Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

PALISSY, BERNARD (1510-1589)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 635 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

PALISSY, See also:BERNARD (1510-1589) , See also:French See also:potter (see CE&A-vacs), is said to have been See also:born about 1510, either at See also:Saintes or See also:Agen, but both date and locality are uncertain. It has been stated, on insufficient authority, that his See also:father was a See also:glass-painter and that he served as his father's apprentice. He tells us that he was apprenticed to a glass-painter and that he also acquired in his youth the elements of See also:land-See also:surveying. At the end of his See also:apprenticeship he followed the See also:general See also:custom and became a travelling workman; acquiring fresh knowledge in many parts of See also:France and the See also:Low Countries, perhaps even in the See also:Rhine Provinces of See also:Germany and in See also:Italy. About 1539 it appears that he returned to his native See also:district and, having married, took up his See also:abode at Saintes. How he lived during the first years of his married See also:life we have little See also:record except when he tells us, in his autobiography, that he practised the arts of a portrait-painter, glass-painter and land-surveyor as a means of livelihood. It is known for instance that he was commissioned to survey and prepare a See also:plan of the See also:salt marshes in the neighbourhood of Saintes when the See also:council of See also:Francis I. determined to establish a salt tax in the See also:Saintonge. It is not quite clear, from his own See also:account, whether it was during his Wanderjahr or after he settled at Saintes that he was shown a See also:white enamelled See also:cup which caused him such surprise that he determined to spend his life—to use his own expressive phrase " like a See also:man who gropes in the dark "—in See also:order to discover the secrets of its manufacture. Most writers have supposed that this piece of See also:fine white pottery was a piece of the enamelled See also:majolica of Italy, but such a theory will hardly See also:bear examination. In Palissy's See also:time pottery covered with beautiful white See also:tin-See also:enamel was manufactured at many centres in Italy, See also:Spain, Germany and the See also:South of France, and it is inconceivable that a man so travelled and so acute should not have been well acquainted with its See also:appearance and properties. What is much more likely is that Palissy saw, among the treasures of some nobleman, a specimen of See also:Chinese See also:porcelain, then one of the wonders of the See also:European See also:world, and, knowing nothing of its nature, substance or manufacture, he set himself to See also:work to discover the secrets for himself. At the neighbouring See also:village of La Chapelle-See also:des-Pots he mastered the rudiments of See also:peasant pottery as it was practised in the 16th See also:century.

Other equipment he had none, except such indefinite See also:

information as he presumably had acquired during his travels of the manufacture of European tin-enamelled pottery. For nearly sixteen years Palissy laboured on in these See also:wild endeavours, through a See also:succession of utter failures, working with the utmost diligency and constancy but, for the most See also:part, without a gleam of See also:hope. The See also:story is a most tragic one; for at times he and his See also:family were reduced to the bitterest poverty; he burned his See also:furniture and even, it is said, the See also:floor boards of his See also:house to feed the fires of his furnaces; sustaining meanwhile the reproaches of his wife, who, with her little family clamouring .for See also:food, evidently regarded these proceedings as little See also:short of See also:insanity. All these struggles and failures are most faithfully recorded by Palissy himself in one of the simplest and most interesting pieces of autobiography ever written. The tragedy of it all is that Palissy not only failed to discover the See also:secret of Chinese porcelain, which we assume him to have been searching for, but that when he did succeed in ,making the See also:special type of pottery that will always be associated with his name it should have been inferior in See also:artistic merit to the contemporary productions of Spain and Italy. His first successes can only have been a See also:superior See also:kind of " peasant pottery " decorated with modelled or applied reliefs coloured naturalistically with glazes and enamels. These See also:works had already attracted See also:attention locally when, in 1548, the See also:constable de See also:Montmorency was sent into the Saintonge to suppress the revolution there. Montmorency protected the potter and found him employment in decorating with his glazed terra-cottas the See also:chateau d'Ecouen. Thepatronage of such an influential See also:noble soon brought Palissy into fame at the French See also:court, and although he was an avowed See also:Protestant, he was protected by these nobles from the ordin-' ances of the See also:parliament of See also:Bordeaux when, in 1562, the See also:property of all the Protestants in this district was seized. Palissy's workshops and kilns were destroyed, but he himself was saved, and, by the interposition of the all-powerful constable, he was appointed " inventor of rustic pottery to the See also:king and the See also:queen-See also:mother "; about 1563, under royal See also:protection, he was allowed to establish a fresh pottery works in See also:Paris in the vicinity of the royal See also:palace of the Louvre. The site of his kilns indeed became afterwards a portion of the gardens of the Tuileries. For about twenty-five years from this date Palissy lived and worked in Paris.

He appears to have been a See also:

personal favourite of See also:Catherine de' Medicis, and of her sons, in spite of his profession of the reformed See also:religion. Working for the court, his productions passed through many phases, for besides continuing his " rustic figulines " he made a large number of dishes and plaques ornamented with scriptural or mythological subjects in See also:relief, and in many cases he appears to have made reproductions of the See also:pewter dishes of See also:Francois Briot and other See also:metal workers of the See also:period. During this period too he gave several See also:series of public lectures on natural See also:history—the entrance See also:fee being one See also:crown, a large fee for those days—in which he poured forth all the ideas of his fecund mind. His ideas of springs and underground See also:waters were far in advance of the general knowledge of his time, and he was one of the first men in See also:Europe to enunciate the correct theory of fossils. The See also:close of Palissy's life was quite in keeping with his active and stormy youth. Like Ambroise See also:Pare, and some other notable men of his time, he was protected against ecclesiastical persecution by the court and some of the See also:great nobles, but in the fanatical outburst of 1588 he was thrown into the See also:Bastille, and although See also:Henry III. offered him his freedom if he would recant, Palissy refused to See also:save his life on any such terms. He was condemned to See also:death when nearly eighty years of See also:age, but he died in one of the dungeons of the Bastille in 1589. Palissy's Pottery.—The technique of the various wares he made shows their derivation from the See also:ordinary peasant pottery of the period, though Palissy's productions are, of course, vastly superior to anything of their kind previously made in Europe. It appears almost certain that he never used the potter's See also:wheel, as all his best known pieces have evidently been pressed into a See also:mould and then finished by modelling or by the application of See also:ornament moulded in relief. His most characteristic productions are the large plates, ewers, See also:oval dishes and vases to which he applied realistic figures of See also:reptiles, See also:fish, shells, See also:plants and other See also:objects. This is, however, not the work of an artist, but Rustic See also:Plate by Palissy. that of a highly gifted naturalist at the See also:dawn of See also:modern See also:science, who delighted to copy, with faithful accuracy, all the details of reptiles, fishes, plants or shells.

We may be sure that his fossil shells were not forgotten, and it has been suggested, with great See also:

probability, that these pieces of Palissy's were only manufactured after his removal to Paris, as the shells are always well-known forms from the See also:Eocene deposits of the Paris See also:basin. Casts from these objects were fixed on to a metal dish or See also:vase of the shape required, and a fresh See also:cast of the whole formed a mould from which Palissy could reproduce many articles of the same kind. The various parts of each piece were painted in realistic See also:colours, or as nearly so as could be reached by the See also:pigments Palissy was able to discover and prepare. These colours were mostly various shades of See also:blue from See also:indigo to ultra-marine, some rather vivid greens, several tints of browns and greys, and, more rarely, yellow. A careful examination of the most See also:authentic Palissy productions shows that they excel in the sharpness of their modelling, in a perfect neatness of manufacture and, above all, in the subdued richness of their general See also:tone of See also:colour. The crude greens, See also:bright purples and yellows are only found in the works of his imitators; whilst in the marbled colours on the backs of the dishes Palissy's work is soft and well fused, in the imitations it is generally dry, even harsh and uneven. Other pieces, such as dishes and plaques, were ornamented by figure subjects treated after the same See also:fashion, generally scriptural scenes or subjects from classical See also:mythology, copied, in many cases, from works in See also:sculpture by contemporary artists. Another class of designs used by Palissy were plates, tazze and the like, with geometrical patterns moulded in relief and pierced through, forming a sort of open network. Perhaps the most successful, as works of See also:art, were those plates and ewers which Palissy moulded in exact facsimile of the See also:rich and delicate works in pewter for which Francois Briot and other Swiss metal-workers were so celebrated. These are in very slight relief, executed with See also:cameo-like finish, and are mostly of See also:good See also:design belonging to the school of metal-working See also:developed by the See also:Italian goldsmiths of the 16th century. Palissy's ceramic reproductions of these metal plates were not improved by the colours with which he picked out the designs. Some few enamelled earthenware statuettes, full of vigour and expression, have been attributed to Palissy; but it is doubtful whether he ever worked in the See also:round.

On the whole his productions cannot be assigned a high See also:

rank as works of art, though they have always been highly valued, and in the 17th century attempts were made, both at See also:Delft and See also:Lambeth, to adapt his " rustic " dishes with the reliefs of animals and human figures. These imitations are very See also:blunt in modelling and coarsely painted. They are generally marked on the back in blue with See also:initials and a date—showing them to be honest adaptations to a different See also:medium, not attempts at See also:forgery such as have been produced during the last fifty years or so. One of the first signs of the revival of old French See also:faience, a See also:movement that was in great activity between 184o and 187o, was the appearance of copies of Palissy's " Bestiole " dishes, made with great skill and success by Avisseau of See also:Tours, and after-wards by Pull of Paris. Though both these men produced See also:original works of their own, collectors have had great cause to regret the excellence of their copies, for many of the best, being unmarked, have found their way into good collections. The well-known potter, Barbizet, who set out to make " Palissys " for the million, flooded France for a time with See also:rude copies that ought never to have deceived anyone. The best collections of Palissy's See also:ware are those in the museums of the Louvre, the Hotel See also:Cluny, and Sevres; and in See also:England that in the See also:Victoria and See also:Albert Museum, together with a few choice specimens in the See also:British Museum and in the See also:Wallace Collection. As an author, Palissy was undoubtedly more successful than as a potter. A very high position amongst French writers is assigned to him by Lamartine (B. Palissy, 8vo., Paris, 1852). He wrote with vigour and simplicity on a great variety of subjects, such as See also:agriculture, natural See also:philosophy, religion, and especially in his L'Art de terre, where he gives an account of his processes and how he discovered them. See See also:Morley, Life of Palissy (1855) ; See also:Marryat, Pottery (1850, pp.

31 seq.); A. Dumesnil, B. Palissy, le See also:

otter de terre (1851); A. Tamturier, Terres emaillees de Palissy (p1863) ; Delecluze, B. Palissy (1838); Enjubault, L'Art ceramique de B. Palissy (1858); Audiat, Etude sur la See also:vie . . . de B. Palissy (1868) ; H. Delange, Monographic de l'muvre de B. Palissy (1862). For Palissy as a Huguenot, see Rossignol, Des Protestantes See also:illustres, No. iv. (1861).

The best See also:

English account of Palissy as a potter is that given by M. L. See also:Solon, the most distinguished pottery-artist of the i9th century, in his History and Description of the Old French Faience (1903). (W.

End of Article: PALISSY, BERNARD (1510-1589)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
PALINGENESIS (Gr. -raw, again, 14vevcr, becoming, b... 		[next]
PALITANA

Site © 2006 - Net Industries