A NECROMANCERS BONE APRON WITH NINE MOTHER GODDESSES NEPAL, 19TH CENTURY Himalayan Art Resources item no. 8813 26 1/2 x 34 1/4 in. (67.3 x 87 cm) Footnotes: 尼泊爾 十九世紀 九女神骨片法衣 Published Gerald James Larson, Pratapaditya Pal, and Rebecca P. Gowen, In Her Image: The Great Goddess in Indian Asia and the Madonna in Christian Culture, Santa Barbara, 1980, p. 84, no. 52. Exhibited In Her Image: The Great Goddess in Indian Asia and the Madonna in Christian Culture: University of California, Santa Barbara, 2 April - 4 May 1980; Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, 1 June - 15 August 1980; Montgomery Gallery, Claremont Colleges, Claremont, 15 September - 7 November, 1980; Amarillo Art Center, Texas, 10 December 1980 - 18 January 1981. Provenance Property from a Southern California Estate This Tantric ritual ensemble comprises a carved bone apron, a matching headdress, and a pair of armbands, articulated with numerous plaques and bead elements. The headdress is arranged with representations of the Five Tathagathas, establishing a Vajrayana cosmological framework. The apron is centered on nine wrathful mother goddesses (navamatrika), carved in high relief and interspersed with additional fierce figures, ashtamangala, and other auspicious symbols. Constructed from human or animal bone, such garments were worn by esoteric practitioners during Tantric rites to vivify the wearer and to enact the symbolic renunciation of corporeal attachment (Marsh, Mirrors of the Heart-Mind, 1998). Closely related bone examples are preserved in the National Museum of Scotland (A.1905.352) and the Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden (Goidsenhoven, Art Lamaïque, Arts des Dieux, Brussels, 1970, p. 237, X4). A related ritual apron was sold at Bonhams, New York, 14 September 2015, lot 70. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing