Valentina Ricci Vitiani, Researcher IRDS

Valentina Ricci Vitiani graduated cum laude from the University of Perugia in 2002 with a degree in Literature with a specialization in History of Art. Her dissertation, “La commitenza di Luca Signorelli in Umbria: nuove indagini e ricerche”, was based on archival research that produced new results and documents about Signorelli’s works in Umbria, throwing new light on the painter’s production and on his relationship with his patrons. In 2004 she obtained, with honours, a Diploma at the University of Pisa-Florence-Siena to teach History of Art at high school level. From 2004 she has taught History of Art in several schools.

In the years 2005 and 2006 she was twice awarded a scholarship by the “Fondazione Piero della Francesca” for developing her research in the History of Art. She has written articles which have appeared in art-historical journals as well as contributions to monographs : “….per mancia a li garzoni di mastro Luca. L’attività periferica di Luca Signorelli nell’Alta Umbria e la sua feconda eredità”; “Il Frammento di Parigi. Indizi per un’identificazione” (with S. Borsi), both in ed. T. Henry, Luca Signorelli a Città di Castello: la vita, l’opera, e la scuola in Alta Valle del Tevere, Città di Castello, 2013; Luca Signorelli. Itinerari in Umbria. Guida storico-artistica, Milan 2012, (with S. Borsi), “Ricerche sull’attività di Luca Signorelli in Alto Tevere Umbro (e alcune aggiunte al catalogo del pittore)”, in 1492. Rivista della Fondazione Piero della Francesca, 1, 2008,; “La macchina d'altare, opera inedita di Giampietro Zuccari da Sant'Angelo in Vado, in ed. T. Henry, Amicizia e francescanesimo. Luca Signorelli, Umbertide e la Pala di Santa Croce, Città di Castello, 2006. All these works are founded upon lengthy archival research, which aimed to study and clarify the artistic production of painters active in the Upper Tiber Valley in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

She has collaborated in the organization and realization of various exhibitions and events, contributing to their catalogues. These included: “Sculture “da vestire”. 'Nero' Alberti Da Sansepolcro e la produzione di manichini lignei in una bottega del '500” (ed. C. Galassi, Umbertide, Museo di Santa Croce, 2005); “Amicizia e francescanesimo: Luca Signorelli, Umbertide e la Pala di Santa Croce” (ed. T. Henry, Umbertide, Museo di Santa Croce, 2006); “Luca Signorelli “de ingegno et spirto pelegrino” (ed. F. De Chirico, V. Garibaldi, T. Henry and F. F. Mancini, Perugia, Orvieto, Città di Castello, 2012).

She has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences and workshops. Among the main themes she has discussed are Signorelli’s production and its heritage in Umbria; Signorelli’s interpretation of the “Legend of the Holy Cross”; the role of artistic workshop between fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; the presence of Umbrian artists in Rome in the seventeenth century; studies and attributions of wooden works of art.