Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Man's Shirt
Northern Plains, probably Arapaho or Gros Ventre
Not on view
Among the oldest of its kind in existence, this finely tailored deerskin shirt has large rosettes of porcupine quillwork on the front and shoulders. The designs in the rosettes are thought to be abstractions of the animal enclosures used in the buffalo-hunt drive, indicating the shirt may have been associated with buffalo-calling rituals. Two rows of soft brown circles, created by over-painting the deeply stained surface of red ocher, embellish the garment.
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