Mirror Back with Great Goddess
Unknown Artist
400–550 CE
Medium
slate, pigment; other side originally inlaid with polished pyrite mirror
Dimensions
w. 20.1 cm, d. 0.2 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Art of the Americas
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
James Albert and Mary Gardiner Ford Memorial Fund
Accession Number
1989.65
About this artwork
An important female deity commands the watery scene on the back of this mirror. The face, bordered by ear ornaments and partially hidden by a nose ornament, appears beneath a huge headdress with the fringed eyes and curled proboscis of an abstract butterfly. The deity rests on a shell-studded water band and two adoring humans offer flowers or incense in a bag. Mirrors served as costume ornaments and perhaps were used in rituals to divine the unknown.