Ercole Lelli (14 September 1702 – 7 March 1766) was an Italian painter and sculptor of the late-Baroque, active mainly in Northern Italy, including his native city of Bologna, as well as Padua and Piacenza.

Lelli was a pupil of the painter Giovanni Pietro Zanotti, but he also gravitated towards sculptural work.

Starting in 1742 he helped prepare artistic anatomical wax displays at the University of Bologna.

He felt bitterly that Lelli had deprived him of recognition for his greater knowledge of anatomy and anatomical sculpture.

A posthumous book with a few engravings, titled Anatomia esterna del corpo umano (External Anatomy of the Human Body) was published in Bologna.