The lecture.
Title : Influence of the history of ceramics and of the decorative arts in the Renaissance on the work of creation of Franz Fenris G., a contemporary potter, at the Miroir aux Prêles pottery.
Duration : over 1 h 30
The lecture is given by the artist, and is illustrated with over 200 slides. It can be delivered in French or in English.
Programme :
I) The different types of ceramics at the Renaissance.
a) Lead-glazed earthenware.
b) Tin-glazed earthenware : Iznik ; Valencia ; Italian majolica.
c) Stoneware : Beauvaisis ; Burgundy ; Rhineland.
d) Medici porcelain.
II) Different shapes. Influence of ceramics and glassware. Influence of metal- and ivory-work : predominance of Nuremberg.
III A grammar of Renaissance ornaments.
a) Braiding and strapwork.
b) Moresques.
c) Foliated scroll patterns
d) Cut and curled leather frames
e) Grotesque.
IV) The "rustic style".
a) Invention of the cabinet of natural curiosities, the Wunderkammer.
b) Wenzel Jamnitzer.
c) Joris Hoefnagel.
d) Bernard Palissy.
e) Saint-Porchaire.
Slide show : Excerpts from the presentation.
|
|
|
|
Very common in 15th century ottoman Turkey, as well as in hispano-moresque Valencia, the gadrooned dish was readily taken up by 16th century Italy, as shown in left and centre pictures : this is the crespina. The picture on the right shows a small round dish or tondino, which is typified by its broad flat rim and its narrow hollow centre. It is also a 15th century oriental creation and was widespread in 16th century’s Italian majolica. Its transcription in pewter was called the dish “à la cardinal” in 17th century France.
|
|
|
 |
Ottoman Turkey also generated new ornaments which invaded every possible surface on princely Renaissance European objects, leather book-bindings, armours… Venice was the commercial and cultural hub through which these new motifs migrated as soon as the quattrocento. The most characteristic among them were the moresques which were copied, appropriated and diffused by great ornamentalists such as Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, Francisque Pellegrin (Fontainebleau), Virgil Solis (Nuremberg), or Peter Flötner (published in Zurich).
At the Miroir aux Prêles pottery, Franz Fenris G. uses and interprets this vocabulary : out of clay, he makes the tools (above, right) with which his unglazed stoneware and porcelain are stamped and inlaid.
The inlaying of coloured clays in Western ceramics dates up to the two-colours 12th century floor-tiles (red/white clays under a lead glaze). In this technique, the design was incised into the unbaked, soft red clay or stamped with a wooden tool, and the depressions thus made were filled in with a white slip. After a partial drying, the excess of applied slip was carefully scraped to level until the design was made clearly visible by contrast.
 |
 |
The process was carried up to its highest degree of refinement in the French 16th century with the Saint Porchaire potteries (two illustrations above). They were essentially exceptional “show” wares designed for princes only. The motifs were then incised by means of leather binding gilding irons.
Renowned to have burnt his furniture on a day he was short of fuel to fire his exceptional potteries (above), Bernard Palissy (1510-1590) is an outstanding figure of the 16th century “rustic style”. This European trend to make use of casts taken from animal and vegetable life was most brilliantly illustrated by Wenzel Jamnitzer (1508-1585), a Nuremberg goldsmith, or by Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1600), a Flemish illuminator and miniaturist. This “rustic style” refers as much to the Renaissance princes’ growing infatuation for the Wunderkammer as to an impetus of the learned humanism toward what will later be called the natural sciences. Palissy is often remembered as a whimsical character and one forgets he was a founder of modern geology. Franz Fenris G. adorns his compositions with shells and ammonites as implied references to this aspect of the Renaissance decorative arts.
So far, the lecture is not meant to be given abroad, though it can be delivered in English for an English-speaking audience such as the one visiting the Loire châteaux. And since the lecture, in that case, would be given on the French land, the terms of the contract have been written in French. Should a strong demand for another formula emerge, the contract could of course be reconsidered.
