Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



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  • Title: Panel from the Humility Polyptych - Umilta heals the monk with the gangrenous leg
  • Creator: Lorenzetti, Pietro, painter, attributed to
  • Description: Umiltà of Faenza (born Rosanese Negusanti) was an abbess and holy woman. In Florence, she founded the Monastery of San Giovanni Evangelista, a Vallombrosian house for women. This is one of the fourteen panels of the Humility Polyptych, which was constructed to celebrate Umiltà’s life and miracles. In this scene, Umiltà is represented as a thaumaturgist and miraculously cures a monk with gangrene in his leg. On a previous panel, a physician indicated that this monk was beyond saving and would probably die as a result of refusing to have his leg amputated. The severity of the monk’s condition is conveyed by his brothers who carry him on a stretcher up to Umiltà because he could not scale the stairs. However, Umiltà offers a benediction and the monk, having been cured of his gangrene, sits up from his stretcher.
  • Source: Umilta Website
  • Rights: Reproduced with permission
  • Subject (See Also): Abbesses Diseases Hagiography Healers and Healing Miracles Monks Umilta of Faenza, Mystic and Saint Women in Religion
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 14
  • Date: 1335-1340
  • Related Work: Humility Polyptych. See a reconstruction of the polyptych on the Feminae website.
  • Current Location: Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
  • Original Location: Florence, Monastery of San Giovanni Evangelista, a Vallombrosan house for women founded by Umiltà
  • Artistic Type (Category): Digital images; Paintings
  • Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Polyptych; Wood panel
  • Donor: Lay woman? [Cordelia Warr in her article cited above suggests the kneeling donor figure in the polyptych is a lay woman based on her clothing, pp. 296-297.]
  • Height/Width/Length(cm): 45 cm/32 cm/
  • Inscription:
  • Related Resources: Cordelia Warr, “Viewing and commissioning Pietro Lorenzetti’s Saint Humility Polyptych,” Journal of Medieval History 26, 3 (2000), Janet G. Smith, "Santa Umilta of Faenza: Her Florentine Convent and Its Art", Visions of Holiness: Art and Devotion in Renaissance Italy, [Athens, GA], Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, 2001