Research Catalog

Robes of splendor : Native American painted buffalo hides

Title
Robes of splendor : Native American painted buffalo hides / edited by George P. Horse Capture, Anne Vitart, and W. Richard West ; photographs of the hides by Daniel Ponsard.
Publication
New York : New Press, [1993], ©1993.

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Additional Authors
  • Horse Capture, George P.
  • Vitart, Anne.
  • West, W. Richard.
Description
143 pages : illustrations; 25 cm
Summary
  • This is the first U.S. publication of an extraordinary collection of native American art, unknown to contemporary American audiences. For centuries, ornamental robes made of buffalo hide were painted by artists of the various Indian nations. Brought back to the French kings in the eighteenth century, the robes represented here are now housed in the Musee de l'Homme in Paris, and together they make a stunning tribute to a bygone art form.
  • These robes, spectacularly executed and perfectly conserved, offer an incomparable pictographic representation of early native American life. As George P. Horse Capture observes in his essay on the craft and history of buffalo hide painting, we see the largely symbolic, complex geometric patterns painted by women contrasted with the more realistic, narrative scenes painted by men, depicting battles and dances.
  • Both kinds of design played an important role in native American society as messages for tribe members, as well as for their visitors, and both share a powerful visual appeal. With introductory and historical essays by three leading experts on native American art, a preface by W. Richard West, Jr., the director of the National Museum of the American Indian, and over a hundred photographs of the hides, this splendid volume is sure to be a treasure in any collection.
Uniform Title
Parures d'histoire. English.
Alternative Title
Painted buffalo hides.
Subject
  • Musée de l'homme (Muséum national d'histoire naturelle) > Catalogs
  • Indian painting > Great Plains
  • Indian leatherwork > Great Plains
Note
  • Translation of: Parures d'histoire.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references.
Contents
Preface / W. Richard West, Jr. -- Invitation to a Voyage / Michel Waldberg -- From Royal Cabinets to Museums : A Composite History / Anne Vitart -- From Museums to Indians : Native American Art in Context / George P. Horse Capture -- Gallery of Hides / George P. Horse Capture -- Epilogue / Anne Vitart.
ISBN
1565841166 :
LCCN
93028015
OCLC
  • 28586730
  • ocm28586730
  • SCSB-14408970
Owning Institutions
Columbia University Libraries