Plate depicting Apollo and Sappho

In 1879, the artistic direction of the Ginori factory was briefly entrusted to Angelo Marabini from Faenza, who was active at Doccia as a figurative painter. Marabini introduced decorations with mythological subjects and rural scenes that were well received by the public at the 1881 National Exhibition in Milan.

Signed at the bottom with the artist’s initials, the plate featuring Apollo and Sappho depicts the meeting between the Greek poetess and the god of the arts, shown intent on playing the harp against the backdrop of a countryside landscape. 

The decoration of maiolica painted with scenes taken from works of art by painters of previous centuries had been practiced at Doccia since the 1870s, but in this specific type the influence of paintings by Bolognese artists of the 17^th and 18^th centuries is evident; Marabini undoubtedly had had the opportunity to study these paintings in depth thanks to the years spent in his family’s printmaking workshop.