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Tympanum with a Horse and Rider

Second half of the 14th century
Caucasus, probably Kubatchi, Dagestan


A larger detail of this Tympanum with a Horse and Rider, late 14th century, Kubatchi, Dagestan, Caucasus. Metropolitan Museum, New York.

Medium: Stone; carved, with traces of paint Dimensions: H. 28 3/4 (73 cm) W. 51 in. (129.5 cm) D. 4 in. (10.2 cm) Wt. with pallet: 457 lbs. (207.3 kg) minus about 20 lbs for pallet.
This tympanum once adorned the facade of the so-called House of Ahmad and Ibrahim located in the town of Kubatchi in the Caucasus. The vegetal decoration surrounding the central figure has been compared to fourteenth- and fifteenth-century stone carvings found in the city. The date is further supported by the dress of the lively rider. His costume incorporates a curvilinear "cloud collar" around its neckline, which was introduced to Iran by the Mongols and became fashionable in the fifteenth century. Source: Metmuseum



Referenced as Illustration 249, p260 in Tamara Talbot Rice, Ancient Arts of Central Asia, 1965
249 Sculptured relief from above a window of a mosque in Kubachi. It shows the intense love of horses and riding shared by the people of western Turkestan and the Caucasus. Eleventh century
Stone relief: horseman. Upper portion of a window from a mosque at Kubachi, eleventh century. State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad



Referenced as figure 419 in The military technology of classical Islam by D Nicolle
419. Relief, 11th-12th centuries AD, Dāghistānī, Metropolitan Museum, New York (Iv, Bask).



See also Tympanum with a Horse Rider & an Infantryman with Standard, 14th-15th century, Kubatchi, Dagestan, Caucasus.



Other Illustrations of Ilkhanid Mongols and Successors in 14th Century Persia and surrounds
Caucasian Albania in: Tamara Talbot Rice, Ancient Arts of Central Asia, 1965