Saving the Rigi

March 10, 2007 8:53 PM | Related Categories: Galleries & Exhibitions,the alps

Unless you have recently arrived from Mars you must be aware of the struggle currently going on in the UK to acquire/save "The Blue Rigi" for the nation. (only kidding) The London Review of Books has a nice little article about it . The Rigi is a modest mountain in central Switzerland, not far from where I live, but the effort in question has nothing to do with speculating in Swiss real estate, rather it is the painting by J M W Turner that is the object.

J M W Turner The Blue Rigo

Turner painted relatively few fully finished watercolours and experts adjudge his Rigi paintings (there are three) as among the finest examples. The UK has none of them. I have a personal interest in it because Turner is fascinating as an artist, and because I know his subject rather well. Unlike Turner I have "climbed" the Rigi many times (it's just a long hard walk actually) but despite it's modest claims as a mountain it is a fabulous viewpoint.

However It's interesting that he picked the Rigi as a subject - maybe it was picked by a client - because there are many more spectacular mountains and vistas within spitting distance. I think I know why. If you regularly travel around this part of Switzerland the image of the Rigi becomes very familiar - seen across Lake Lucerne, or maybe from Zug you will know that the scene is ever changing - the atmosphere and light have a bewildering variety. It becomes a conspicuous landmark - a great wedge shaped lump - not beautiful or gracious or awe inspiring, but distinctive and iconic. I'm assuming that this was the case in the 1840's as it is today. I have to admit that this reflection makes me rather happy in our ever-changing global world. I have many photographs of the Rigi, but none from the vantage point used by Turner.

Rigi from Zug

This is the view from the foreshore at Zug - seen well from the train from Zurich

Here it's seen from alongside the concert and congress centre in Luzern - looking down the Vierwaldstaettersee. Turners viewpoint was a couple of kilometers down the lake on the right hand side of this image. It probably looks more like the profile he recorded from there, although Turner was famous for adapting viewpoints to his own ends, as anyone who has tried to identify his Venice ones will know. I'm toying with the idea of loitering around in the early morning sometime to see if I can capture a photographic replica of Turners vision from the original place.

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Ganymede and the Alps

September 3, 2006 8:02 AM | Related Categories: the alps

From Zürich, looking down the length of the Zürisee, there is a splendid panorama of the alps of north east Switzerland. However they are rarely visible because of haze and distance (50km), especially in the summer. Occasionally the dry air of the Föhn coming from the deserts of north Africa clears things up and the view is crystal sharp. Not quite so today, but one of the first glimpses this summer as autumn approaches.

This picture was snapped through a tram window at Burkliplatz. The statue by Hermann Hubacher (1952) shows Ganymede with the eagle that Zeus sent to carry him to Mount Olympus. On a clear day like today, the setting for the sculpture is particularly effective - we can imagine that the peaks are the home of the gods. 

The myth of Ganymede

Zeus kidnapped the youth Ganymede, and brought him to Olympus as his lover. The myth says that he sent an eagle to bring him, or did it himself in the guise of an eagle. After causing some disruption in the household of the gods ( jealousy and all that, because the women fancied him as well, except for Hera of course) Ganymede survives and in the end doesn't have his intestines devoured, get turned into something unnatural or any of the usual things. He is installed in the heavens as part of a constellation.

It has been suggested that the myth was concocted by the Greeks in an attempt to legitimise their fondness for young boys.

Artists have used the Ganymede story regularly since Hellenic times and that brings me back to the statue at Burkliplatz. Here is another view of the sculpture. Hubacher has turned things around and shows Ganymede imploring the eagle/Zeus to carry him aloft. Ganymede balances on one leg, with his left heel barely touching the ground, ready for lift off. The eagle doesn't seem so sure...

Others have normally taken the traditional view of the abduction. Works are commonly titled  "The Rape of Ganymede"  where "rape" is meant in the sense of abduction, although this can be confusing because many artists have also made full use of the erotic overtones. Here is Peter Paul Rubens


When Rembrandt painted his Rape of Ganymede in 1637, he put another slant on the myth. What's going on here? It looks more like baby snatching, and given the gist of the myth, this sits a little uncomfortably. The story normally has Ganymede tending a flock of sheep at the time. Rembrandt has rejected this - was he trying to make a point?

 

There is a much more detailed and scholarly write up in the wikipedia entry

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Goldau - 200 years on

September 2, 2006 2:02 PM | Related Categories: the alps

For the past few years each summer has meant angst for the Swiss concerning their mountains and glaciers. The latter are disappearing and the former are crumbling into the valleys. One of the big tourist attractions this summer has been a special type of Eiger watch.  Crowds have camped out at Grindelwald waiting for a chunk of rock the size of the Empire State building to part company with the mountain. There has been tragedy as well, with property and lives lost. Two unlucky German tourists were flattened in their car by 20 tons of boulder as they exited northwards out of the Gotthard.

A short train journey south of Zurich is the small town of Goldau - the station Arth-Goldau is a familiar stop on the north south route and for people visiting the nearby Rigi. If you leave the station to climb the Rigi the path winds up the approaches, initially between farms and then through woodland. As you cross these you'll probably be surprised by the number of large boulders, some the size of small houses with are dotted across these slopes. You might even wonder how they got there.


Rossberg. Image courtesy of www.goldauerbergsturz.ch

Further up the path slants alongside a crest and you pause to admire the view down Lake Zug. At this spot there is a simple cross and a plaque commemorating the events of 200 years ago. Resting here you have a clear view across the other side of the valley to the Rossberg. This is an unassuming mountain. Not quite as high as the Rigi, and less frequented, but still a good outing. Looking at it you have the feeling that something is missing, and indeed it is. 40 milllion cubic metres to be exact.

During the night of September 2nd, 1806, this huge rockslide detached itself and virtually obliterated the town of Goldau. Most people were asleep and 457 of them died. You can imagine the scale of this tragedy 200 years ago. The power was such that many of the boulders were carried up the lower slopes of the Rigi on the other side of the valley where they remain, a curiosity and a reminder of the force of nature.

Looking at the mountain, it doesn't look all that dangerous. But as mountaineers know the worst avalanches don't happen on the steepest slopes. The alp are generally pretty friable because they have never been glaciated. Switzerland like other mountainous regions has learned to live with the dangers, but in a country where land is at a premium it is not always possible to build completely out of harms way. Science is better equipped today to forecast events like those of 200 years ago, but one wonders, global warming notwithstanding, what other sleeping disasters are waiting to happen

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