Saint Michael

Mrs. Ridgely (Margarita Cress) Hunt, Pelham, Highland Falls, N.Y., and Washington, D.C. (until 1907)

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 63, ill. (obverse and reverse).

Gianni Mazzoni. Quadri antichi del Novecento. Vicenza, 2001, pp. 47, 58 n. 5, notes that the description of a book cover (37 x 29 cm, valued at 50 lire) exported as a modern forgery on May 14, 1894, by the Siena office for overseas export of works of art resembles that of the MMA work: "fodera da libro di tavola legata in pelle . . . nella parte anteriore è dipinto a tempera san Michele in fondo dorato con ornamenti bleu su oro. Nella parte posteriore sono dipinti 12 stemmi e una iscrizione, il tutto circoscritto da ornamenti bleu in fondo d'oro"; finds it very similar to another biccherna by Joni in the Západoceské Muzeum [West Bohemian Museum], Plzen, Czech Republic.

Maria A. Ceppari Ridolfi and Gianni Mazzoni. "Biccherne perdute e falsi d'autore." Le biccherne di Siena: arte e finanza all'alba dell'economia moderna. Ed. Alessandro Tomei. Exh. cat., Palazzo del Quirinale. Rome, 2002, pp. 84–85, ill. (reverse), attribute it to Joni, along with several other similar biccherne, including the one in Plzen.

This panel is a copy of the left wing of a triptych of 1476 by Neroccio de' Landi (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena). The Museum also owns a second copy after the same work (07.241). The panel imitates a biccherna cover, an account book of the Biccherna, the financial administrators of the commune of Siena. The reverse depicts twelve coats of arms and an inscription deciphered by Ceppari Ridolfi and Mazzoni (2002) as: INVENTARIO DE LE COSE DE LA SAGRESTIA DEL DUOMO E DE L'ALTRE COSE MOBILI DE L'UOPARA RIFATTO LA SICONDA VOLTA AL TEMPO DI MISSERE GIOVANNI DI PAOLO HOPARAIO PER L'OMC[. . .] OC[. . .] DI SIENA HOPARAIO DI DICIEB[RE] 1446.

Similar works, all attributed to Icilio Federico Joni (or Ioni; 1866–1946), are reproduced in Mirjam Foot, Pictorial Bookbindings, London, 1986, ill. p. 37; Sembrare e non essare, Milan, 1993, ill. p. 227 (both British Library, London); Ceppari Ridolfi and Mazzoni 2002, ill. p. 85 (Západoceské Muzeum [West Bohemian Museum], Plzen, Czech Republic); and H. W. van Os, "Op het Spoor van een Vervalser," Spiegel: Historiael 6 (February 1971), fig. 4 (location unknown).