Extraordinary innovator of the Renaissance season, Luca Signorelli (1450 – 1523) – Luca d'Egidio di Ventura's real name or Luca da Cortona – was a figure in many ways elusive for critics and the public, yet fundamental in tracing the path that it will be followed by Raphael and Michelangelo: the two giants who, ironically, later ended up obscuring his fame.

On the five hundredth anniversary of his death, the engines of the celebrations heat up and it will be Cortona - the hometown to which Signorelli was always linked, also taking on public roles despite his travels and repeated distances - that will shed new light on the artist, with a very precious exhibition "Signorelli 500 Maestro Luca da Cortona, painter of light and poetry" promoted by the Municipality of Cortona and the Etruscan Academy of Cortona, under the aegis of the National Committee for the celebrations established by the MIC, organized by Villaggio Globale International and curated by Tom Henry, leading expert on the subject, professor emeritus at the University of Kent and former Director of the School of Classical and Renaissance Studies of the English University in Rome.

A highly anticipated exhibition scheduled at the MAEC–Museum of the Etruscan Academy and the City of Cortona from 23 June to 8 October 2023, which deliberately focuses on the Maestro's pictorial production with the aim of retracing the artist's career, making the strength of his colorism is evident, the scope and originality of his inventions so admired by Vasari, the narrative power of his works and the ability he had to go beyond his contemporaries, becoming "a beacon for the greats of the Renaissance".

What made it difficult to have an overall vision of Signorelli's career was above all the dispersion of the Cortonese artist's works in many places and sites, in Italy and abroad, starting from the astonishing cycles of frescoes that made him famous, obviously immovable.