The leading ceramist of the Renaissance, Bernard Palissy remained faithful to the process of varnished pottery dating from medieval times. His technique was noted for molding animals and plants from nature. They were painted with a lead-containing glaze that was colored with metal oxides, which allowed covering the relief without blunting it. In 1556, this process earned him the title of “Inventor of Rustic Potteries for the King and the Queen Mother”.

The Lyon Museum of Fine Arts also has another copy of this large serving dish, which is one of the extremely rare authenticated pieces produced by Palissy. Animals from land, fresh water and sea are arranged on mossy rocks, evoking an ideal nature. Thirty-three animals belonging to nine identifiable species of reptiles, batrachians, fish and crustaceans crawl over the dish. They are arranged in a way that creates an illusion of symmetry: a frog followed by two green lizards on one end is balanced by a gurnard fish accompanied by a pair of water turtles and two grass snakes. Three other snakes coiled at the base of the dish mark the axis of the composition, which is seeded with a collection of small animals: frogs, fish, crabs, brown lizards and crayfish.