Plate Depicting Apollo and Sappho

Since 1879, the artistic direction of the manufactory was briefly entrusted to Angelo Marabini from Faenza, active in 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, intent on playing the harp against the backdrop of a countryside landscape.

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