Michelino Molinari da Besozzo

Below the Virgin's mantle, on a small panel in the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Siena, runs a short Latin line, Michelinus fecit, Michelino made this. It is the only painting he is known to have signed. The Christ Child, seated on his mother's knee, offers a ring to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, while John the Baptist and Saint Anthony Abbot, his pig at his feet, look on. It dates from around 1420.

Michelino came from Besozzo, near Lake Maggiore, and his world was the court of the Visconti, the lords of Milan. He is documented from 1388, painting in Pavia, and in 1403 he illuminated the funeral eulogy for Duke Giangaleazzo Visconti. His contemporaries praised him extravagantly. The humanist Uberto Decembrio called him the most distinguished painter of his time, and in 1410 he worked in Venice, where his soft, decorative manner left a mark on local painters.

He stayed loyal to International Gothic, the elegant courtly style of around 1400, while Florence was turning to Renaissance perspective. So few of his works survive that his name faded after his death. The last documents mention him around 1450.