Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index

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Click to view high resolution image Title: Panel from the Humility Polyptych - A monk refuses to have his gangrenous leg amputated 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 honor Umiltà’s life and miracles. This panel is the only one that does not include a depiction of Umiltà. Instead, it features four male figures. The primary focus of the scene is a monk of Sant’Apollinare who is lying sideways on a bed with his gangrene-ridden leg uncovered by his robe. Above him, two of his brothers stare gravely at a physician who proposes cutting the sickly limb off because no medical cure can save it. This image illustrates the powerlessness of the learned medical practice in this instance and serves to make the image of Umiltà curing the monk on a different panel more miraculous by comparison. 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/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

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