Botticelli & the Movie Star
Virgin and Child, called the ‘Madonna of the Veil’, 1920s
- Umberto Giunti (1886–1970)
- Forgery in the manner of Sandro Botticelli (around 1445–1510)
- Oil paint on wood panel
- Viscount Lee of Fareham bequest, 1947
- P.1947.LF.40
When the Madonna of the Veil was first ‘discovered’ in 1930, it was hailed as Sandro Botticelli’s masterpiece. Its true creator, the Sienese forger Umberto Giunti, managed to devise a striking new image by combining elements from Botticelli’s various representations of the Virgin Mary. However, some scholars did raise doubts about the painting’s authenticity. One said that Mary reminded him of ‘a silent cinema star’. Indeed, her thin eyebrows and pursed lips now seem to us emblematic of ideals of beauty in the 1920s (as in the adjacent photograph). These questions led to further investigation and the discovery of the deception.
Like the forger Icilio Federico Joni – whose workshop he entered in 1907 – Giunti used several tricks to make his painting look like it was created 450 years earlier. He drilled holes in the paint to simulate worm damage; made long indentations (in Mary’s red dress, for example) to resemble scratches; and painted the tree leaves brown to mimic the colour change of green pigment over time.
Part of The Curiosity Cabinet exhibition 'FAKE OR REAL? - King's X The Courtauld Gallery'.
