Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



Click to view high resolution image

  • Title: Panel from the Humility Polyptych - Umilta persuades her husband to allow a separation
  • 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 thirteen panels of the Humility Polyptych, which was constructed to celebrate Umiltà’s life and miracles. This panel is located in the top left corner of the polyptych, and is the opening scene in the polyptych’s narrative of Umiltà’s life. On this panel, Umiltà is shown persuading her husband, Ugolotto del Caccianemici, to separate from her. She asks this in order that she may leave their home in Faenza and lead a religious life. This is the only scene on the polyptych where Umiltà does not have a halo around her head, which signifies that she has yet to come into sainthood.
  • Source: Umilta Website
  • Rights: Reproduced with permission
  • Subject (See Also): Abbesses Chastity Hagiography Husbands Marital Separations Marriage Monasticism Umilta of Faenza, Mystic and Saint Wives 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