A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Historiae Literarum et Artium, 1. (Szeged, 1997)

Nagy Imre: „The Black Came over the Sun...” Lame Bull’s spiritual oeuvre

Among the three shield designs in question, this third one has the most harmonious composition, with the constellation elements well balanced on the sides of the central element. It is interesting how the bird and lizard figures are pushed to the lower perimeter on the Colorado Historical Society shield, and we can recognize a similar Jammed" composition in the case of the bird and dragonfly figures on this third shield. As the arrangement of the short „power lines" indicate on the great arc, first the bird and dragonfly were outlined in black, probably after the outlining of the turtle and the lizard figures. Then, while these were filled in with the turquoise color, the great arc was also placed on the upper perimeter, and the artist realized that too little space remained for the „power lines". The result is the uneven lengths of these lines, and the jammed compositional placement of the bird and dragonfly. As mentioned earlier, the most asymmetrical composition - a feature surprising in the case of a Cheyenne shield - is on the Lame Bull shield. Here, the three bird figures are placed seemingly at a random. We can identify with certainly the bald eagle only. The two other bird figures are puzzling in regard to their ornithological identification. The bald eagle and the fork-tailed bird are in the central section of the shield's surface, however, none of them is placed in the true position of a central element. The butterfly figures are placed in the usual Cheyenne constellation element positions, but their compositional weight is not balanced by the green bird figure on the left. Stylistically, all three shields show the same features in the rendering of birds, butterflies and turtles. These traits are illustrated in Fig. 11. The same chart is suitable for illustrating the iconographical correspondences of these shields, too. Each shield has bird figures, and two each depict butterflies, lizards and turtles. The Colorado Historical Society shield is the only one that incorporates all these constellation elements in its composition. The U.S. private shield lacks the butterflies, and the Lame Bull shield lacks the lizard and turtle figures. These discrepancies might raise some doubts about our supposition that Lame Bull originated these shield designs, but these Native American artworks are not mechanical copies of an isolated moment in time - either an external or an internal image. There are two possible explanations for the difference in their compositions and motifs: first, these three shields might depict time sequence, or stages in the special vision of Lame Bull. Second, since a war-dreamer had the right to prepare at least four (or even more) variants of his shield, he modified each version according to the dream or vision of his apprentices, thus interpreting the apprentice's experience in accord with his own, as well as with the world-view of the community. Any of these explanations, coupled with the stylistic correspondences already discussed, will underscore the common artistic origin of these shields. At this point, it is worth remembering that the Lame Bull flat case in the John Painter collection (Fig. 1) also has a turtle image, although depicted in a more stylized way. According to its collection history it really belonged to Lame Bull, so its visual evidence supports my hypothesis that the two other shields with the snapping turtle images were also dreamed and probably made by him. There is other, very strong evidence in the same private collection that reinforces my interpretation. This is a bandolier composed of a double string of brass beads, and decorated with two, beaded, lizard figures (Fig. 12). These two lizards have different body markings, and their coloring is quite similar to the collared lizard figures on the U.S. private shield. This bandolier was also handed down in the Lame Bull family, until it reached this private collection. 70