A Saint-King
A Saint-King
- Artist
- Bernardino Fungai
- Artist Dates
- 1460-1516
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- A Saint-King
- Date
- c. 1490
- Medium
- tempera and gold on panel
- Dimensions
- 123.8 x 47 cm (48-3/4 x 18-1/2 in)
- K Number
- K378
- Repository
- Museum of Art and Archaeology
- Accession Number
- 61.74
- Notes
Provenance
(Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955], Rome-Florence); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 10 October 1935; gift to the National Gallery of Art in 1939; deaccessioned in 1952 and returned to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; gift to Museum of Art and Archeology, University of Missouri, no. 61.74.
Catalogue Entry
Bernardino Fungai
A Saint-King
K378
Columbia, Mo., University of Missouri, Study Collection (61.74), since 1961. Wood. 48 3/4 X 18 1/2 in. (123.8 X 47 cm.). Fair condition; some restorations in background and a few in the figure. The attribution to Fungai is not doubted.(1) Although a date as late as 1510 has been suggested, the artist's earlier, less sophisticated style, probably of about 1490, seems recognizable here. Formerly labeled St. Louis of France, the painting more likely represents St. Sigismund,(2) King of Burgundy, who was popular in Sienese art of the period. Provenance: Contini Bonacossi, Florence. Kress acquisition, 1935 – exhibited: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (321), 1941-55.(3)
References
(1) K378 has been attributed (in ms. opinions) to Fungai by B. Berenson, G. Fiocco, R. Longhi (dating it 1485/90), R. van Marle, F. M. Perkins, W. E. Suida, and A. Venturi. (2) As suggested by Perkins in his ms. opinion cited in note 1, above. Cf. G. Kaftal (Saints in Tuscan Art, 1952, no. 284 n. 2) for an explanation of the popularity of St. Sigismund's cult in fifteenth-century Tuscany. A later version of the saint by Fungai appears in the Coronation of the Virgin in the Church of Fontegiusta, Siena. Cf. also Neroccio de'Landi's version in K1346 (Fig. 421 of F. R. Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century, 1966). (3) Preliminary Catalogue, 1941, p. 69, as St. Louis of France by Fungai, C. 1510.
Catalogue Volume
Italian Paintings XV – XVI Century