Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Feather cape ('ahu 'ula)
Not on view
As a formal design element, the crescent had powerful associations. The Hawai’ian term for the shape, hoaka, applies to a number of concepts: the arc of a rainbow, the raised crest of a helmet, and, significantly, brightness and radiance. Its reference to glittering daylight or a flash of lightning evokes the very sources of divine power. Wearing a boldly designed, crescent-shaped feather cape in the ritually significant colors of red and yellow was a strategic way for a chief to reinforce his embodiment as a divine being.
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