I just returned from a week in Switzerland to visit
family. Walking through their churches—stripped
of all sculpture, painting, and Biblical stained glass because of the
Reformation’s frowning on “idolatry”—I mused that few people realize that the “Renaissance” happened in countries other than Italy, France,
Spain, Germany,
and Flanders. Also, I think most people do
not realize how much Swiss artists have
been an intricate part of art history right up to the present day.
As part of the stylistic term “Northern
Renaissance,” the Swiss version was a very short-lived period. It was fueled
by the wealth of booty taken from the Flemish ruler Duke Charles the Bold (died
1477), who tried to establish a Flemish kingdom from Flanders through Alsace to
Italy through Switzerland, but the Swiss defeated him in Murten (Morat) and
then Nancy. The brief explosion of money available for art commissions was
extinguished in the Protestant Reformation that evolved in Switzerland around
1523–1525. Most artists assisted in the destruction of their own artworks that
depicted Biblical scenes.
Bern was an active center of painting
and also stained glass works. Most painters
supplemented their incomes by doing stained glass. Many Swiss artists of the
period naturally visited Rome and other Italian centers of art to learn the
latest style. After the
Reformation, allegorical, classical and mythological scenes were popular, as
was, particularly, the celebration of lineage through windows donated to
churches by wealthy families. This window, dedicated to a wealthy burger of
Bern, displays the peculiar influences that dominated Swiss art through the
1600s: a combination of the Danube School and Italian
Renaissance classical motifs.
Here are some other Swiss artists you may not know:
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| Jost Amman (1539–1591), Head of a Bearded Man, 1572. Ink and white wash on blue prepared paper, 15.6 x 11.5 cm (6 1/8” x 4 1/2”). © National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. (NGA-P1034) |
Amman, born in Zürich,
was a prolific draughtsperson and printmaker. Unlike Gössler, he reflects more
of the Danube School (German) influence in late
Renaissance art, and he carries on the tradition of the great German Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528). His work is quite
similar to the German artist Albrecht Altdorfer
(1480–1538). Works such as this allude to the Swiss penchant for mercenary
military service.
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| Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702–1789), Portrait of François Tronchin, 1757. Pastel on parchment, 38 x 46.3 cm (15” x 18 1/4”). © Cleveland Museum of Art. (CL-45) |
Although Liotard, a Genevois, studied and worked in Paris, he
produced most of his portraits of the influential people of Geneva. Tronchin
was a lawyer, writer, and art collector in Geneva. Liotard ably incorporates
the 1700s Rococo style. While stressing a
reserved elegance, Liotard endows the portrait with a dignity that alludes to
his scholarly accomplishments. His beautiful pastel
portraits measure up to the ablest French Rococo
portraitists.
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| Angelica Kauffmann (1741–1807), Portrait of Helena Mecinska, 1790s. Oil on canvas. Private Collection, Photo © Davis Art Images. (8S-6487) |
Born in Chur in Graubünden, like most women artists of her
time, Kauffmann was trained by her artist
father. She moved to Rome where her portraits became fashionable among English
visitors. She subsequently moved to England for several years. Returning to
Italy, she married a Venetian artist, and was buried in Rome with great pomp.
Her portraits reflect the Neoclassicism of
late 1700s and early 1800s painting. This portrait of a noble Polish woman in
Rome is very similar to those of another prominent woman artist of the period,
the French Marie Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
(1755–1842).
Starting in the late 1800s, Switzerland became a major
influence in graphic design, particularly in poster
art. Born in Lausanne, like many Swiss artists of the period, Steinlen migrated to Paris. His lithographs
betray the influence of the French Post
Impressionists, particularly the group called the Nabi, who reduced compositions to colored
shapes and areas of contrasting patterns. Although he began as a painter, his
major influence is in poster design.
Born in Germany of a Swiss mother from Delémont, Oppenheim first exhibited the fur tea cup in
Switzerland in 1936. She studied in Paris under such avant-garde surrealists as Jean
Arp (1886–1966, born France), Alberto
Giacometti (1901–1966, Switzerland), and André
Breton (1896-1966, France). She exhibited in Surrealist exhibitions until
1960. Object takes an everyday piece and
subjects it to the subconscious combination of irrational elements (such as the
Chinese gazelle fur on a tea cup).
Although associated with Germany because
of his tenure at the Bauhaus, Klee was born and died in the Canton of Bern.
He was a friend of my grandfather’s sister Helena. His personal form of fantasy
had connections to Surrealism, but also the fragmentation of Cubism. This work combines both strains of
early modernism.
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| Le Corbusier (Charles Édouard Jeanneret, 1887–1965), Notre-Dame-du-Haut, 1950–1954, Near Ronchamps, France. Photo © 2013 Davis Art Images. (8S-15093) |
Born in La Chaux de Fonds, Le Corbusier became a French
citizen in 1930. He is one of the pioneers of the International Style in architecture, in both
the organic and geometric strains. This pilgrimage chapel is a perfect example
of the organic strain emphasis on groupings of masses as opposed to strict
geometry. Both strains avoid any undue surface ornament or allusions to
classical architecture.
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| Silvia Bächli (born 1956), Lines 39, 2007. Ink on paper, 198.8 x 149.9 cm (78 1/4” x 59”). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. © 2013 Silvia Bächli. (MOMA-P4358) |
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