Robes of Splendor
Subtitle: Native American Painted Buffalo Hides
By: with contributions by George P. Horse Capture et al. ; photographs of the hides by Daniel Ponsard.
Contributors: Horse Capture, George P.; Vitart, Anne.
Publisher: New Press; Distributed by W.W. Norton
Published: 1993
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Translated from: fre
Translation of: Parures d'histoire
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 143
Copyright date: 1993
Subjects: Musée de l'homme (Muséum national d'histoire naturalle) -- Catalogs.; Indian painting -- Great Plains.; Indian leatherwork -- Great Plains.
Other titles: Painted buffalo hides; Parures d'histoire
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 143).
Produced under the direction of Anne Vitart.
Table of contents: label: W. Richard West, Jr.
title: Preface
pagenum: 9; label: Michel Waldberg
title: Invitation to a Voyage
pagenum: 18; label: Anne Vitart
title: From Royal Cabinets to Museums: A Composite History
pagenum: 27; label: George P. Horse Capture
title: From Museums to Indians: Native American Art in Context
pagenum: 61; label: George P. Horse Capture
title: Gallery of Hides
pagenum: 93; label: Anne Vitart
title: Epilogue
pagenum: 141; title: Bibliography
pagenum: 143