Navajo Handpainted Rawhide Medicine Shield/Painting

This wonderful hand painted rawhide shield is rendered upon a heavy rawhide face, stretched over a bent wood hoop. It depicts a traditional Southwestern Pueblo or Navajo mythic being, quail and grasshopper images on a field pattern of a Navajo ceremonial basket -- or tsaa. Numerous deerskin streamers hang decorated with domestic fowl feathers as well as feather decoration around the rim. The shield face measures 19" in diameter. As it is uncured rawhide, changes in humidity are reflected in the shape of the rim, bowing during extremely dry periods. This is typical for stretched rawhide paintings.

Shields like these were traditionally carried slung over the saddle horns on horseback, on the arm, or proudly displayed before a lodge doorway to show the honor of the owner. The painting may depict a dream or healing sequence. This shield was collected on the Navajo Reservation of Western New Mexico and attributed to an unknown Navajo painter.

Items of similar style and generic origin are often referred to as "Mandalas", which is a term used in the 1960s to describe circular flat objects that carry cultural themes. The word is of Sanskrit origins -- the OTHER kind of Indian! We call these medicine shields, which is what their predecessors were, although the art is now for decorative purposes.

If you are interested in traditional Southwestern American Indian cultural arts, especially something as striking as this painted shield, or need a perfect gift for a collector, don't let it get away from you!

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