Curtain with a Man and Woman, from Antioch, Egypt: 5th or 6th century AD

Linen and woolen velum or curtain, showing a praying couple standing under a columned arch. The inscription above their heads is in Coptic, the everyday dialect spoken in Greco-Roman and Byzantine Egypt, but written in Greek script. The glowing colours and huge eyes dominating the other features are typical of Coptic craftsmanship. The curtain comes from a monastery at Antinoe.

© 1998 Oxfordshire Museum Service, Setúbal Museums and the Benaki Museum