Under the denomination Botticelli Style, the Doccia factory recorded a group of decorations that fairly faithfully reproduced compositions or elements taken from paintings ranging from the Renaissance to the 19th century. These are therefore not necessarily Botticellian inventions, as the term might suggest. A typical feature of this type of decoration is the inclusion of floral compositions that frame the main scene.
The three children positioned on the front of the vase are an almost exact reproduction of the group of angels to the left of the Madonna of the Magnificat by Sandro Botticelli (Uffizi Galleries, inv. 1890, no. 1609). On the sides of the composition and on the back, the decoration is completed by long branches with white flowers.
The vase in question must have been one of a pair, as revealed by a watercolour drawing - now in the archives of the Museo Ginori - where a group of three figures is depicted, two of which are taken, albeit in reverse, from the angels in the painting of the Baptism of Christ by Andrea del Verrocchio and the young Leonardo da Vinci (Uffizi Galleries, inv. 1890, no. 2306).
The ceramics featuring decorations in Botticelli Style must be dated between the 1890s and the early 20th century, coinciding with the introduction at the factory of models by Pre-Raphaelite artists as well.
