VIE DE BERNARD PALISSY

Thème.

The art of enamelling pottery was invented by an Italian named Lucca délia Robia, who lived in Florence about the end of the fifteenth century, and for a long time Italy carefully kept lier secret. It was Bernard Palissy who, first in France, succeeded in making pottery fully equal to the Italian product.

That great man was born about 1510. As he was poor, he had to learn a trade that would support him. He therefore became a surveyor, and went f rom city to city, f rom village to village, in order to survey the ground. It was in 1535 that he saw for the first time one of those beautiful enamelled Italian vases. Henceforth he had but one aim in life, the making of a similar vessel. He had to undergo many trials before succeeding. One day he even went so far as to use his own furniture as fuel for his furnace. At last, after fifteen years of incessant effort, he brought out a superb spécimen of enamelled pottery. His triumph was then as great as his misfortunes had been. Catherine of Medici and Henry II. became his patrons, and he was given a home in the Tuileries, where he had a shop built for his own private use.

Palissy died in 1589 ; his works were scattered, yet the muséum of Cluny in Paris and that of the national porcelain manufactory of Sèvres own a large number of them.

Bernard Palissy was not only an artist, he was also a geologist, and was the first to build a theory on the différent strata of our globe.

His life gives us a great example of persévérance and ceaseless labor, finally crowned with success.

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