art-history: Algonquian culture, Virginia Powhatan’s Mantle  before 1638  Deer hide, marginella shells  223 cm Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England One of the earliest items collected and preserved in a European museum is an object nicknamed “Powhatan’s Mantle.” It is unclear whether this did, in fact, belong to Powhatan (1547-1618), the paramount chief of the Virginia Algonkians. Moreover, it is far too big to be a mantle or cloak (over 7 by 5 feet). Consisting of four deerskins sewn together, it is decorated with marginella shells. These are sewn to depict a frontal human figure flanked by two animals in a field of many circles. This may have been a valued object kept in a temple and used in ceremonies for hunting magic or other spiritual pursuits. It is a good example of an indigenous pictorial tradition that would be transformed by contact with European artistic conventions. —Angela L. Miller, et al., American Encounters: Art, History, and Cultural Identity (2008)
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art-history:

Algonquian culture, Virginia
Powhatan’s Mantle  before 1638  
Deer hide, marginella shells  223 cm
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England

One of the earliest items collected and preserved in a European museum is an object nicknamed “Powhatan’s Mantle.” It is unclear whether this did, in fact, belong to Powhatan (1547-1618), the paramount chief of the Virginia Algonkians. Moreover, it is far too big to be a mantle or cloak (over 7 by 5 feet). Consisting of four deerskins sewn together, it is decorated with marginella shells. These are sewn to depict a frontal human figure flanked by two animals in a field of many circles. This may have been a valued object kept in a temple and used in ceremonies for hunting magic or other spiritual pursuits. It is a good example of an indigenous pictorial tradition that would be transformed by contact with European artistic conventions.

—Angela L. Miller, et al., American Encounters: Art, History, and Cultural Identity (2008)

(via sirobtep)

Source: ashmolean.org

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