the University of Sussex

    The Barlow Collection

    The disc shows a mixture of styles, although it is basically imitating an archaic jade. Unlike archaic examples, it was not carved from a flat disc, but varies greatly in thickness, according to the design.

    The piece is made of green stone, ranging from a deep grey green to a paler yellowish green, with yellowish-brown patches. It is carved as an unevenly shaped disc, with a circular hole in the centre and a pointed tip, flanked by an openwork dragon and an openwork cloud motif. On one side, the hole is incorporated off-centre into an oval surround, which slopes towards the hole, where the disc is very thin; on the other side, it is surrounded by a rope-twist border. The surface is decorated with angled and archaistic scroll motifs in relief.

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