Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



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  • Title: Panel from the Humility Polyptych - Umilta miraculously leaves the convent of Santa Perpetua and crosses the river Lamone with dry feet
  • 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 depicted breaking cloister. According to legend, a voice woke her in the middle of the night and told her to rise. Her departure is intended to be seen as a miraculous event on this panel because its composition emphasizes the impregnability of the monastery, which possesses tall, sheer walls and no visible ground exit. Umiltà is also shown miraculously walking on the water, and this action corresponds with the parts of her vitae that say she crossed the river Lamone and emerged from it with dry feet. In the upper left hand portion of the panel, St. John the Evangelist is depicted in conversation with Umiltà. The inclusion of his image here further emphasizes Umiltà ’s connection to the divine.
  • Source: Umilta Website
  • Rights: Reproduced with permission
  • Subject (See Also): Abbesses Hagiography Miracles Monastic Enclosure Monasticism 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