Alexander the Great on Horseback 700s Egypt, Islamic Umayyad or Abbasid period, 8th century Dyed wool, undyed linen; plain weave and slit-tapestry weave 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.) Gift of The Textile Arts Club 1959.123 DESCRIPTION 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. INSCRIPTION partial inscription in Greek above. PROVENANCE (Mrs. Paul Mallon, Paris). CITATIONS S. E. L. "Year in Review." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 46, no. 10 (1959): 210-31. p. 213 illus www.jstor.org Shepherd, Dorothy G. "Alexander: The Victorious Emperor." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 58, no. 8 (1971): 244-50. p. 244-50 www.jstor.org 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. p. 12 Neils, Jenifer. “The Twain Shall Meet.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 72, no. 6, 1985, pp. 326–359. Reproduced: p. 329, fig. 5 www.jstor.org EXHIBITION HISTORY Material Matters: Fifty Years of Gifts from the Textile Arts Club. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 21-December 30, 1984). Textiles from Egypt, Syria and Spain: 7th through 15th centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 26-June 6, 1991). Byzantine Gallery 210 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 29, 2004-July 18, 2005).