Madonna and Child with Saints Mary Magdalen and Sebastian

In the pictureInside a gilded arch, Mary in a blue mantle holds the Child, with the fair-haired Mary Magdalen on the left and Sebastian holding an arrow on the right. The Child, half-clothed, reaches out his hand, and the halo behind Mary is tooled with a dot pattern. The gold has scratches and cracks like an old painting.

BackgroundThis painting is in the 15th-century Sienese style, but it was actually painted in the late 19th or early 20th century by Icilio Federico Ioni, who was born in 1866. Ioni reproduced the materials and techniques of old panel paintings, even the marks of age, and sold them to collectors, and he later revealed this in his autobiography. The museum holds this painting not as a forgery but as an example of "the craft of imitating old paintings." There is no better teaching tool for training the eye to spot forgeries.

Puzzle tipIt divides by color exactly like a genuine old painting: blue mantle, flesh tones, fair hair and gold background. Fit the three faces and the Child first, lay the curved pieces of the arch around the top, then fill in the gold. Solving it at 300 pieces, it is also fun to notice how convincing the pattern of cracked gold is.