Cleveland Museum of Art

Curtain Fragment with Panthers

Date

500s

Medium

Dyed wool, undyed linen: slit-tapestry weave

Culture

Egypt, Antinoë, Byzantine period, late 6th century

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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 harness. Panthers, on the other hand, were associated with Dionysus, Greek god of wine, who was admired by Egyptian people of all religions through the 500s CE.

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