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Lot Essay
This dish is of major importance for the history of French ceramics during the Renaissance and for our understanding of the work of Bernard Palissy (1510-1590). Its existence was first brought to light in 1862 by Delange and Sauzay, when it was documented as part of Reverend Allan Downham's collection. Recorded at the time as the 'Plat du Déluge', its name derives from its subject matter: Parnassus at the center, encircled by human and animal figures amid the waves(1). At some time in the late 19th century, it entered the collection of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild, who loaned it for display at the Retrospective Exhibition of French Art organized in 1900(2). Germaine de Rothschild and Serge Grandjean later highlighted this dish in their 1952 monograph devoted to Bernard Palissy, which illustrated various pieces from the Rothschild collection(3).
The direct association between this dish and Bernard Palissy was revealed by the archaeological excavations carried out at the Musée du Louvre beginning in 1984, when Palissy's Paris workshop was discovered at the Tuileries. Artifacts found at the workshop site indicated that the space was used between 1565-1566 and 1584-1590(4). Palissy's presence at the Tuileries is attested to from October 1567 and again in June 1572, when he received a visit from Renée de France, Duchess of Ferrara. At the Tuileries, he collaborated with his sons Pierre, Mathurin and Nicolas, who were referred to as 'sculpteurs en terre'. Following the St. Bartholomew's Day massacres on 23 and 24 August 1572, however, the Protestant Palissy sought refuge in Sedan, in eastern France, though it appears he maintained his Paris workshop until the late 1570s.
The excavations in the late 20th century unearthed more than 6,000 items, including plaster molds, terracotta molds, glazed and unglazed prints, fragments from Catherine de' Médici's grotto, decorative plates, tiles and wares, as well as more than 2,000 further fragments related to manufacturing techniques. Among these fragments were several pieces of a terracotta dish with an ochre glaze to the edge and center, that correspond to the same model as the present example (see Fig. 1).
Apart from the elements of a grotto discovered at the Tuileries, the corpus of works attributed to Bernard Palissy and his workshop consists of fewer than five dishes, two ewers and a flask of 'rustiques figulines' type (5). The attribution of these pieces became feasible due to the discoveries made during the excavations, particularly the plaster mold of a rustic basin now kept at the Musée de la Renaissance at the Château d'Ecouen (EP 3434), which corresponds to two dishes kept at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. The ‘Plat du Déluge’ thus stands as the only dish attributed to Bernard Palissy featuring human figures.
It is also the only known dish for which Palissy employed bronze plaques as models. Ceramic medallions featuring portraits have also been found in Palissy's Paris workshop, with these portraits cast from bronze prototypes dating from 1549 and 1550. Bernard Palissy refers to these works in his writings, mentioning the creation of 'médailles' and 'vaisseaux de divers esmaux entremeslez en manière de jaspe'(6). On the ‘Plat du Déluge’, the scenes of tritons around the edge are exactly the same as those on a series of bronze plaquettes of the same size, attributed to a German goldsmith’s workshop and dated by Ingrid Weber to circa 1570(7) (see Fig. 2). The central scene on the dish is based on a bronze plaquette attributed to a Franco-Flemish goldsmith’s workshop and dated circa 1560-1565(8). Thus, Bernard Palissy amalgamated a variety of sources to craft a distinctive and original composition.
The choice of the Flood as the subject of this dish can be traced back to Bernard Palissy’s writings. In 1550, Jérôme Cardan, a professor of mathematics and medicine in Milan and later in Bologna, proposed the notion that the petrified shells found on land and atop the highest mountains had been carried there by the sea, and left behind when it receded into its bed after the Flood. The hypothesis was widely accepted by many scholars at the time. Palissy, however, after observing 'plusieurs figures de coquilles petrifiées, qui se trouvent par milliers ès montaignes des Ardennes' ['several figures of petrified shells, which are found by the thousands in the Ardennes mountains'] refuted this thesis, arguing that the fossilized shells were not deposited on Earth during the Flood, but instead "ont été engendrez sur le lieu mesme pendant que les rochers n’estoyent que de l’eau et de la vase, lesquels depuis ont esté pétrifiez avec les dits poissons ... Ceux qui écrivent que les coquilles ès pierres sont du temps du 'aille ont lourdement' aille"(9) ["were created in the same place when the rocks were nothing but water and mud, which have since been petrified along with the said fish ... Those who write that the shells on the stones date from the time of the Flood have made a serious mistake"]. The 'Plat du Déluge' serves as evidence of Palissy's interest in understanding the causes of the fossilization of shells and fish. Unintentionally, he aligned himself with Leonardo da Vinci and other dissenting thinkers, challenging the idea that the Flood was the cause—centuries before the emergence of the modern geologic time scale.
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1. Alexandre Sauzay, Henri Delange, Carle Delange and C. Borneman, Monographie de l'oeuvre de Bernard Palissy suivie d'un choix de ses continuateurs ou imitateurs, Paris, 1862, pl. 23.
2. Henry Roujon, Emile Molinier, Frantz Marcou, Catalogue officiel illustré de l’Exposition rétrospective de l’art français des origines jusqu'à 1800, Exposition Universelle, 1900, no. 915.
3. Germaine de Rothschild, Serge Grandjean, Bernard Palissy et son école, Paris, 1952, pl. 16, no. IV.
4. Bruno Dufay, Yves de Kisch, Dominique Poulain, Yves Roumégoux, Pierre-Jean Trombetta, 'L'atelier parisien de Bernard Palissy', Revue de l’Art, 1987, no. 78, p. 34 et Léonard Amico, A la recherche du Paradis Terrestre, Bernard Palissy et ses continuateurs, 1996, no. 98, p. 232.
5. The pieces attributed to Bernard Palissy are two dishes in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon (inv. H.475 and A2888), a dish in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. MR2295), a ewer in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (inv. H 479), two ewers in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. MR 2337 and R 217), a flask in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (inv. 1975.1.1620), a dish from the former collection of the Marquis de Saint-Seine and a dish that went on sale in Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 21 October 1995. Aurélie Gerbier, 'Trois décennies d’études palisséennes: apports d’une approche interdisciplinaire', Bernard Palissy: nouveaux regards sur la céramique française aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles, Technè, 47, 2019, pp. 17-25.
6. Bernard Palissy, Discours Admirables sur la nature des eaux et fontaines tant naturelles qu’artificielles, des métaux, des sels et salines, des pierres, des terres, du feu et des émaux, avec plusieurs décrets des choses naturelles, Paris, 1580, pp. 386 and 388. See 'L'atelier parisien de Bernard Palissy', Revue de l’Art, 1987, pp. 51-52 for examples found in the Tuileries workshop.
7. Ingrid Weber, Deutsche, Niederländische und Französische Renaissanceplaketten, München, 1975, no. 606. p. 276 and Dominique Poulain, 'Bernard Palissy: Sources du répertoire décoratif de l'atelier des Tuileries', Albineana, 4, 1992, pp. 195-196.
8. Ingrid Weber, op. cit,, no. 731. An example is kept at the Metropolitan Museum, New York (accession no. 1983.408).
9. Bernard Palissy, Discours Admirables, 1580, pp. 211-229.
The direct association between this dish and Bernard Palissy was revealed by the archaeological excavations carried out at the Musée du Louvre beginning in 1984, when Palissy's Paris workshop was discovered at the Tuileries. Artifacts found at the workshop site indicated that the space was used between 1565-1566 and 1584-1590(4). Palissy's presence at the Tuileries is attested to from October 1567 and again in June 1572, when he received a visit from Renée de France, Duchess of Ferrara. At the Tuileries, he collaborated with his sons Pierre, Mathurin and Nicolas, who were referred to as 'sculpteurs en terre'. Following the St. Bartholomew's Day massacres on 23 and 24 August 1572, however, the Protestant Palissy sought refuge in Sedan, in eastern France, though it appears he maintained his Paris workshop until the late 1570s.
The excavations in the late 20th century unearthed more than 6,000 items, including plaster molds, terracotta molds, glazed and unglazed prints, fragments from Catherine de' Médici's grotto, decorative plates, tiles and wares, as well as more than 2,000 further fragments related to manufacturing techniques. Among these fragments were several pieces of a terracotta dish with an ochre glaze to the edge and center, that correspond to the same model as the present example (see Fig. 1).
Apart from the elements of a grotto discovered at the Tuileries, the corpus of works attributed to Bernard Palissy and his workshop consists of fewer than five dishes, two ewers and a flask of 'rustiques figulines' type (5). The attribution of these pieces became feasible due to the discoveries made during the excavations, particularly the plaster mold of a rustic basin now kept at the Musée de la Renaissance at the Château d'Ecouen (EP 3434), which corresponds to two dishes kept at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. The ‘Plat du Déluge’ thus stands as the only dish attributed to Bernard Palissy featuring human figures.
It is also the only known dish for which Palissy employed bronze plaques as models. Ceramic medallions featuring portraits have also been found in Palissy's Paris workshop, with these portraits cast from bronze prototypes dating from 1549 and 1550. Bernard Palissy refers to these works in his writings, mentioning the creation of 'médailles' and 'vaisseaux de divers esmaux entremeslez en manière de jaspe'(6). On the ‘Plat du Déluge’, the scenes of tritons around the edge are exactly the same as those on a series of bronze plaquettes of the same size, attributed to a German goldsmith’s workshop and dated by Ingrid Weber to circa 1570(7) (see Fig. 2). The central scene on the dish is based on a bronze plaquette attributed to a Franco-Flemish goldsmith’s workshop and dated circa 1560-1565(8). Thus, Bernard Palissy amalgamated a variety of sources to craft a distinctive and original composition.
The choice of the Flood as the subject of this dish can be traced back to Bernard Palissy’s writings. In 1550, Jérôme Cardan, a professor of mathematics and medicine in Milan and later in Bologna, proposed the notion that the petrified shells found on land and atop the highest mountains had been carried there by the sea, and left behind when it receded into its bed after the Flood. The hypothesis was widely accepted by many scholars at the time. Palissy, however, after observing 'plusieurs figures de coquilles petrifiées, qui se trouvent par milliers ès montaignes des Ardennes' ['several figures of petrified shells, which are found by the thousands in the Ardennes mountains'] refuted this thesis, arguing that the fossilized shells were not deposited on Earth during the Flood, but instead "ont été engendrez sur le lieu mesme pendant que les rochers n’estoyent que de l’eau et de la vase, lesquels depuis ont esté pétrifiez avec les dits poissons ... Ceux qui écrivent que les coquilles ès pierres sont du temps du 'aille ont lourdement' aille"(9) ["were created in the same place when the rocks were nothing but water and mud, which have since been petrified along with the said fish ... Those who write that the shells on the stones date from the time of the Flood have made a serious mistake"]. The 'Plat du Déluge' serves as evidence of Palissy's interest in understanding the causes of the fossilization of shells and fish. Unintentionally, he aligned himself with Leonardo da Vinci and other dissenting thinkers, challenging the idea that the Flood was the cause—centuries before the emergence of the modern geologic time scale.
______________
1. Alexandre Sauzay, Henri Delange, Carle Delange and C. Borneman, Monographie de l'oeuvre de Bernard Palissy suivie d'un choix de ses continuateurs ou imitateurs, Paris, 1862, pl. 23.
2. Henry Roujon, Emile Molinier, Frantz Marcou, Catalogue officiel illustré de l’Exposition rétrospective de l’art français des origines jusqu'à 1800, Exposition Universelle, 1900, no. 915.
3. Germaine de Rothschild, Serge Grandjean, Bernard Palissy et son école, Paris, 1952, pl. 16, no. IV.
4. Bruno Dufay, Yves de Kisch, Dominique Poulain, Yves Roumégoux, Pierre-Jean Trombetta, 'L'atelier parisien de Bernard Palissy', Revue de l’Art, 1987, no. 78, p. 34 et Léonard Amico, A la recherche du Paradis Terrestre, Bernard Palissy et ses continuateurs, 1996, no. 98, p. 232.
5. The pieces attributed to Bernard Palissy are two dishes in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon (inv. H.475 and A2888), a dish in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. MR2295), a ewer in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (inv. H 479), two ewers in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. MR 2337 and R 217), a flask in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (inv. 1975.1.1620), a dish from the former collection of the Marquis de Saint-Seine and a dish that went on sale in Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 21 October 1995. Aurélie Gerbier, 'Trois décennies d’études palisséennes: apports d’une approche interdisciplinaire', Bernard Palissy: nouveaux regards sur la céramique française aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles, Technè, 47, 2019, pp. 17-25.
6. Bernard Palissy, Discours Admirables sur la nature des eaux et fontaines tant naturelles qu’artificielles, des métaux, des sels et salines, des pierres, des terres, du feu et des émaux, avec plusieurs décrets des choses naturelles, Paris, 1580, pp. 386 and 388. See 'L'atelier parisien de Bernard Palissy', Revue de l’Art, 1987, pp. 51-52 for examples found in the Tuileries workshop.
7. Ingrid Weber, Deutsche, Niederländische und Französische Renaissanceplaketten, München, 1975, no. 606. p. 276 and Dominique Poulain, 'Bernard Palissy: Sources du répertoire décoratif de l'atelier des Tuileries', Albineana, 4, 1992, pp. 195-196.
8. Ingrid Weber, op. cit,, no. 731. An example is kept at the Metropolitan Museum, New York (accession no. 1983.408).
9. Bernard Palissy, Discours Admirables, 1580, pp. 211-229.