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Mounted Hunter with Cheetah

12th–early 13th century
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 453
Specialized cheetah-keepers tamed and trained cheetahs, caracals, and other wild felines for hunting expeditions, a traditional leisure pursuit of royalty and the wealthy elite. The trained felines rode with their masters on horses and hunted animals such as hares and gazelles. Despite this horseman’s weapons (a mace and a shield), his small cheetah suggests he is a hunter. The figurine was manufactured by altering a preexisting mold of a drinker: the applied arm holding the mace covers and conceals the mold’s original, bent arm holding a cup.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Mounted Hunter with Cheetah
  • Date: 12th–early 13th century
  • Geography: Attributed to Jazira (or Iran?)
  • Medium: Stonepaste; molded in sections, glazed in transparent turquoise, underglaze-painted in black
  • Dimensions: H. 10 7/8 in. (27.6 cm)
    W. 3 in. (7.6 cm)
    D. 8 1/4 in. (21 cm)
    Wt. 24 oz (680.5 g)
  • Classification: Ceramics
  • Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1966
  • Object Number: 66.23
  • Curatorial Department: Islamic Art

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Pierced Jug with Harpies and Sphinxes, Stonepaste; openwork, underglaze-painted, glazed in transparent turquoise
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dated 612 AH/1215–16 CE
Turquoise Bowl with Lute Player and Audience, Stonepaste; glazed (opaque monochrome), in-glaze- and overglaze-painted, gilded
Turquoise Bowl with Lute Player and Audience
late 12th–early 13th century
Luster Bowl with Winged Horse, Stonepaste; luster-painted on opaque monochrome glaze
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late 12th century
Mihrab (Prayer Niche), Mosaic of polychrome-glazed cut tiles on stonepaste body; set into mortar
Mihrab (Prayer Niche)
dated 755 AH/1354–55 CE
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Ewer
ca. 1180–1210

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Mounted Hunter with Cheetah - The Metropolitan Museum of Art