With this third blog about Museum Bernard Palissy I conclude my French ceramics triptych of the past few weeks. It was Palissy who lured us to southern France this year. A fitting ending to finish at his birthplace, Saint Avit…
More than 500 years after his birth, the myth of Palissy lives on. One of the first ceramists to stil known by name with his own “rustic” style. A style that has had counterfeiters, imitator and followers to the present day.
A renaissance ceramist, scientist, writer and martyr. Died in captivity, glaze secrets taken into his grave. Loved by the French ceramics connoisseurs. His myth, even outside France, still appeals to the imagination.
Bernard Palissy looks at his last wood being digested by the flames. But the ceramics kiln roars like a hungry wolf for more. With tears in his eyes of smoke, sweat, fatigue and despair he scans the room. Floor shelves, tables, chairs and everything else that burns fall prey to his kiln. He will and he must reach the temperature to melt his glazes…
Saintes around 1540 in the south of France. Bernard Palissy (1510-1590) experiments as a man possessed. Or insane as his neighbors claim. He is looking for an elusive glaze that he got to know on one of his distant travels.
His wife and children are threatening to leave him. Nevertheless, he put everything at risk to develop a glaze, which is unprecedented in 16th century France.
A renaissance ceramist, scientist, writer and martyr. Died in captivity, glaze secrets taken into his grave. Loved by the French ceramics connoisseurs. His myth, even outside France, still appeals to the imagination.