Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
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Title:
Panel from the Humility Polyptych - Umilta cures a nun of a hemorrhage
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 miraculously curing an ailing nun of a hemorrhage. She is portrayed as a thaumaturgist here. The severity of the nun’s illness is conveyed by the other figures in the scene. In another room on the panel, a lay sister holds up a cup of blood to a physician who shrugs to indicate the impossibility of a cure. However at the same moment the physician proves to be useless, Umiltà intercedes on the nun’s behalf. With Umiltà’s benediction performed, the nun sits up from her sick bed completely restored to health.
Source:
Wikimedia Commons
Rights:
Public domain
Subject
(See Also)
:
Abbesses
Hagiography
Healers and Healing
Miracles
Monasticism
Nuns
Physicians
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:
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
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):
46.2 cm/55.4 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