Roundel with figure (1000s): Art, History and Details

Roundel with figure (1000s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

A running figure clad in a short tunic, turban, and low boots is portrayed in this roundel. The figure holds in his right hand a string attached to a falcon which stands in the space beneath his outstretched left hand. In the upper background are foliate forms on long curving stems. The roundel is framed with a border decorated with a pseudo-inscription in deformed Kufic letters against a floriate background.

Object facts

• Title: Roundel with figure
• Date: 1000s
• Culture: Egypt, Fatimid period
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Linen and silk: plain weave with inwoven tapestry weave
• Dimensions: Overall: 13.1 x 12.8 cm (5 3/16 x 5 1/16 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1952.255

A detail from the museum

The Arabic word for God, written in Naskhi, appears below the figure's left arm and repeats upside down in the other spaces around him.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Shepherd, Dorothy. "Two Fatimid Tapestry Roundels." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 39, no. 8 (October 1952): 215-217.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

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.