Description A STUCCO FRESCO, YUAN-MING Polychrome fresco painting with a celestial deity playing the Chinese cymbals, with textural details picked out in gesso relief. The cymbals embellished with gold foil. Attired in a flowing robe with sashes, the demigoddess is crowned by an elaborate headdress and shown standing on a terrace with vines and leaves hanging from above. Old hardwood frame with heavy bronze fitting. The frame is coffered on the backside and can be opened by activating an integrated mechanism. Datation China, 13th-16th century. 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: Good condition with rubbing, soiling, crackling and losses. A few spots here and there. The colors possibly a bit faded in some areas. The gold foil partially lost. 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. Chinese Musical Demigods 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.