Curtain Fragment with Panthers
Unknown Artist
500s
Medium
Dyed wool, undyed linen: slit-tapestry weave
Dimensions
{"overall":{"height":0.762,"width":0.549},"mounted":{"height":0.876,"width":0.66,"depth":0.025}}
Classification
Textile
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession Number
1980.31
About this artwork
Luxurious tapestry-woven curtains decorated with colorful figures and flora were hung in religious, palatial, and theatrical settings. Often, as here, red forms the background of the main field framed by a blue border. Lively cheetahs or panthers wearing collars appear among alternating stylized rosettes and floral roundels that frame birds on the red ground. In the border, pairs of masks and birds alternate. Cheetahs were favored for hunting, suggested here by the collars and, in one case, a ha...