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Tray Portraying Courtly Pleasures
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This tray features images of courtly life interspersed with astronomical symbols. The scenes contained within large multilobed medallions display an enthroned prince with lions at his feet, a banquet, a hunt, dancers, and musicians. Contained within the concentric circles there are also references to solar and lunar motifs, including figures holding sunbursts and lunar crescents. This tray is made of a single sheet of brass and the silver inlay, which is best preserved on the tray’s inner curve, suggests its original brilliance.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineTray Portraying Courtly Pleasures, 1240s. Syria, Ayyubid period (1171–1260). Sheet brass inlaid with silver; diameter: 53.8 cm (21 3/16 in.); overall: 5.8 cm (2 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1945.386
