Pentecost - Ercole Graziani ( 1688 - 1765 )

Painting, oil on canvas, datable to around the 1730s, measuring 115 x 222 cm without frame and 130 x 240 cm with a coeval frame depicting Pentecost in the taste of Emilia and in particular by the painter Ercole Graziani ( Bologna 1688 - 1765 ).

He was a pupil of Donato Creti, with whom he was often confused, and began with works that are faithful to the formal idealisations of the master: examples of this phase are Lot and his daughters and Susanna with the old men, both works are conserved at the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna Later, he approached Pasinelli, Creti's master, with a pictorial production derived from Veronese with more sentimental interpretations.

In the 1730s, Graziani produced his most important works in both the sacred (such as the Madonna and Child with Saint Irene, now in Brussels) and profane genres. In the following decades, an academic phase followed first, as in the Baptism of Christ painted for St Peter's Cathedral in Bologna and St Maurus Heals the Cripples in St Proculus in Bologna.

This lively painting depicts the Gospel episode of Pentecost, or the Descent of the Holy Spirit that occurred 50 days after Christ's resurrection, in a very scenographic manner.
The Virgin with folded hands is surrounded by the Apostles who assume attitudes and expressions of amazement as they see the flames descending on them. The composition, which displays all the characteristics of early 18th century Bolognese painting, is particularly pleasing both for the remarkable description of the characters and the splendid colours.

The painting in question is an important document of Graziani's best vein because it exhibits a luministic impetus of brilliant skill; This is because the best part of our painter's activity is undoubtedly that which concerns portraits of both people and objects, which he carried forward with constant commitment, achieving a peculiarity of manner that marks a significant phase in the development of the genre, with a lucid anticipation of the executive finesse of the neoclassics, also due to a breadth of impasto and a perspicuity of definition that are all typical prerogatives of Ercole's great Bolognese painting.

The canvas we are observing here seems to refer to a precision of detail typical of 17th century figurative culture precisely due to a diligent and very accurate way of painting and to a painstaking scrupulousness in depicting the figures with a strong psychological impact and with great reference to the details of their faces and clothing.