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Things to do in Zurich
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Rietberg Museum
The Rietberg Museum in Zurich,
Switzerland, is famous for its beautiful collections, as well as
for the non-European artifacts that are housed in this
magnificent old mansion. It is a museum that has collected works
of art from other nations, more than its own; and include;
famous works from Africa, the Americas, Oceania and Asia. Its
history begins in the summer of 1857, when Mathilde and Otto
Wesendonck, moved into their grand new neoclassical mansion,
known today as the Villa Wesendonck. Otto was a shareholder in a
silk trading company, and had come to this country from New York
in 1851, and started his new life with a 24 year old bride,
Mathilde; and they turned their mansion into the most enjoyable
cultural enclave in the city. Mathilde would become the hostess
of the city, with a big circle of friends that included
academics, artists and intellectuals. The couple was especially
fond of Richard Wagner, the famous composer that had to flee
from his native country to Zurich in 1849. Otto and Mathilde
would soon invite Wagner and his wife, Minna, a small house next
to their villa, which is called the Villa Schonberg, and Wagner
called it his "asylum on the green hill". It wasn't long before
Wagner became enamored by Mathilde and his sixteen month stay
was one of beautiful letters of love, which inspired him to
write the libretto "Tristan and Isolde", and began the initial
sketches of the opera. Five poems that Wagner wrote to Mathilde,
he put to music (the Wesendonck Songs), and she became
enthralled with their conversations, his musical performances
and readings; and on New Year's eve, 1857, Wagner would give his
muse the draft score of "Tristan and Isolde" with a marvelous
poem dedicated to her; "full of joy, empty of pain, pure and
free, forever with thee". This growing intimate relationship
didn't escape the attention of Minna Wagner, and finally came to
a head. Wagner left his wife, and also from Mathilde, leaving
his green hill in August 1858 and went to Venice. In 1871, the
Wesendoncks sold their villa and moved to Germany. During the
following decades, the villa would become occupied by the Rieter
family, from which the Rietberg and Rieterpark get their name.
In 1912, German Emperor, Wilhelm II came to stay for a few days
at the villa, as the guest of Bertha Rieter-Bodmer. In 1945, the
city would purchase the estate, and in 1949, the Zurich
community would encourage the formation of a museum, because of
the magnificent collection of rich furnishings and decorative
arts in the villa, as well as the villa itself; and another
collection was donated to the city by the Baron Eduard von der
Heydt, which didn't have a permanent home as of yet. It all came
together in 1952, when the new museum, the Museum of Rietberg of
the city of Zurich was opened. The museum added another
extension that opened in 2007, that has more than doubled the
size of the original display area, making the other works from
Asia, Oceania, Africa and the Americas available for showing.
The improved wall coverings, lighting and vitrines have been
able to enhance the exhibits that are shown in here. There are
four distinct sections that are connected and include; the
Emerald, the underground extension, visible storage, the Villa
and the park-Villa Rieter. The underground extension of Emerald
features the magnificent Chinese art collection that contains
ancient ritual bronze vessels, Buddhist art with big formatted
steles and stone figures, and tomb art from the Han to the Tang
dynasty (2nd century BC. to the 9th century AD.). The Chinese
paintings fit perfectly in the new exhibit area that was
constructed to house and exemplify these marvelous pieces; as
well as the cloisonné's from China. These have come from the
Alice and Pierre Uldry collection, that also contains a huge jar
of imperial quality, that is complemented by the pendant in the
British museum, and is believed to be the finest examples of
Chinese cloisonné-art works in the world. In the Japanese
gallery, there is a small but unique collection of beautiful
Buddhist sculptures that date from the 12th and 13th centuries.
There are exquisitely carved masks of the Noh theater, paintings
from the 18th and 19th centuries and colored wood block prints
that show the portraits of landscapes, eroticism and actors. The
entire collection is one of fantastic tastes and genre, with
paintings, sculptures, prints, carvings and more making it
certainly one of the finest in all of Europe.
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Museum of Art (Kunsthaus Zurich)
The Kunsthaus Zurich is home
to one of the finest and most prominent art collections in the
nation and Europe, that have been collected from the Kunstverein,
called Zurcher Kunstgesellschaft, with artifacts and works from
the Middle Ages to contemporary art, but with the emphasis on
Swiss art. Kunstverein is a German term for institutions that
show temporary art displays, or art associations. The museum was
planned by Robert Curjel and Karl Moser, constructed and then
opened in 1910, with extensive and important holdings. It
showcases the marvelous works by van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet,
Alberto Giacometti, Simon Gessner, Edouard Manet, Henri
Rousseau, August Macke and Edvard Munch, as well as Swiss
artists, Ferdinand Hodler and Johann Heinrich Fussli, or the
newer additions by Peter Fischli and Pipilotti Rist. The
collections have been separated into various groups that
include; paintings and sculptures, with the old masters
represented as well as late gothic, the golden age of Dutch
paintings, Flemish painting, Italian baroque painting and
Venetian settecento. It is further broken down into painting
categories that include Swiss paintings, impressionism and
post-impressionism, Nordic expressionism, modern art, Alberto
Giacometti and art since 1945. There are also prints and
drawings, photography and video. An example of the magnificent
paintings held in the late gothic painting category includes the
Der Hollensturz, Erzengel Micheal im Kampf mit Luzifer that was
painted in the last decade of the 15th century, when altar
paintings were in full swing in the country, as well as southern
Germany. These altars were made for the spiritual salvation of
the viewer and patron, and the best artists of the period would
sign their works with small red and white carnations.
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