UMILE of PETRALIA. – Sicilian sculptor, secular name Giovanni Francesco Pintormo, born in Petralia Soprana in 1580, died in Palermo on 9 February 1639.
Admitted as a lay brother to the Palermo convent of Santa Maria di Gesù of the Reformed Franciscans, he began a life of fervor there, as evidenced by the numerous wooden crucifixes (33, according to tradition) scattered through the churches and convents of Sicily (Petralia, Mussomeli, Chiaramonte, Randazzo, Nicosia, etc.). The friar would not set his hand to his works without inner spiritual preparation; hence the aura of mystical piety that pervades them.
Other works include the Ecce Homo of Calvaruso, the St Francis of Enna, and the pulpit of San Nicola in Trapani. His style lies outside the caprices of the Seicento and the certain eloquence of the Cinquecento: his anatomy is precise, without the exaggeration of realism. Frate Umile’s work reveals a plastic sense born of inner clarity, which, while conforming to reality, re-presents it in a religious vision of high significance for the history of piety.
It is difficult to pin down Umile’s artistic relationships with the Ferraro of Giuliana and the Li Volsi of Nicosia; not least because no exhaustive monograph exists on this esteemed wood carver.