Ercole Graziani (the Younger)

Bio

Graziani was a pupil of Donato Creti and was strongly influenced by Monti and Pasinelli. He typifies the continuing allegiance in eighteenth century Bologna to the native classicism of the seventeenth century. The quality of his early work was variable and gives little indication of the beauty achieved in his mature style, of which the exhibited picture is a good example. Reared in the residual traditions of the Carracci school, he moved by the 1740s towards an increased monumentality in his figures, which look forward to aspects of Italian Neo-classicism. Many of his paintings directly recall Annibale Carracci and his followers, and strong reminiscences of Lodovico appear in Saint Irene venerating the Virgin and Child (Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts). His major works were executed in Bologna and Piacenza, and such was the success of his altarpiece showing St. Peter consecrating St. Apollinaire (Bologna, S. Pietro) that Pope Benedict XIV ordered a version for the church of S. Apollinare in Rome.