Plate design with Raphael-style decoration

Under the guidance of Lorenzo Ginori Lisci, in the second half of the nineteenth century the Doccia Manufactory devoted considerable attention to the imitation of Italian Renaissance maiolica. In the years 1854-1855 some of the best painters active at Doccia were sent to copy from life examples of plates, flasks, water pitchers, and other maiolica objects preserved at the Royal Galleries of Florence, which later became part of the collections of the Bargello Museum. A major showcase for this type of production was the Exhibitions held throughout the nineteenth century. The first exhibition in which the Manufactory presented samples of maiolica imitating ancient sixteenth-century artifacts was the Paris Exhibition of 1855. From that moment, and until the 1870s, neo-Renaissance maiolicas became one of the manufactory’s recognized fields of excellence. The success of this type of production continued throughout the second half of the century. This drawing, preserved in the Archive of the Ginori Museum, is also evidence of this.

The inscription informs us that this is a copy of a sixteenth-century Urbino plate with a Raffaellesque decoration, preserved at the Bargello Museum (inv. 18). Since the Museum was inaugurated in 1865, the drawing is certainly later. Moreover, the high number of the decorative code (1850) further suggests dating it to the 1890s. The fact that the triumph scene in the center was not reproduced allows us to assume that the copyist’s interest was solely to replicate the ornamental composition.