Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



Click to view high resolution image

  • Title: Panel from the Humility Polyptych - Umilta reading to her nuns while they eat
  • 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 panel, the abbess is depicted on the balcony reading to her fellow nuns while they eat in the refectory. This scene memorializes the miracle in which the illiterate Umiltà read through divine intervention. Janet G. Smith suggests that Umiltà relied on her memory to deliver a suitable “reading.” Although it is barely visible, the dove of peace can be seen near Humility’s ear, as if whispering instruction to her while she is speaking. The presence of the dove symbolizes her direct connection with God and proposes that her reading was influenced and supported by divine forces. Cordelia Warr quotes Roberto Rusconi describing this scene as "essentially ambiguous" as it relates to the contemporary discussions about the ability of women to preach. Since Umiltà in this case is speaking to the nuns in the privacy of a cloistered setting, this would not have been as unusual as a woman addressing a male and female audience in a public space.
  • Source: Wikimedia Commons
  • Rights: Public domain
  • Subject (See Also): Abbesses Education Hagiography Literacy Monasticism Preaching Readers 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/37 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