Giovanni da Milano

Hailing from Lombardy, the earliest documentation shows Giovanni in Florence on October 17, 1346, under the name Johannes Jacobi de Commo, listed amongst the foreign painters living in Tuscany. Amongst Giovanni's most significant works: • A polyptych with Madonna and Saints (c. 1355), the oldest known signed work by Giovanni da Milano, painted for the Prato Spedale della Misericordia • A polyptych made for the Ognissanti of Florence (c. 1363), now dismembered and scattered, depicting saints and scenes of the biblical creation myth • Man of Sorrows panel (c. 1365, Accademia, Florence), the oldest known signed and dated work • Frescoes decorating both sides of the Rinuccini Chapel in Santa Croce, Florence. Each side consists of five scenes – one side depicting the Life of the Virgin and the other the Life of Mary Magdalene. Giovanni is credited with the upper two registers of each cycle. The bottom register is credited to Matteo di Pacino. The latest extent documentation of Giovanni's career comes in 1369, when he is known to be working in Rome for Pope Urban V with Giottino and the sons of Taddeo Gaddi.

Works named in the authority record are Pietà, Christ in throne adored by angels, Polyptych of Ognissanti and Prato Polyptych. Work by Giovanni da Milano is recorded in the collections of Städel Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Uffizi Gallery, Galleria dell'Accademia and Pinacoteca di Brera.