Virgin and Child

Icilio Federico Joni was a notorious Sienese artist and forger active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who specialized in creating convincing imitations of medieval and Renaissance paintings. This Virgin and Child, purporting to be from the 1400s, demonstrates the sophisticated techniques Joni used to deceive collectors and museums. His memoirs, published in 1932, revealed the extent of his deception.

The tempera and gold on wood imitates the medieval Sienese technique with convincing gold-ground treatment and archaic-seeming figure painting. The deliberate reproduction of period materials and aging effects demonstrates Joni's remarkable technical skill as a forger.