In the early 1870s, the artistic direction of the manufactory was entrusted to the Calabrian painter Giuseppe Benassai. A professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, in 1871 he is noted for two maiolica vases to be presented at the Italian Exhibition in Milan, and as a decorator for six pieces to be sent to the Agricultural, Industrial and Fine Arts Exhibition in Trieste.
At the 1873 Vienna World Exposition, Benassai’s name is associated, among others, with the vase known as Colosso depicting the Fire in the Pampas (Ginori Museum, inv. 16) and four plates with the Continents, which are now lost. It is unclear whether his involvement was limited to the design of the composition or if he should also be considered the painter of the decoration on these pieces. Doubt about his possible direct role in the execution on maiolica also arises in the case of this plate, given the presence of the signature “Benassai made at Doccia.”
In any case, the care taken in representing naturalistic elements is evident, as also demonstrated by the plate presented here. At the center of a natural landscape wholly dominated by the trees of a forest is depicted a pair of deer grazing. Within the repertoire of decorations from the Ginori Manufactory, this is a novelty attributable to Benassai himself. The inspiration for this type of decoration did not come from direct observation of nature, but from printed iconographic sources introduced by the painter and reinterpreted in his compositions.
