Ercole Lelli (14 September 1702 – 7 March 1766) was an Italian painter and sculptor of the late-

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

, active mainly in Northern Italy, including his native city of

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

, as well as

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

and

Piacenza Piacenza (; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Piacenza, eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with more ...

. He became noted for his anatomical sculpture and art.

Life and work

Lelli was a pupil of the painter Giovanni Pietro Zanotti, but he also gravitated towards sculptural work. He excelled in the study of the anatomy of the human body as well as painting. Starting in 1742 he helped prepare artistic anatomical wax displays at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

. The wax modeler and anatomist

Giovanni Manzolini Giovanni Manzolini (1700-1755) was a Bolognese artist, an expert maker of wax anatomical models and a professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna. His wife Anna Morandi Manzolini also became a well-known maker of wax anatomical models. Ea ...

worked as his assistant from 1743. Manzolini resigned in late 1746 after three years. He felt bitterly that Lelli had deprived him of recognition for his greater knowledge of anatomy and anatomical sculpture. Nicolo Toselli was another of Lelli's pupils. In 1746 Lelli became a member of both the Bolognese art society, Accademia Clementina, and the science society, '' Istituto delle scienze''. He had completed many medals for the local Mint. A few pictures are extant, including a ''Virgin and child with St. Anthony of Padua and St. Clara'' for the church of Sant' Andrea delle Scuole at Bologna; and a ''St. Fidèle'' for the church of the Cappuccini at

. He was an eminent teacher of design, and in 1759 became director of the academy at Bologna, the city where he died. He has also left some engravings, such as ''Hagar and Ishmael''. A posthumous book with a few engravings, titled ''Anatomia esterna del corpo umano'' (External Anatomy of the Human Body) was published in Bologna.

Notable students

* Giles Hussey

References

External links

A Brief History
of the collection at the Museo delle cere anatomiche in

1702 births 1766 deaths 18th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Bologna Italian Baroque painters Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors Italian anatomists 18th-century Italian male artists {{Italy-painter-18thC-stub