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The "Cleveland Hormizd Plate"
A Sasanian King Hunting Lions
A larger image of the "Cleveland Hormizd Plate", A Sasanian King Hunting Lions
Dish: King Hormizd II or Hormizd III Hunting Lions, 400-600
Iran, Sasanian, 5th-6th Century
Silver gilt
Overall: 4.60 x 20.80 cm (1 3/4 x 8 3/16 inches).
Description:
Lion hunting was a traditional royal sport in many Near Eastern cultures; in art it was sometimes symbolic of a historic conquest.
Here, details of the king's and the horse's equipment are in the style of the 5th-century Hormizd III.
The crown, however, resembles that of Hormizd II (AD 303-309), so this plate may be commemorative.
The Cleveland Museum of Art 1962.150
See also a Sasanian silver-gilt plate of Hormizd II Hunting Ostrich. Early 4th Century A.D.
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