Farewell to Elda Necchi Cerchiari, together De Vecchi signed one of the most widely used art history textbooks in schools

Art historian Elda Necchi Cerchiari, whose name is remembered by tens of thousands of high school students because she was the author, together with Pierluigi De Vecchi, of Art in Time, has passed away in Genoa at the age of 95.

Necchi Cerchiari, born in Genoa in 1924, had first attended the University of Padua, studying with one of the leading art history scholars of the early twentieth century, Giuseppe Fiocco, and then moved to the State University of Milan, where in 1947 she graduated in Literature with Maria Luisa Gengaro and Antonio Banfi, with a thesis on the history of art criticism. Since the beginning of her career, Necchi Cerchiari’s name has been inextricably linked to manuals for schools: in 1957, in fact, she published a three-volume manual entitled Storia dell’arte (written together with Liana Castelfranchi Vegas) and then, three years later, it was the turn of Il cammino dell’arte. The more famous Art in Time, on the other hand, saw the light of day in 1991.

A longtime teacher of art history in high schools in Lombardy and Liguria, Necchi Cerchiari was also a longtime member of the board of ANISA (National Association of Teachers of Art History): one recalls, in particular, his long activity in support of the stable teaching of art history in high schools. And again, Necchi Cerchiari also distinguished herself for her activism in the cultural sphere: she was a member of the Friends of Brera, the education group of FAI - Fondo Ambiente Italiano, and the association Italia Nostra (she was a member of the board of directors of the Milan section). In 2013, the scholar also founded an association in Milan, theAssociazione Elda Necchi Cerchiari, with the aim “to emphasize the cultural contribution given to our heritage by personalities currently active or belonging to the city’s recent past.”

Farewell to Elda Necchi Cerchiari, together De Vecchi signed one of the most widely used art history textbooks in schools

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