Object Image

Frieze Tile with Two Hunters

Unknown Artist

This frieze tile is molded in low relief and painted in luster over an opaque white ground with accents of turquoise and cobalt blue. The background presents a lush landscape of vegetal motifs and birds in flight, while in the foreground two horsemen stab a deer with their swords. The figures wear luxurious clothes, and the artist has taken care to depict different textile patterns on each. Luster tiles of similar quality, color scheme, and motifs decorated the palace at Takht-i Sulaiman, an important Ilkhanid imperial residence.

Credit: Gift of George Blumenthal, 1910

Second half 13th century
Stonepaste; molded, inglaze painted in blue and turquoise, luster-painted on opaque white glaze
27.3in
10.9.1
Image and text © Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019

Where you'll find this

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Permanent collection