The Fall of Simon Magus

The painting was created in 1681 by Francesco Vanni, as indicated by the artist’s inscription and the work’s classification as a painting from that year.

By the late 17th century, the work entered the collection of the Medici family in Florence, where it remained until the dispersal of their holdings. It subsequently passed into private European collections before being acquired by the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, where it has been held since at least the 20th century.

The work is held at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, where it is inventoried as part of the museum’s collection.

It was exhibited in 2018 as part of the display "The Power of the Past: Italian Baroque and Later European Paintings from the Collection of Statens Museum for Kunst," held at Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.

Created in 1691, The Fall of Simon Magus is an oil painting attributed to the Italian artist Francesco Vanni, active in Rome and Siena during the transition from the late Renaissance to early Baroque. The composition captures a tumultuous moment from the biblical narrative, populated by a dense crowd reacting to a central figure’s dramatic gesture, all set against a cloudy sky and architectural backdrop.

Vanni’s career spanned a period of artistic transition in Italy, when the dramatic intensity of the Baroque began to supplant the balanced compositions of the High Renaissance. The Fall of Simon Magus exemplifies this shift, merging narrative complexity with theatrical lighting, a hallmark of contemporaneous Roman and Sienese workshops that sought to engage viewers emotionally.