His graduation thesis was on the sculptor Tino di Camaino (1285-1337).
In 1937 he was made superintendent of Aquila and two years later moved to Siena, where he taught art history at the University of Siena and was director of the Pinacoteca Nazionale until 1952 and of the Museo dell'Opera Metropolitana del Duomo until 1973.
In 1980 he received the President of the Republic's Prize as a member emeritus of the Accademia dei Lincei.
In 1995 that Accademia awarded him the Feltrinelli Prize for art criticism and poetry.
[2] In September 2000 his children donated the Fondo Enzo Carli to the University of Siena, depositing around 5000 pieces of his correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, typescripts and prints dating from 1928 to 1996 in that university's literature department library.