The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 25, 2025
Curtain Fragment with Panthers
500s
Overall: 76.2 x 54.9 cm (30 x 21 5/8 in.); Mounted: 87.6 x 66 x 2.5 cm (34 1/2 x 26 x 1 in.)
Location: Not on view
Description
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.- Mrs. Paul Mallon, Paris.
- Coptic Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 11, 2024-October 26, 2025).Coptic Textile Rotation Gallery 106. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 23, 2012-May 2, 2013).Byzantine Gallery 210 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 16, 2002-October 27, 2003).Conserving the Past for the Future. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-May 6, 2001).Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981).
- {{cite web|title=Curtain Fragment with Panthers|url=false|author=|year=500s|access-date=25 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1980.31