The traces of Luca Signorelli's earliest activity at Città di Castello are three fragments that originally were parts of a mural painting done in 1474, "Maestà with Saints Girolamo and Paul", in the Bishop's tower of the town. They are S. Paul, the Child, and a candelabra. The mural painting was demaged by earthquake in 1789. These three fragments were what could be detached and saved from it and they were placed on exhibition in the Pinacoteca in 1935. They go back to the very beginning of the artists career who, according to Vasari, was a student and apprentice of Piero della Francesca. From that start the artist carried on a proficuous  activity at Città di Castello dominating local taste and leaving behind numerous young painters influenced by him. Highly esteemed by the Vitelli family, he was commissioned to paint portraits of its most important members. That of Niccolò Vitelli (1490 - 1500) today is in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts at Birmingham. Those of his sons, Camillo and Vitellozzo are in the Berenson Collection at Settignano. Between 1493 and 1498 Luca Signorelli painted various works for churches of Città di Castello among which the best known are: Adoration of the Eastern Kings (originally in S. Agostino and now in the Louvre); The Nativity (originally in S. Agostino and now in National Museum of Capodimonte, Naples); Adoration of the Shepherds (originally in S. Francesco and now in National Gallery, London). On July 6, 1488, the painter was honoured with the citizenship of Città di Castello for himself and his descendants (his native town was Cortona) for having so ably painted the Stendardo dell'Addolorata in the Fraternity of S. Maria del Gonfalone, subsequently lost. The artist's only painting that remains today at Città di Castello is the Martyrdom of S. Sebastian (1497 - 1498), originally over the Brozzi family altar in S. Domenico and now in the Pinacoteca. It is a painting of great interest revealing the influence of another pannel on the same subject painted by Pollaiolo at Florence and now in the National Gallery, London. Although some minor details may have been done by his assistants, the painting with its exasperated tension and intense expression is characteristic of Signorelli's style just prior to the work done in the Cathedral of Orvieto. No doubt, the collapse of the serene humanistic culture of Florence following the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent, which had been a moderating influence on his instinctively drammatic and turbolent character, affected him deeply. This pannel exherted a considerable influence on young Raffaello during his stay at Città di Castello, as demonstrated by his beautiful sketch of it now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The predominance of Signorelli's art at Città di Castello clearly placed the zone within the orbit of Florentine and Tuscan influence and practically exluded the penetration of the other great artistic pole of the time, the school of Perugino and Umbria. Even after Raffaello's presence in the town and Signorelli's departure for important work at Orvieto, the latter's influence remained predominant. Evidence of this is the mural paintings at Morra done after 1510 by the master with an ample contribution from his apprentices, the pannel of 1516 originally in S. Francesco at Montone and now in the National Gallery, London, and the numerous works of his followers, some of which are included in this collection and others which remain in their place of origin as the mural painting in S. Francesco at Citerna (1520). Questa pala esercitò un notevole fascino sul giovane Raffaello durante il suo soggiorno a Città di Castello, come prova soprattutto il bel disegno che ne trasse (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum). Il predominio dell’arte del Signorelli in ambiente tifernate conferma la vocazione toscana di Città di Castello e impedì la penetrazione del Perugino.