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Procession of Nobles
100–150 CE
- Medium
- limestone
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 57.7 x 120.7 x 34.5 cm (22 11/16 x 47 1/2 x 13 9/16 in.)
- Culture
- Syria, Palmyra
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Palmyra was a key center for trade between the Roman and Parthian Empires. This unique relief has been associated with Palmyra only through stylistic comparisons; it is not known where it was found on the site. It depicts men in Parthian dress riding Arabian horses with bejeweled harness trappings ahead of riders on camels—a possible reference to the caravans that made Palmyra so wealthy. Although all of the riders are dressed and equipped as Parthians, the proportions and perspective of the scene seem to be informed by Greco-Roman conventions. It may depict a ceremonial procession.
