thumb|Detail of a Palissy still-life platter of c. 1550 (see below for the whole piece)

Bernard Palissy (; c. 1510c. 1589) was a French Huguenot potter, hydraulics engineer and craftsman, famous for having struggled for sixteen years to imitate Chinese porcelain. He is best known for his so-called "rusticware", typically highly decorated large oval platters featuring small animals in relief among vegetation, the animals apparently often being moulded from casts taken of dead specimens. It is often difficult to distinguish examples from Palissy's own workshop and those of a number of "followers" who rapidly adopted his style. Imitations and adaptations of his style continued to be made in France until roughly 1800, and then revived considerably in the 19th century.

In the 19th century, Palissy's pottery became the inspiration for Mintons Ltd's Victorian majolica, which was exhibited at the London Great Exhibition of 1851 under the name "Palissy ware".

Palissy is known for his contributions to the natural sciences, and is famous for discovering principles of geology, hydrology and fossil formation. A Protestant, Palissy was imprisoned for his belief during the tumultuous French Wars of Religion and sentenced to death. He died of poor treatment in the Bastille in 1589 (1590 according to Burty 1886).

Interest in ceramics

In 1539 or 1540, Palissy was shown a white enamelled cup that astonished him, and he began a project to determine the nature of its production. The piece of fine white pottery may have derived from Faenza, Urbino, Saint-Porchaire or even China. The pottery is decorated with reliefs mimicking wildlife from Palissy's native Saintonge marshes. These include fish, crustaceans, reptiles, ferns, and flowers. While Aristotle and Wang Chong correctly hypothesized about the role of precipitation in the water cycle, Palissy was the first to accurately surmise that rainfall alone was sufficient for the process and that rising underground water played no vital part. He was one of the first Europeans to enunciate theory consistent with today's understandings of the origin of fossils. That and his practical application of Alexandrian theoretical works on hydraulics to the social issue of delivering public water to cities, were far in advance of the general knowledge of his time.

Palissy maintained that experience or practice should inform theory, which was useless without empirical foundations.

In Michel Zévaco's Les Pardaillan, Jean de Pardaillan helps Pallissy in Bastille, and leaves him free. His guilt is described as "make angry the fictional Catherine de' Medici"

Palissy's life and work are described in A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book. Palissy serves as an inspiration to the potter Benedict Fludd and his apprentice, Philip Warren.

Palissy figures as one of nineteen exemplary heroes in a series written by Uruguayan author Horacio Quiroga that was first published in 1927 in the popular Argentine weekly Caras y Caretas. Author Léonard N. Amico has produced a recent English language biography.

In the chapter on 'Shells', Gaston Bachelard, in his poetics of space, describes in some detail Palissy's description of a natural fortress. It is constructed on the principle of a shell, with rough exterior and smooth interior in the form of a citadel. (Poetics of Space: Beacon Press. Ed 1994. XI. pp 127–132)

See also

thumb|[[Faience commemorative plaque for Bernard Palissy by 19th-century artist John Eyre. The top-right cherub is painted holding a Palissy rusticware platter.]]

  • Lead-glazed earthenware
  • Majolica

References

  • The Admirable Discourses of Bernard Palissy, in French
  • De la Nature des Eaux et Fonteines – full digital facsimile at Linda Hall Library
  • Œuvres de Bernard Palissy (Paris, 1777)