Cleveland Museum of Art

Fragment of a Band or Border

Date

late 600s–800s

Medium

Wool and linen: tapestry weave

Culture

Egypt, Umayyad period (661–750) or Abbasid period (750–1258)

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This lively hunting scene features a central figure grappling with a lion. He is flanked by hunters on horseback brandishing swords. The swirling clothing of the hunters and the dynamic poses of the animals give a sense of movement to the band. The entire scene is bordered with a vibrant floral design. Hunting was a popular artistic theme in pre-Islamic traditions, including Sasanian and Assyrian art, and was then adopted into Islamic artistic vernacular. The warp is undyed linen, and the weft is wool for the polychrome and linen for the white.

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