St Clement striking the Rock

Bernardino Fungai was a Sienese painter of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century who absorbed the influence of Perugino's soft Umbrian style while retaining the Sienese tradition of gold-tooled decorative backgrounds. His Saint Clement Striking the Rock is an unusual hagiographic subject — the Apostolic Father Clement of Rome, martyred by being thrown into the Black Sea with an anchor, was said to have miraculously created a sea-floor chamber accessible to pilgrims. The striking of the rock likely refers to a separate miracle tradition conflating Clement's story with that of Moses.

Fungai's style in this period shows the Peruginesque influence clearly — the saint's pose and the gentle landscape background with its feathery trees are close to Perugino's vocabulary while the gold tooling in the ground remains distinctly Sienese. The dynamic gesture of striking the rock contrasts with the usual placid Fungai figure type.