FUNGAI, BERNARDINO CRISTOFANO. - Painter, baptized in Siena on 14 Sept. 1460, son of Nicolò pizzicaiolo, d. there in 1516. In 1482 Benvenuto di Giovanni (v.) in decorating with monochrome Prophets the interior of the drum of the dome of Siena Cathedral; in 1488 he married. He painted in 1494-95 two banners (now lost) in honor of Charles VIII, and between 1494 and 1496 executed the panel with the Stigmata of St. Catherine in the oratory of Santa in Pontebranda.
Documented between 1498 and 1501 is the large panel with the Coronation of the Virgin on the high altar of the church of the Servites in Siena, while another large panel, also with the Madonna, Sts. Jerome, Nicholas, Sebastian, Anthony of Padua and angels, formerly in the church of the Carmine and now in the Pinacoteca of Siena (no. 431), bears his signature and the date 1512. In addition to these, numerous other works are securely attributed to him, including the cover of the Gabella with the Sacrifice of Isaac in the State Archives of Siena, from 1485, the predella of the panel with the Adoration of the Magi in S. Domenico in Siena, and two Stories of St. Mark (predella panels) in the Museum of Strasbourg, which are among his finest creations. To a later period belong the Assumption (no. 441) in the Pinacoteca of Siena and the panel with the Nativity in the cathedral of Chiusi. Museums and private collections in Amsterdam, Bergamo, Budapest, Cambridge (U.S.A.), Chambery, Cologne, Florence, Grosseto, Leningrad, London, Milan, New York, St. Louis (U.S.A.), Toulon, Turin and Venice possess paintings reasonably attributed to Fungai.
An artist of modest talent but pleasing and meticulous, especially in small-scale works, Fungai is one of the last exponents of the Sienese tradition, now largely penetrated by Umbrian influences, which are especially evident in the vast serene landscapes that form the background to his compositions, still conceived according to archaic schemes.