Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



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  • Title: Panel from the Humility Polyptych - Umilta watches her husband take the religious habit
  • Creator: Lorenzetti, Pietro, painter, attributed to
  • Description: Umilta 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. This panel was the second scene in the polyptych’s narrative of Umiltà’s life. It shows Umiltà kneeling in a nun’s habit as she watches her husband, Ugolotto Caccianemici, take up the monk’s habit. Unlike in the image of their marriage, Umiltà has a halo around her head signifying that she has become holy since becoming a nun. The husband and wife joined Santa Perpetua, a double house, in Faenza in 1250.
  • 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/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