Umberto GIUNTI (Siena 1886 - 1970) Madonna of Humility Hexagonal parquet panel 46 x 36 cm Bibliography : G. Mazzoni, Quadri antichi del Novecento, Vicenza, 2001, pp. 164-165, reproduced figure 277. Umberto Giunti was nicknamed "Il Falsario del calcinaccio" by the art historian Federico Zeri, who was the first to identify the painter without knowing his true identity. It was Gianni Mazzoni, who studied the period of the Sienese forgers, who succeeded in naming the artist by consulting the photographic archives of the Joni heirs. Little is known about Umberto Giunti. In 1923, he entered the Siena Institute of Fine Arts, where he taught decorative arts. He was one of the best students of Icilio Federico Joni, known as the prince of Sienese forgers. From the end of the 19th century until the 1930s, the international market demand for gold backgrounds by Italian primitive artists gave rise to a large-scale production of forgeries in Tuscany, mainly in Siena. Many of Giunti's works can be found in major museums, including the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the National Gallery in Dublin and the Courtauld Gallery in London.