Nevers earthenware plate Saint Claude

Nevers earthenware plate
Plate in earthenware of Nevers of the end of the XVIIIth century. Dated 1766.
Soup plate with a representation of Saint Claude on a mound in the center
Claude on a mound, inscribed : Claude Laurent.

Patronymic earthenware" means a piece whose personalized decoration associates a first name, a patronymic and a date with the image of a patron saint.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the immense religious fervor enjoyed by the saints gradually lost its intensity: if they are evoked in the faience patronymic, it is more by habit and respect for tradition than by conviction. They are represented with distinctive attributes that recall their function or the most important episodes of their life or their martyrdom, symbolized by a palm. The images, whose direct origin can hardly be determined, are borrowed from the most conventional hagiographic iconography, which was also used at the same time in statuary, paintings and engravings.

It is certain that weddings, their celebration or commemoration, were the main occasion for such commissions.
Numerous examples documented by the archives show that the date inscribed corresponds in most cases to the date of manufacture of the piece, with a delay of about six months in relation to the event to be celebrated.
These plates were most often ordered in several copies, the number of which can vary from two to six, and even exceptionally up to a dozen, and they were offered as gifts to relatives. Finally, it seems obvious that, in a domestic universe poor in images, their function was essentially commemorative and decorative, and that the plates were rather placed in the china cabinet, the salad bowls being able to be hung on the wall thanks to two holes on the back provided for this purpose.

Saint Claude
Bishop of Besançon. Initially a soldier, he embraced the monastic life in Condat in the Jura before being elected bishop of Besançon. But as soon as he was able, he resigned this position to join the solitude. His monastery and the nearby village took his name and the diocese was placed under his patronage:
500 years after his death, thanks to the intact preservation of his body, many pilgrims flock to the abbey where miracles multiply. The pilgrimage of Saint-Claude was as famous as Lourdes is today. Among the illustrious pilgrims were King Louis XI, Saint Jeanne de Chantal and Saint François de Sales. The body of the holy thaumaturgist is exposed twice a day to the piety of the visitors who kiss his hands and feet. Numerous miracles are recorded in manuscripts and attested by the presence of witnesses, among them that of a dead child brought back to life. This is why Saint Claude is often represented with a child.
With the French Revolution, an iconoclastic delirium takes hold of the representatives of the people. The body of Saint Claude was burned in 1794; only the left forearm survived, authenticated by one of the doctors who had examined the body fifty years earlier. This forearm is still preserved today in a reliquary in the cathedral.



Condition: a piece of the edge of the wing has been glued back on, small chip on the edge

D: 23,5 cm
Height 4cm

Ref: FIXF4CBSRJ