This large vase signed inside the mouth is certainly attributable to the peak of sculptor Urbano Lucchesi’s activity at the Manifattura di Doccia. It can be hypothesized that the factory’s artistic director oversaw its creation at all stages, including decoration. His interest in developing new grotesque designs is well known, from which an interpretation of the motif emerges that differs from the ancient and Renaissance model, and was used at Doccia starting in the early years of neo-Renaissance maiolica production.
Our vase features a polychrome design on a white background with handles modelled as vine shoots with leaves and grapes in relief framing two masks evoking the god Bacchus. The features of the latter’s face recall the naturalism that distinguishes some figures conceived by Lucchesi for the Ginori factory, consistent with his academic training as a portraitist and his attention to portraying rural life. On the painted decoration on the back of the body of the vase, the attributes recalling the Bacchic cult are visible: the pitcher, the syrinx, and the thyrsus.
The shape of this vase was also used by Lucchesi in combination with other sculptural decorations. Among these, we recall La Baccante, presented in the Ginori pavilion at the 1891 Palermo Exhibition, which features a maenad and a young faun modelled in full relief and positioned along the silhouette of the vase.
