Alexander the Great on Horseback (700s): Art, History and Details

Alexander the Great on Horseback (700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Featuring imperial Byzantine themes, this rare roundel originally decorated a tunic. Genii (guardian spirits) crown the mounted horseman in military dress while an animal runs below. The inscription at the top identifies the horseman as Alexander the Great (356-323 bc), a popular cult figure in Egypt for centuries. The pattern’s mirror-image symmetry indicates the influence of costlier Byzantine silks.

Object facts

• Title: Alexander the Great on Horseback
• Date: 700s
• Culture: Egypt, Umayyad period (661–750) or Abbasid period (750–1258)
• Type: Textile
• Technique: dyed wool, undyed linen; plain weave and slit-tapestry weave
• Dimensions: Overall: 30.5 x 24.8 cm (12 x 9 3/4 in.); Mounted: 41.9 x 36.8 cm (16 1/2 x 14 1/2 in.)
• Collection: T - Coptic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1959.123

Collection credit

Gift of The Textile Arts Club

Further reading listed by the museum

• S. E. L. "Year in Review." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 46, no. 10 (1959): 210-31.
• Shepherd, Dorothy G. "Alexander: The Victorious Emperor." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 58, no. 8 (1971): 244-50.
• Wardwell, Anne E. Material Matters: Fifty Years of Gifts from the Textile Arts Club, 1934-1984 : [Exhibition] 21 November-30 December 1984, the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Museum, 1984.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.