FUNGAI, BERNARDINO CRISTOFANO. - Painter, b. in Siena to Nicolò the furrier and baptized there on 14 Sept. 1460, d. there in 1516. In 1482 he assisted Benvenuto di Giovanni (v.) in decorating with monochrome frescoed Prophets the interior of the drum of the dome of Siena cathedral; in 1488 he married. In 1494-95 he painted two banners (now lost) in honor of Charles VIII, and between 1494 and 1496 he executed the panel with the Stigmata of St. Catherine in the oratory of the Santa in Fontebranda.
Documented between 1498 and 1501 is the large panel with the Coronation of the Virgin on the high altar of the church of the Servi in Siena, while the other large altarpiece 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. Besides these, numerous other works are confidently attributed to him, among them the Gabella cover with the Sacrifice of Iuaco in the State Archives of Siena, of 1485, the predella of the panel with the Adoration of the Magi in S. Domenico in Siena, and two Little 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) of the Pinacoteca of Siena and the altarpiece with the Nativity in the cathedral of Chiusi. Museums and private collections in Amsterdam, Bergamo, Budapest, Cambridge (U.S.A.), Chambéry, Cologne, Florence, Grosseto, Leningrad, London, Milan, New York, St. Louis (U.S.A.), Toulon, Turin and Venice possess paintings reasonably attributed to F. A modest artist, but pleasing and careful especially in works of small dimensions, F. is one of the last exponents of the Sienese tradition, by then largely penetrated by Umbrian influences, which are found above all in the vast and serene landscapes that form the background to his compositions, still conceived according to archaic schemes.
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Enzo Carli