Textile Fragment Depicting a Speckled Deer

A speckled deer or gazelle nibbles on leaves under a canopy of large fronds in this textile fragment. The fine weave and relatively light weight of the piece suggest it was part of a domestic textile, perhaps a coverlet.

The deer was a popular motif in Egypt, inherited from the Late Antique artistic vocabulary. In early Islamic times the animal symbolized good luck, a visual equivalent of the expression “good wishes,” which was inscribed in Arabic on many early and medieval-era Islamic objects.