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The Sun Vow

Founder Cast by Roman Bronze Works
1899, cast 1919
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 700
Although MacNeil originally claimed he drew on a Sioux legend that captured his imagination while traveling in the American West, he later admitted to inventing this coming-of-age ritual: before a boy entered adulthood, he must shoot an arrow directly into the sun. If the elder judging his prowess was so blinded by the sun’s rays that he could not follow the flight of the arrow, the young archer had passed the test. MacNeil presented his self-invented fable at the pivotal moment of the arrow’s release, both heightening the narrative suspense and reinforcing the fabricated trope of Native Americans as inhabitants of an idyllic, vanishing past.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Sun Vow
  • Artist: Hermon Atkins MacNeil (American, Everett, Massachusetts 1866–1947 Queens, New York)
  • Founder: Cast by Roman Bronze Works
  • Date: 1899, cast 1919
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Bronze
  • Dimensions: 72 x 32 1/2 x 54 in. (182.9 x 82.6 x 137.2 cm)
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1919
  • Object Number: 19.126
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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