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Graziani, Ercole, II
(b Bologna, 14 Aug 1688; d Bologna, 17 Dec 1765). Italian painter. He was the son of Ercole Graziani I (1651–1726). He studied first with Lodovico Mattioli and later with Donato Creti in the house of Conte Alessandro di Fava, where he made copies after his master and after his illustrious Bolognese predecessors, the Carracci, Guido Reni and Simone Cantarini. His earliest works, such as the Virgin and Child with St Irene (?1720; Brussels, Mus. A. Anc.), show the influence of Creti, but the grace of pose and warmth of colouring are Graziani’s own. His first securely datable work is the Ascension, completed in 1728 (Cento, Pin. Civ.), for the oratory of the Purità, Bologna, in which the luminous colours show how far the Bolognese school had developed from the sombre palette of the 17th century. Graziani acquired a considerable reputation in the late 1720s and enjoyed official success at the Accademia Clementina, becoming director in 1727 and serving as principal in 1730. He made a number of large altarpieces for churches in Bologna and the surrounding area, but in them his colours lose something of their charm and freshness and his approach is somewhat pedestrian. Such works as the Death of St Francis Regis (6*4 m, 1732; Bologna, S Maria della Pietà) and especially the Martyrdom of SS George and Catherine of Alexandria, commissioned by Cardinal Tommaso Ruffo for the cathedral at Ferrara and unveiled in 1735 (in situ), are impressive mainly for their size. They were nonetheless held in high esteem by contemporaries, and in 1737 Pope Benedict XIV ordered a replica of the St Peter Consecrating St Apollinaris as Bishop (Bologna Cathedral) to be placed in the church of S Apollinaris in Rome.
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