Adoration of the Magi

The National Gallery, on the National Mall in Washington D.C., is filled with painted treasures. On a visit in December 2021, I found myself in the Italian Renaissance section in the West Building. I was drawn to a large circular painting, a tondo format, 36.5 inches in diameter.

In celebration of Christmas, I am sharing this, the "Adoration of the Magi." The painting is thought to have been made between 1440 and 1460, and perhaps be by the hand of two artists, Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi. For more information about it, see the National Gallery's website. 

Most pertinent to this blog, of course, is the manger. Not a manger cradling the Christ child, but the manger full of hay, which a donkey is enjoying. It is woven in a wicker weave, with multiple warps.

It is a straight and dark material, perhaps willow, which is used in contemporary Italian baskets. In this detail, the angular cuts of the warp ends can be seen.

My limited internet research into Italian Renaissance basketry has thus far been unsuccessful. However, I came across the secular festival of Thests in Polcenigo, Italy. The website features contemporary Italian baskets in multicolored willow, including a dark brown. Add this basketry festival to my list of places to visit.

https://www.prolocopolcenigo.com/sagra-dei-thest//

A Bit About Bannock Baskets

 A Bit About Bannock Baskets.*

*Not to be confused with Scottish baskets used in the preparation of bannock bread. This is a discussion of baskets from the Bannock of the Plateau region of North America. For more information on the people, see their website, Shoshone-Bannock Tribe.

A September 2021 visit for identification of Native American basketry at Shelburne Museum in Vermont led to my attribution of probably Bannock, possibly Shoshone, for a coiled willow basket.  The basket in question, item number 1947-17.5, reminded me of Bannock baskets in the Southwest Museum collection at the Autry Museum of the American West, last seen by me in person in 2009, and not currently present on their online collection database. The Bannock County Historical Museum and the Idaho Museum of Natural History do not have collections online, although they both have ethnographic collections, and the Idaho Museum reports having an excellent collection of Shoshonean basketry materials. The American Museum of Natural History has a Bannock basket collected by anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, donated in 1900, but its features are not all the same as the one in Vermont.  

Bannock or Shoshone Basket, date unknown. Plant materials,
 possibly willow, 6 ¾ x 6 ¾ x 6 ¾ in. Gift of Electra Havemeyer Webb.
 1947-17.5. Photo: Nancie Ravenel, Shelburne Museum.

Rim detail, Shelburne Museum
1947-17.5. Photo: BBP

Shelburne Museum's basket is round with an oval start, it has clipped weft ends with a few tucked weft ends, occasional split stitches, and a whipstitched rim. It is probably coiled of willow. Plus, it has four cloth imbricated stitches. Most indicative of placing the basket in the Bannock/Shoshone area is its three rod stacked foundation. According to Whiteford (North American Indian Arts, 2001), "Idaho Shoshoni basketry includes three-rod stacked coiling with willow." 

I needed some baskets for comparison. How about checking America's attic, the Smithsonian Institution, for Bannock baskets? I hit pay dirt! A quick online search of the National Museum of the American Indian collection brought up 175 "Possibly Bannock (attributed)" baskets, all collected by William (Willem) Wildschut, an anthropologist, during fieldwork sponsored by the Museum of the American Indian (MAI) in 1924.  Modifying the search, "Bannock basket coiled" resulted in a list of 104 items!  "Fort Hall Reservation; Bannock County, Bingham County, Caribou County, Power County; Idaho; USA" is the listed place of collection for the baskets, with some specifically noted as being from the Cook Drug Store and Indian Curio Shop in Pocatello, Idaho.

Here's the link to that search:

https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/search?edan_q=bannock%20basket%20coiled

Interestingly, most of the baskets with colored designs in this collection list "paint" as a material. One example of this is basket with cover 13/1394. This round basket has a three rod stacked foundation that is clearly visible in the photo, occasional split stitches, and an oval start that can be seen on the lid. Looking at the photograph and not holding the basket in front of me, I find it hard to differentiate potential paint from a dyed element. In my experience, baskets with painted areas usually have paint spread on neighboring stitches, and no paint on the weft portion stitched into the coil. On 13/1394, extra paint on other stitches, or within the coil, can't be seen. Again, I'm looking at the online photo and not at the basket directly.  And then, there is basket jar 13/1288, which does have paint, blotchy paint, in red and green. This also had three rods stacked, a few split stitches, and possibly a tucked under stitch seen on the left edge of the photo. 

Detail,Cloth stitch detail,
Shelburne Museum
1947-17.5 Photo: BBP.

There was no paint detected on the Shelburne's basket. However, there is cloth woven into it, and cloth was sometimes used in Bannock and Shoshone baskets (Turnbaugh and Turnbaugh, Indian Baskets, 1986 edition). In my next search of the Smithsonian online collections, "Bannock basket cloth" came up with ten items. In nine of these, the cloth was either a carrying strap or wrappings on cradle baskets.  The tenth is basket tray 13/1363, a shallow bowl with inconsistent stitches, a few tucked weft ends, and black wool cloth used on the rim. This is unlike our basket, in which there are four cloth imbricated stitches in a row on the exterior.

Next, a search on "Shoshone basket coiled," which brought up 40 items, including Northern Paiute, Western Shoshone from Nevada, and some attributed to Koso (Panamint/Shoshone) from Death Valley, CA.  About a dozen of the Shoshone baskets look like the Bannock baskets recently seen.

The first basket, 12/2032, looks suspiciously like those in the Bannock search. This bowl with handles was made by Mrs. Pawagee-Tattagit, Eastern Shoshone, and collected on the "Wind River Reservation, Fremont County, Hot Springs County; Wyoming; USA."  This was also collected by Wildschut, on a 1923 MAI expedition.  It is coiled of willow with a three rod stacked foundation, a few split stitches, and a few tucked weft stitches.

Other notable baskets in this search are four gambling trays, three collected by Wildschut in 1923 from the Wind River Reservation: 12/2103, owned by Mrs. Mujawo, Eastern Shoshone, with a painted central design and a rim of cross-stitched willow wefts over a band of red wool cloth, and a three rod stacked foundation; 12/2108 owned by Mrs. Hibitsitsi, Shoshone, with a red wool cloth rim with overcast willow stitches, and a three rod stacked foundation; 12/2109 made by Susie Peahrora (Mrs. Pedro Peahrora), Eastern Shoshone, with black wool at the rim, stacked rod foundation indeterminate.  The fourth gambling basket tray 1/112 was purchased by George Heye in 1906 from Frank Covert, the collection history is unknown and it is from the "Great Basin region, USA (inferred)."  It has remnants of red wool cloth at the rim, with overcast willow stitches. It does not appear to have a three rod stacked foundation, although it's hard to tell precisely from the photo.  https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/objects/NMAI_10959?destination=edan_searchtab%3Fedan_q%3D1/112

With the presence of the cloth, the occasional split stitches, a few tucked weft stitches, an oval start, and the most characteristic three rod stacked foundation, it seems like this basket from Shelburne Museum is, indeed, probably Bannock or Shoshone.  It's been fun investigating.

Oval start detail, view of base.
Photo: Nancie Ravenel, Shelburne Museum.

Thank you to Shelburne Museum staff Nancie Ravenel, Barbara Rathburn, and Leslie Wright. This visit was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.