Platter

Art Historical Context

This stunning lead-glazed earthenware platter attributed to Bernard Palissy the second half of the19th century, exemplifies the enduring fascination with the master's naturalistic style. Measuring about 17 by 13 inches, the oval dish bursts with lively motifs of fish and snakes, rendered in high relief to mimic the textures of real creatures. Palissy, originally a 16th-century Huguenot artisan, pioneered "rustic wares" by incorporating actual shells, lizards, and insects into his pottery, creating a sense of teeming natural life. Though this piece dates over 300 years later, it revives his tec...

About the Artist

Bernard Palissy · 1510–1590

Bernard Palissy (c. 1510–1590), born to a poor family in the Saintonge region of France—possibly in Saintes, Périgord, or near Agen—began his career apprenticed to a glass painter before becoming a wandering journeyman portrait painter, glassworker, and land surveyor across France, the Low Countries, and Italy. He learned the rudiments of pottery in La Chapelle-des-Pots and settled in Saintes as a...