Italian family of painters. Michelangelo Ricciolini (b Rome, 29 Sept 1654; d Frascati, 10 Dec 1715) contributed paintings of feigned tapestries to the decoration (destr.) of the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome, commissioned by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni in 1691-3. He also painted the decorations of the gallery and some rooms in the Palazzo Spada (1698-9; 1700; 1703-4), Rome; the frescoes of the Palazzo Chigi Zondadari at S Quirico d'Orcia (1684-6; with a group of painters); those of the Palazzo Buonaccorsi at Macerata and of the Casino Pescatore at Frascati (Rome). His paintings include Samson and Delilah (Rome, Gal. Spada) and 20 canvases (14 on the Life of St Lawrence; all Rome, Calasanctianum) influenced by Carlo Maratti and the Roman Baroque. His son, Nicol? Ricciolini (b Rome, 1 Feb 1687; d Rome, 15 Oct 1772), collaborated with him in the decoration of the ceiling of the gallery of the Palazzo Orsini-Barberini at Monterotondo. Nicol?'s art is rooted in the Late Baroque, and he did not follow the developing Neo-classical style. For many years he was employed by the Fabbrica of St Peter's, and his works included cartoons (1721-6; six in Rome, Basilica di S Pietro, Depositi della Fabbrica) for the dome mosaics in the Chapel of S Michele; the Crucifixion of St Peter (1728-9; Rome, S Maria degli Angeli) for one of the altars of the basilica; and the cartoons (1730-34; Rome, S Maria degli Angeli) depicting the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin in Glory for the mosaics (unexecuted) in the dome of the Colonna Chapel. In the 1760s he painted a decorative frieze featuring Scenes from Genesis in the Sala dell' Udienza of the Palazzo Barberini, Rome (in situ; Casale (1992) believed this to be by Michelangelo Ricciolini). In 1764 he painted two canvases (one initialled, and the other initialled and dated) representing Scenes from the History of the Colonna Family in the 18th-century salon of the same palazzo. Among his works for Roman churches were the Deposition (before 1750; Rome, S Giuseppe alla Lungara) and the Virgin Appearing to St Bernard (signed and dated 1751; Rome, Santissimo Nome di Maria), his masterpiece.

See the Abbreviations for further details.