Mehrdeutigkeit und manieristische Wendung

Die rustiques figulines von Bernard Palissy zwischen Kunst und Wissenschaft

Abstract

The French Renaissance ceramist Bernard Palissy (c. 1510–1590) made astonishingly lifelike casted and glazed little animals and plants, the so-called rustiques figulines. His work has been studied from a perspective of art history as well as the history of science. By re-analyzing art theoretical connotations, work processes, and strategies of self-representation, this article delves deep into the interdisciplinary relationship between art and science and gives a close reading of the rustiques figulines’ ambiguous structure. Palissy’s ceramics are contextualized within artistic mannerist strategies of his time and compared with works of Benvenuto Cellini and Wenzel Jamnitzer.