Ragghianti Foundation

The Licia and Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti Art Study Center was founded in 1981, when the Ragghiantis donated their library, photo library, and archive to the Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca. Their goal was to create a permanent laboratory for the study and dissemination of art, and a center to promote Lucca's artistic history and cultural experiences. A few years later, the association became a foundation.

Contemporary sculptures sit on raised beds in the Ragghianti Foundation garden. The Ragghianti Foundation building is in the background.

Contact us

STREET ADDRESS: Monumental Complex of San Micheletto - Via San Micheletto, 3 Lucca

PHONE: 0583 467205

E-MAIL: info@fondazioneragghianti.it

WEBSITE: fondazioneragghianti.it

Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, born in Lucca in 1910, was an art historian and theorist. He wrote books and essays on art theory and methodology, contemporary art, and cinema and entertainment as expressions of figurative art. From 1952 to 1965, he and his wife, Licia Collobi, edited the art information and culture magazine seleARTE, one of the most important cultural publications of the postwar period, with a circulation of up to 55.000 copies.

The Foundation is based within the Monumental complex of San Micheletto (former convent of San Michele).

The library's book collections (donations by CL and L. Ragghianti, PC Santini, A. Geri, S. Coppola, D. Sella, R. Carrieri, M. Tobino, A. Salvadori, I. Belli Barsali, G. and V. Pieraccini) comprise over 70.000 volumes, approximately 800 journal titles, and dissertations from the Department of History of Arts in Pisa. The Ragghianti, Santini, Coppola, Guerrini, and Cardellini archives are available for consultation, as well as a collection of over 36.000 art brochures and catalogues. The photographic collections comprise approximately 180.000 images. The center has a collection of paintings, drawings, graphic works, and sculptures permanently displayed in the complex's large, light-filled cloisters, along the garden, and in the building's entrance hall. 

In the internal rooms are organized art exhibitions, educational activities, conferences and conventionsThe Foundation also publishes exhibition catalogs, academic research, and theses on the study center's activities. The magazine LUK is the Foundation's cultural publication.