PALISSY, Bernard
(b. 1510, Agen, d. 1590, Paris)

Oval platter

c. 1560
Glazed terracotta, 52,5 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

Bernard Palissy experimented with ceramic life-casts in France. He was one of the few practitioner of the so-called rustic style. Natural objects were the subjects of his terracotta plates and, on a larger scale, garden grottos. Using an innovative white tin glaze that permitted multiple colours to be fired at the same time, Palissy's jasper wares were more than a simple exposition of natural forms. His platter becomes a tableau for a pond or stream, into which the viewer peers down. A water snake slithers through the centre of the dish, its scales and markings meticulously replicated. Nearby, swimming fish breach the surface. Lizards, frogs, crayfish, shells, ferns, flowers and floating water plants, some cast and some modelled, complete the composition.