A STUCCO FRESCO, YUAN MINGChina, 13th-16th century. Polychrome fresco painting with a celestial deity wielding a Buddhist banner, with textural details richly picked out in gesso relief.Provenance: A French private collection. Old inventory number 29.6 painted to frame. By repute, this is referring to an original acquisition date of June 1929.Condition: Very good condition with minor rubbing and soiling. Minimal crackling, abrasions and few losses and pinholes. Absolutely original, no restoration whatsoever. Possibly a few minuscule touchups to the background, but this is impossible to confirm, because nothing shows under even the strongest ultraviolet light.Weight: 9.8 kilograms.Dimensions: 110 x 83 cm including the frame, 102 x 76 cm without the frame. Attired in a flowing robe with sashes and ornaments, the demigoddess is shown with a saintly round face, painted with delicate features and crowned by an elaborate phoenix headdress and palatial decorations to the robe. The composition is set against a heavenly sky of billowing clouds. Old hardwood frame with heavy bronze fitting. The frame is coffered on the backside and can be opened by activating an integrated mechanism.Compare with two related polychrome stucco frescos, sold at Sotheby’s New York ‘Important Chinese Art’ sale on September 12th, 2018, lot 200.Chinese Musical DemigodsLot 208, 209, and 210 of three frescoes depicting Chinese Musical Demigods are inspired by earlier depictions of Buddhist deities, like the ones seen in the Mogao grottoes at Dunhuang. Ming painters of Buddhist subjects sought to mimic the style of the Tang dynasty artist Wu Daozi, considered a master of Buddhist mural paintings. Examples of Ming paintings executed in the tradition of Wu are discussed in 'Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism 850-1850' by Helen Foresman, Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas, 1995, pages 55 and 446. Followers also studied and adhered to Wu's Eight Classes of Supernatural Beings (Tian Long Ba Bu Zhen Ji), whose classification included 'celestial beings, musical demigods, and mythical bird-gods'. Compare the present frescoes with the murals in the Mogao grottoes at Dunhuang, Cave 57, illustrated in Roderick Whitfield ‘Cave Temples of Mogao, Art and History on the Silk Road’, Los Angeles, 2000, page 37, and the Bodhisattva murals in caves 172 and 199, illustrated in Chang Shuhong ’The Art Treasures of Dunhuang’, Hong Kong and New York, 1981, which pay specifically close attention to the garments and ornamentation of the figures. 元明灰泥彩繪壁畫殘部中國，十三至十六世紀。灰泥彩繪仙女手持儀仗旗幟，石膏浮雕可見衣物紋理。來源：法國私人收藏，畫框上老標簽 29.6，傳聞原始購買日期為1929年6月品相：總體品相良好，輕微磨損和污跡，輕微裂縫和缺失。絕對原始狀態，沒有修復。背景可能有一些微小的修飾，但這無法確認，因為即使是最強的紫外線也沒有任何顯示。重量：9.8 公斤尺寸：縂110 x 83 厘米，畫面 102 x 76 厘米