{
"data": {
"id": 119699,
"accession_number": "1940.536",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Virgin and Child with Angels, possibly late 1800s or early 1900s. Imitator of Sano di Pietro (Italian, 1406\u20131481), possibly by Icilio Federico Joni (Italian, 1866\u20131946). Tempera and gold on wood; unframed: 50.5 x 35.4 cm (19 7/8 x 13 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of James Parmelee, 1940.536",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Virgin and Child with Angels",
"creation_date": "possibly late 1800s or early 1900s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1800,
"creation_date_latest": 1925,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Italy, late 19th-early 20th century"
],
"technique": "tempera and gold on wood",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Medieval Art",
"collection": "MED - Medieval Art",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Unframed: 50.5 x 35.4 cm (19 7/8 x 13 15/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"unframed": {
"height": 0.505,
"height_inch": 19,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.875,
"width": 0.354,
"width_inch": 13,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.9375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 312341,
"title": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition",
"description": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).",
"opening_date": "1941-06-23T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 301191,
"title": "Materials of the Artist",
"description": "Materials of the Artist. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-December 12, 1958).",
"opening_date": "1958-03-04T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 444863,
"title": "Fakes and Forgeries",
"description": "Fakes and Forgeries. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (July 11-September 30, 1973).",
"opening_date": "1973-07-11T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 184084,
"title": "Object in Focus: 15th Century Sienese Paintings: A Question of Forgery",
"description": "Object in Focus: 15th Century Sienese Paintings: A Question of Forgery. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 11-May 11, 2003).",
"opening_date": "2003-03-11T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 229034,
"title": "Icilio Federico Joni e la cultura del falso a Siena tra Ottocento e Novecento",
"description": "Icilio Federico Joni e la cultura del falso a Siena tra Ottocento e Novecento. Santa Maria delle Scala, Siena, Italy (organizer) (June 18, 2004-January 9, 2005).",
"opening_date": "2004-06-18T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; March 11- May 11, 2003. \" Object in Focus: 15th Century Sienese Paintings: A Question of Forgery\".",
"opening_date": "2003-03-11T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Santa Maria della Scala (6/1/8/2004 - 10/3/2004): \"Icilio Federico Joni e la cultura del falso a Siena tra Ottocento e Novecento\"",
"opening_date": "2004-01-08T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "A. de Clementi, Florence; (Knoedler, 1929); James Parmelee, Cleveland.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "On initial examination, this work seems typical of 15th-century Italian panel paintings. However, recent technical examinations concluded that it is actually a skillful early 20th-century imitation of a 15th-century gold-ground picture. The composition resembles examples of the same subject by Sano di Pietro, but x-radiography showed that modern nails secure the framing elements of the panel. The infrared reflectography examination revealed a very simple cross-shaped underdrawing in Christ's head, used by the forger to center a compass when marking Christ's halo and to define the placement of the facial plane. Pigment analysis identified modern paints throughout the work. For example, the 18th-century pigment zinc white\u2014not gypsum or lead white as expected in a 15th-century picture\u2014was evident in all areas tested, indicating the modern pigment's presence in the ground layer. In addition, scholarship suggests that some of the decorative punch patterns in the gilding are identical to those found on known forgeries by Icilio Federico Joni. This painting is a forgery, very likely by Joni.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60514374"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Francis, Henry. \"The Bequest of James Parmelee.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 28, no. 2 (February 1941): 15-27.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 14; Mentioned: p. 16",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25140904"
},
{
"citation": "Francis, Henry. \"'Madonna and Child' by Sano di Pietro: Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 31, no. 7 (September 1944): 143-144.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 144",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141149"
},
{
"citation": "The Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Fakes and Forgeries, edited by Susan Brown. Minneapolis, MN: The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1973.",
"page_number": "cat. 65.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Saunders, Linnaea, E., \"A Question of Forgery\", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 43 no. 04, April 2003",
"page_number": "Mentioned & reproduced: p. 4-5",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2003-04/page/n3"
},
{
"citation": "Joni, Icilio Federico, and Gianni Mazzoni. Falsi d'autore: Icilio Federico Joni e la cultura del falso tra Otto e Novecento. Siena: Protagon, 2004.",
"page_number": "cat.no.43, p.162-163.",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Muir, Kim and Narayan Khandkar. \"The Technical Examination of a Painting that Passed through the Hands of Sienese Restorer and Forger Federico Joni.\" Journal of the American Institute for Conservation vol. 45 no. 1 (Spring 2006).",
"page_number": "p. 32",
"url": "https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ingallslibrary.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=8131d63b-dc69-4c21-8766-ac17fa3f4129%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=23788884&db=asu"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1940.536",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Bequest of James Parmelee",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 119699,
"creators": [
{
"id": 2258,
"description": "Sano di Pietro (Italian, 1406\u20131481)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": "imitator of",
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1406",
"death_year": "1481",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
},
{
"id": 45734,
"description": "Icilio Federico Joni (Italian, 1866\u20131946)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": "possibly by",
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1866",
"death_year": "1946",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 2
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1940-10-30T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1800,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "possibly late 1800s or early 1900s",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:10:49.282000"
}
}