{
"data": {
"id": 151377,
"accession_number": "1983.217",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Fall of Simon Magus, c. 1745\u201350. Studio of Pompeo Batoni (Italian, 1708\u20131787). Oil on canvas; framed: 207 x 133 x 10.5 cm (81 1/2 x 52 3/8 x 4 1/8 in.); unframed: 183 x 108 cm (72 1/16 x 42 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1983.217",
"current_location": "217 Italian Baroque",
"title": "The Fall of Simon Magus",
"creation_date": "c. 1745\u201350",
"creation_date_earliest": 1745,
"creation_date_latest": 1750,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Italy"
],
"technique": "oil on canvas",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "P - Italian 18th Century",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 207 x 133 x 10.5 cm (81 1/2 x 52 3/8 x 4 1/8 in.); Unframed: 183 x 108 cm (72 1/16 x 42 1/2 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 2.07,
"height_inch": 81,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"width": 1.33,
"width_inch": 52,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"depth": 0.105,
"depth_inch": 4,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.125
},
"unframed": {
"height": 1.83,
"height_inch": 72,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0625,
"width": 1.08,
"width_inch": 42,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.5
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 309669,
"title": "The Year in Review for 1983",
"description": "The Year in Review for 1983. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 22-April 8, 1984).",
"opening_date": "1984-02-22T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": " Collecting Drawings in England. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) ( November 3, 1987-January 17, 1988).",
"opening_date": "1987-11-03T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Earl of Shrewsbury, Alton Towers (1838, sale 1857 as Subleyras), sold, 1983.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "Somerville & Simpson (London, England), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1983.",
"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": "Saints Peter and Paul came to Rome to win converts to Christianity soon after Christ\u2019s death, while Simon Magus, claiming to be the son of God, attempted to prove his divinity by flying. Due to Saint Peter\u2019s prayers, the demons supporting Simon abandoned him and he plummeted to his death. This work is probably a studio copy after a lost oil sketch for a huge altarpiece commissioned in 1746 for Saint Peter\u2019s Basilica at the Vatican. Because of the humidity in Saint Peter\u2019s, which quickly ruined paintings, the work was to have been translated into a massive mosaic. However, for reasons that remain unclear, Batoni\u2019s mosaic was never created.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60475205"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1983.217-the-fall-of-simon-ma"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Arnaud, Odette. \"Subleyras.\" In Les Peintres Franc\u0327ais du XVIIIe Sie\u0300cle, Histoire des Vies et Catalogue des Oeuvres. Louis Dimier, ed., 49-92. Paris: Les E\u0301ditions G. van Oest, 1928.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: P. 78, no. 68",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Barsali, Isa Belli. \"Documenti Vaticani per il Batoni.\" Studi Romani XXI, no. 3 (July-Sept. 1973): 366-372.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: P. 367; reproduced: Tav. LIX",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Turner, Evan H. \"The Year in Review for 1983.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art LXXI, no. 2 (February, 1984): 39-79.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 55; Mentioned: p. 68, no. 15",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Clark, Anthony M., and Edgar Peters Bowron. Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of His Works with an Introductory Text. New York, NY: New York University Press, 1985.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 28, 261; Reproduced: no. 183, pl. 171",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 7",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Groschner, Gabriele. Wen verfu\u0308hrst Du, Thamar?: ikonographische Studien zu Gema\u0308lden der Residenzgalerie Salzburg. Salzburg, Austria: Die Residenzgalerie, 1993.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 197, fig. 91",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Brown, Beverly Louise, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Terisio Pignatti, Oreste Ferrari, and Teresa Longyear. Giambattista Tiepolo: Master of the Oil Sketch. Milan, Italy: Electa, 1993.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 49, fig. 18",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1983.217",
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"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
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"gallery_donor_text": "Donna and James Reid Gallery",
"athena_id": 151377,
"creators": [
{
"id": 2018,
"description": "Pompeo Batoni (Italian, 1708\u20131787)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": "studio of",
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"birth_year": "1708",
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"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1983-12-14T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1745,
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"date_text": "c. 1745\u201350",
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"updated_at": "2026-09-10 12:11:46.592000"
}
}