Luca Signorelli, Works in Umbria

The itinerary dedicated to the works of the great renaissance artist Luca Signorelli goes for the most part through north-eastern Umbria, around the Tuscan border town of Cortona, where he was born in 1450.   

 PERUGIA
The route begins in Perugia, where his 1484 altar piece Pala di Sant’Onofrio can be seen in the Museo del Capitolo of the Cattedrale di San Lorenzo.

 FROM PERUGIA TO CITTA’ DI CASTELLO
Perugia is about 55 km from Città di Castello, an important town in the Upper Tiber Valley which, due to its position, has strong historical and cultural ties to the bordering provinces of Tuscany, Romagna and the Marche.   

• The Pinacoteca Comunale is home to his Majesty among Saints (1474), Martyrdom of St. Sebastian (1498) the processional standard with the Baptism of Christ and St. John the Baptist.  

 FROM CITTA’ DI CASTELLO TO MORRA
From Città di Castello it is about 25 km to the small village of Morra.

• Here, in the Oratorio di San Crescentino, Signorelli painted a fresco cycle inspired on the Passion of Christ, 1507.   

 FROM MORRA TO CITERNA
Some 40 km separate Città di Castello from the hilltop town of Citerna.

• The Chiesa di San Francesco is home to the fresco depicting the Virgin with Child among saints Archangel Michael and Francis. 

 FROM CITERNA TO UMBERTIDE
It takes about half an hour to get from Citerna to Umbertide, a city with medieval walls through which the Tiber River runs. 

• Here, in the Chiesa di Santa Croce, home to the Museo di Santa Croce, Signorelli painted his Deposition in 1516.

 FROM UMBERTIDE TO ORVIETO 
Heading south towards Terni and then west you will reach the beautiful city of Orvieto in about an hour and a half.

• Here, in the Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta, you can admire the gorgeous decorations he painted in the Cappella Nova di San Brizio  between 1499 and 1504. Signorelli had been commissioned to complete the decorations of the vault, which Beato Angelico had begun some 50 years earlier, and to then decorate the entire chapel. 
• Before leaving Orvieto, and to conclude the Signorelli itinerary, we suggest a visit to the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, where a 1504 painting depicting Santa Maria Maddalena hangs.