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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Belthook in the form of a phoenix

  • 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

    Made of opaque off-white jade with darker greyish-brown areas, the piece is carved as a phoenix, the head forming the hook and the body simplified to an elongated curved form. A flat circular button for adjusting the belt protrudes on the underside. The head is depicted with a pointed beak, the eyes and other details deeply engraved, the crest carved in relief. Thin lines are indicating plumage on both sides and underneath, the neck shows short overlapping feathers, the folded wings and the tail long ones. Two dots are incised at the end, and the button underenath is decorated with a flower-head with spiralling petals.

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