Paolo Petrucci was born in Rome. After graduating in a Classical High School, he also attended an Artistic High School, where he studied painting under Andrea Spadini. At the Art Academy, he was a pupil of Mario Mafai.
He entered the film industry as assistant director. He often worked in the films directed by his father (Antonio Petrucci, journalist, director, teacher at the Centro Sperimentale Film School in Rome), and especially in the ones shot in color.
Even though he kept painting, from 1968 to 2004 he collaborated with RAI as a director and author of cultural programs, among them many about art and painting techniques.
For his art documentaries he received several prizes – among them the Gran Prix de la Qualité de l’Image at the XVIII Festival International du film d’Art et Pédagogique, for the documentary Lorenzo il Magnifico, a biography of the Florentine patron and politician told with the aid of works of art and historical places.
In the meantime, he assiduously kept painting, exhibiting his works in Italy and the USA.
His painting The Three Bishops (1963) is on display at the Vatican, and another has been bought by the Modern Art Gallery in Rome. Several of his works are part of private collections in Italy and abroad.
