Square with a Bucolic Landscape in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 2022

Title: Square with Bucolic Landscape

Date: 4th–6th century

Geography: Attributed to Egypt

Medium: Linen, wool; plain weave, tapestry weave

Dimensions: Max. H. 6 1/2 in. (16.7 cm)
Max. W. 7 1/4 in. (18.5 cm)

Classification: Textiles

Credit Line: Gift of George F. Baker, 1890

Accession Number: 90.5.824


At the center of this finely woven square, a dancing shepherd wearing an animal-skin exomis (a short tunic fastened at the shoulder worn for exercise, riding, or labor) holds in the air what may be a libation vessel used for the ritual pouring of a liquid in honor of gods, heroes, or the dead. He is surrounded by a flock of leaping, horned animals. Two naked, dancing women, possibly nymphs, occupy opposite corners; the remaining corners are filled with plants, perhaps lotus. Pastoral scenes inhabited by figures associated with classical mythology were common on late antique textiles. Along with maenads and satyrs, shepherds and nymphs often made up Dionysos’s entourage. Almost identical imagery is found on the lower part of a tunic in the collections of the Musée départmental des Antiquités in Rouen, France; this square may have been part of that tunic or one very similar to it.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/444303