Large lead-glazed earthenware oval platter with high relief of a snake, a perch, a crayfish, and oth

Large lead-glazed earthenware oval platter with high relief of a snake, a perch, a crayfish, and other assorted squirmy creatures. Attributed to Bernard Palissy, second half 16th century, France. Located in the Salle de Bernard Palissy at the Louvre.Known for having attempted to imitate Chinese porcelain for years, by the middle of the 16th century, Palissy developed a mixture of glazes which made ceramic resemble jasper, chalcedony and other exotic, colored stones.Palissy produced his designs by attaching casts of dead lizards, snakes, and shellfish to traditional ceramic forms such as basins, ewers, and plates. He then painted these wares in blue, green, purple, and brown, and glazed them with runny lead-based glaze to increase their watery realism. [source]These designs were called terre jaspée, but are now known as Palissy ware. Queen Catherine de’ Medici, who had given Palissy the title of Inventor of Rustic Ware to the King*, commissioned him to design her private grotto at the garden of the Palais des Tuileries in Paris, which he decorated in tile with his repertoire of super-realistic, creepy crawly marine/reptilian rustiques figulines.*“The title of Inventeur des rustiques figulines du roi was bestowed on Palissy by Catherine de Medici at the instance of the Constable de Montmorency who knew that the only way to save the artist from death on the charge of heresy was to have him numbered among those of the royal household.” [source] -- source link

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