TELL'S CHAPEL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 393, 22 October 1880, Page 7

TELLS CHAPEL.

The Times' Geneva Correspondent writes :— " The rebuilding of Tell's Chapel on the famous Platte by the lake of the Four Cantons (there is another chapel near Kussnacht), rendered necessary by the dilapidated condition of the ancient structure, was completed a few weeks ago, and the restoration of the mural paintings is now in active progress. Ihe artist to whom, at the instance of the Swiss Society of Fine Arts, the work has been intrusted is Herr Ernst Stiickelberg, of Basel. Four scenes will be painted on three of the walls. On the wall looking towards Brunnen will be depicted the Apfelschuss— Tell shooting the apple on his son's head ; on that lookiug towards Fliilen the Jtutlischivvr,— the oath of the three Switzers in the Eiitli meadow. The middle wall, looking towards Bauen, will contain two scenes— the Tcllensprung, fell leaping from Gesler's boat on to the Platte, and the Meisterchvss, the shooting of the Austrian Vogt in the ' hollow lane.' Though the story of Tell may be a mjth, it is a myth dear to the hearts of the Swiss people, and the artist is resolved that all the accessories of his pictures shall be true to nature and to art. The primitive cantons have placed at his disposal their oldest paintings, and he has the assistance of the mest learned historians and antiquaries of the Confederation. The apple-shooting scene will show Altdorf as it was in the beginning of the 14th century. Its walls, its towers, and its ' barm' wood will 'oe faithfully reproduced, and the picture will possess a special interest in that, while the costumes will be the costumes of the period, the figures will be portraits of men now living. Gesler and his RotJischimmel (iron-gray charger) will be painted from life, and the model of Tell is a handsome and stalwart peasant of the commune of Burglen, in the Schiichtenthal. The grouping will for the most part be after the description ia Schiller's play ; but the arti&t has made also a special study of the sources from which the poet obtained his most valuable suggestions — the works of Johannes Miiller and JEgedius Tschudi. Herr Stiickelberg is now occupied with his task every day from sunrise till 1 o'clock p.m. During this time no one is admitted into the chapel under any pretence whatever, to which effect notices in the three languages of the Confederation have been placed on the outer wall by the Government of the canton. It is rather remarkable that this temple of a myth, this re-consecration of a noble legend, still cherished by the bulk of the Swiss as a fact, should coincide with the completion of that part of the St. Gothard .Railway which sweeps past the Bay of Uri, and from which the traveller of ths future, as the train skirts the shores of the loveliest lake in Europe and the cradle of Helvetic freedom, may look down upon one of the most famous relics of the past,"