Fragment of a Byzantine Bowl with a Horse and Rider in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2007

Fragment of a Bowl with a Horse and Rider
Terracotta with green glaze over slip, decorated in sgraffito
Byzantine
Made early 1200s, possibly in Antioch

Accession # 1984.181

"[a] hunter wore leather gloves and carried the falcon on the back of either hand, preferably the left. The falcon's feet, with little bells attached to them, were fastened to the hunter's hand with straps, which were unfastened when the falcon was released for hunting."-- From Description of Crane Hunting by Constantine Manasses (ca. 1130-1187)

When intact, the bowl may have shown the rider hunting with a falcon. In his left hand, he holds what appears to be a falconer's lure; his extended right hand perhaps cradled a falcon.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.