Folk arts

Folk arts in Switzerland include music, poetry (usually song), dance, wood carving, and embroidery. In the cattle-breeding northern areas, there are many traditional forms of song and music, involving, for example, the yodel, a type of singing in which high falsetto and low chest notes are rapidly alternated. There are also trumpetlike instruments made of wood and bark, the epitome of which is the alphorn. Folk music in mainly pastoral areas has wide-ranging, floating melodies, whereas, in the crop-growing regions of the inner and southern Alps, more-songlike melodies of limited range are common. The most frequent themes are love and longing for the homeland, as well as historical, patriotic, pastoral, and hunting themes. The vitality of the Alpine folk culture can also be seen in dances such as the Ländler, which is somewhat similar to the waltz, and the Schuhplattler and in small musical ensembles such as the fife-and-drum presentations in Valais.

Wood carving consists partly of chip carving for the decoration of everyday objects, such as milking stools, neckbands for bells, wooden spoons, and distaffs, and partly of figure carving, especially of Nativity figures. Decoration of house facades with religious sayings is widespread in Protestant Alpine areas (in Berner Oberland and parts of Graubünden), but it can also be found in Roman Catholic regions, such as German-speaking upper Valais. Embroidery has been particularly prominent in such elements of traditional women’s clothing as cuffs, stomachers, hats, and scarves. It has been a traditional home industry in parts of northeastern and eastern Switzerland.

Architecture

The 12th-century Romanesque architectural style found particularly rich expression in the cathedrals of Geneva, Basel, Lausanne, Sion, and Chur and in the many castles and fortresses. The Gothic style was expressed in the cathedrals of Zug, Zürich, and Schaffhausen. Notable examples of Baroque churches are located in Einsiedeln, east of Zug, and in Sankt Gallen. During the Renaissance many architectural masters, especially from Ticino, practiced their craft in Italy: Antonio da Ponte built the prisons near the Doge’s Palace and the Rialto Bridge in Venice; Antonio Contino built Venice’s Bridge of Sighs; Domenico Fontana designed the whole of the Lateran Palace, the facade of St. John Lateran Church, and the Royal Palace in Naples; his nephew Carlo Maderno became architect to Pope Paul V; Francesco Borromini built San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, the gallery of the Spada Palace, and the Filippini monastery and modified the Falconieri and Barberini palaces; Carlo Fontana built the facade of San Marcello al Corso and the Montecitorio Palace; Baldassare Longhena, from Moroggia, built the church of Santa Maria della Salute, the Rezzonico, Pesaro, and Widmann palaces, the church of Ospedaletto, and the interior of the church of Scalzi, all in Venice. Later, G.B. Gilardi rebuilt the Kremlin in Moscow; his son Domenico rebuilt the Moscow State University and a number of the city’s palaces. In the 20th century Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret) was one of the major creative forces behind the International school of architecture that dominated most building trends throughout the West. More-recent prominent Swiss architects include Mario Botta from Ticino, who designed the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron from Basel, who transformed an old power station into the Tate Modern gallery in London; and Peter Zumthor from Graubünden, who is renowned for his wood and stone architecture.

Visual arts

The Protestantism of 16th-century Switzerland had a strongly inhibiting effect on Swiss painting and sculpture in general; in that climate Hans Holbein the Younger, a German artist who did much of his work in Switzerland, chose to leave his base in Basel for London. Later Swiss expatriates who moved to London to ply their trade included the Neoclassical painter Angelica Kauffmann and Henry Fuseli (Johann Heinrich Füssli). Other artists of international renown include Alberto Giacometti, who derived much of his inspiration from the Etruscans; Jean Tinguely, whose complex moving sculptures were constructed from scrap; and Paul Klee, perhaps Switzerland’s most original and impressive painter. Creative photography and graphic arts flourish, examples of which can be seen on calendars, in magazines, in museums, and on the outdoor advertisements that are found throughout the country, especially in train stations. In the early 20th century the influential Dada arts movement emerged in Switzerland, centred on Zürich’s Cabaret Voltaire. Today, galleries across the country represent Swiss artists, and Basel’s annual art fair has emerged as a clearinghouse for their work.

Pioneering Swiss photographers include the brothers Edouard and Auguste de Jongh, Paul Senn, and Robert Frank. Important photographic repositories and museums are located in Lausanne, Winterthur, and Zürich.

Switzerland has a small film industry, characterized by movies both entertaining and profound that feature excellent acting and superb photography. The industry benefited during the 1930s and ’40s from the influx of immigrants, particularly those from Austria and France, who fled persecution by Nazi Germany. In the 1960s Switzerland passed legislation that provided generous subsidies to the film industry, and that decade saw the emergence of a distinctly Swiss documentary tradition, enhanced by the expansion of television and the need for local programming. There are annual international film festivals in Locarno, Nyon, and Fribourg. Each winter, Swiss productions are highlighted at the well-attended film workshop in Solothurn.