Città di Castello has a new Luca Signorelli: returned to the master the Santa Cecilia Altarpiece after restoration

A Renaissance masterpiece re-emerges from the dust of time. After a full restoration that revealed its authenticity, the St. Cecilia Altarpiece, housed in the Pinacoteca comunale of Città di Castello, has been given to Luca Signorelli and his workshop by the artist’s leading expert, Tom Henry, who also curated the exhibition held last year in Cortona: in fact, it was previously generally believed to be the work of Signorelli’s school.

The official presentation was held last Dec. 28 in the Pinacoteca di Palazzo Vitelli alla Cannoniera, in the presence of Tom Henry himself, Professor Emeritus of Kent University, who formalized the attribution. The restoration, funded by eCampus University through theArt Bonus mechanism, involved a multidisciplinary team of restorers, researchers and art historians, marking a milestone in the panorama of the conservation and enhancement of Italy’s artistic heritage. The work thus returns to the Pinacoteca hall where there is already a conspicuous number of works by Signorelli and the workshop, starting with the fundamental Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, which is one of the masterpieces of the artist from Cortona.

The history of the Saint Cecilia Altarpiece

The work, imposing in its size (two by three meters), at the time of Napoleonic requisitions was destined for the Louvre, by order of Vivant Denon, director of the museum and Napoleon’s trusted man. However, the impossibility of transporting it prevented its expatriation. The predella, separate from the main altarpiece, instead followed a troubled fate: found in 1945 among the masterpieces destined for Hitler’s museum in Linz, Austria, it represents a significant fragment of the story.

For years, as anticipated, the Saint Cecilia Altarpiece remained relegated to a generic attribution to the school of Signorelli, obscured by trauma and heavy repainting that had altered its details. As early as 1923, art historian Mario Salmi had mistakenly attributed it to the mediocre painter Pietro Baldinacci, thus influencing later critics.

Restoration and rebirth

Thanks to the intuition of researcher Giuseppe Sterparelli and the work of restorer Paolo Pettinari, assisted by Marco Santi for the wooden support and Francesca Rosi of the CNR for the scientific investigations, it was possible to rediscover the hand of Luca Signorelli. The restoration, supervised by the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio of Umbria, took a year to complete and made use of innovative non-invasive techniques to study the pictorial materials.

The process involved two main phases of cleaning: the first brought to light the original chromatic values of the work, restoring the liveliness typical of the Renaissance master; the second, conducted in close collaboration with Giovanni Luca Delogu, an official of the Soprintendenza, made it possible to enhance the aesthetic and formal details that characterize Signorelli’s style.

Among the most significant discoveries were the recovery of the nudity of the Child Jesus, originally covered by a loincloth redesign, and the feet of the Virgin, hidden under flowered stockings. The Madonna’s red tunic, transformed in the 17th century into a dress in the fashion of the time, was restored, along with the fine details of St. Cecilia and St. Catherine, whose physiognomy was modified.

A masterpiece reborn

The intervention revealed a complex and harmonious work, a mirror of Signorelli’s artistic maturity during his time in Città di Castello. Here, under the protection of the Vitelli family, the painter developed that "bizarre and capricious invention" celebrated by Giorgio Vasari.

Kept in the Pinacoteca tifernate since 1912, the altarpiece is now a feather in the museum’s cap and a draw for scholars and art lovers from around the world. The day-long presentation, titled “A Rediscovered Signorelli,” was enhanced by projections on the Pinacoteca’s facade and a performance by the Abbatini Chorale, dedicated to St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music. The museum can be visited Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. (until March 31). From April 1 to October 31, hours are 10-30 a.m. and 2:30-6:30 p.m.

“There are many ways to celebrate an artist, and usually restorations in addition to exhibitions are the best tools,” says Tom Henry. “This intervention makes it possible to enhance not only the Santa Cecilia Altarpiece, but also to give proper attention back to Luca Signorelli’s late work, which proves crucial to really understanding his path and history. And Signorelli’s work in Città di Castello plays a role of primary importance, also for the formation of the young Raphael.”

“We have the honor of returning to our contemporaries a work of very fine workmanship,” emphasized Luca Secondi, mayor of Città di Castello, and Michela Botteghi, alderman for Culture, “impressive in technique and size, in which Signorelli’s style and mastery are appreciable both in the whole and in details of rare beauty. It had been centuries since the St. Cecilia altarpiece lost its original appearance. Today we can see it as it appeared to our fellow citizens in the 16th century-a privilege that does not happen often and for which we thank eCampus University, which funded the restoration project. Città di Castello is a city that over time owes much to patronage, thanks to which we host works by Signorelli and Raphael, De Chirico, Pistoletto in our museums. It is important that this fruitful relationship between public and private for the enhancement of cultural heritage continues in the future. For more than a year, many people worked almost daily to restore the Santa Cecilia Altarpiece: we thank Tom Henry, who saw Signorelli’s imprint hidden behind the signs of time, the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Beni Culturali e Paesaggio, which followed the restoration on an ongoing basis, and restorer Paolo Pettinari. The restoration site set up in the Pinacoteca made it possible to follow the difficult and delicate unveiling process in real time, through the complex critical acts that made it possible to restore the altarpiece to its original splendor and to share the journey with visitors, schools and the public.”

Francesco Pietro Polidori, founder of eCampus University and patron of the operation through Art Bonus, does not conceal his enthusiasm: “our University, as a natural venue for the promotion of knowledge, immediately lent itself to this operation, which is also worthwhile from the point of view of attracting tourists to the area. In this sense we have ideally followed the example of one of our illustrious fellow citizens, Alberto Burri, who made possible the restoration of Luca Signorelli’s frescoes in Morra, in our district, exactly fifty years ago.”

Città di Castello has a new Luca Signorelli: returned to the master the Santa Cecilia Altarpiece after restoration

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