Curtain Fragment with Panthers

Description

[Egypt, Antinoë, Byzantine period, late 6th century] 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.