'Bonneville, Savoy, with Mont Blanc'
painting by J.M.W.Turner (1775 - 1851)
Wide view of alpine valley with the town of Bonneville and a bridge in the valley. In the background behind some rocky smaller mountains, the withe steep pyramid of the Mont Blanc is seen, below a bright blue sky with a few clouds. In the foreground a wide river or lake and a few people on its left bank along with cattle are seen, following the pattern established by earlier landscape painters. However, the mountain range is executed in a loose manner, emphasizing a rhythmic sequence of peaks and mounds, disappearing in a white haze towards the peak of Mont Blanc.
This is a more elaborate painting in oil on canvas, dated 1802.
Source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Mallord_William_Turner_006.jpg
Chamounix beym Sonnenaufgange
(Im Mai 1791)
La Terra, il Mare, le Sfere
Parlan del tuo potere
METASTASIO
Aus tiefem Schatten des schweigenden Tannenhains
Erblick’ ich bebend dich, Scheitel der Ewigkeit,
Blendender Gipfel, von dessen Höhe
Ahndend mein Geist ins Unendliche schwebet!
Wer senkte den Pfeiler tief in der Erde Schooß,
Der, seit Jahrtausenden, fest deine Masse stützt?
Wer thürmte hoch in des Aethers Wölbung
Mächtig und kühn dein umstrahltes Antlitz?
Wer goß euch hoch aus des ewigen Winters Reich,
O Zackenströme, mit Donnergetös’ herab?
Und wer gebietet laut mit der Allmacht Stimme:
“Hier sollen ruhen die starrenden Wogen!“
Wer zeichnet dort dem Morgensterne die Bahn,
Wer kränzt mit Blüthen des ewigen Frostes Saum?
Wem tönt in schrecklichen Harmonieen,
Wilder Arveiron, dein Wogengetümmel?
Jehovah! Jehovah! kracht’s im berstenden Eis;
Lavinendonner rollen’s die Kluft hinab;
Jehovah! rauscht’s in den hellen Wipfeln,
Flüstert’s an rieselnden Silberbächen.
![Chamounix at sunrise
(May 1791)
La Terra, il Mare, le Sfere
Parlan del tuo potere
METASTASIO
From the deep shadow of the silent fir-grove,
I, trembling, behold thee, crown of eternity,
Dazzling summit, from whose height
My divining soul floats into infinity!
Who sank the pillar deep into the earth's womb,
Which, for millennia, has firmly supported your mass?
Who towered high in the ether's vault
Mighty and bold your radiant face?
Who poured you down from eternal winter's high realm,
O streams of jags, with thunderous roar?
And who commands aloud with almightiness voice:
‘Here shall rest the solid waves!’
Who marks the path for the morning star there,
Who wreathes the eternal frost's seam with blossoms?
To whom sounds in terrible harmonies,
Wild Arveiron, your tumultuous waves?
Jehovah! Jehovah! crashes in the bursting ice;
Avalanche thunder rolls down the chasm;
Jehovah! rustles in the bright treetops,
whispers by trickling silver streams.
[Translation of Friedericke Brun's
'Chamounix beym Sonnenaufgange'
As I could not locate the english translation used by Coleridge, here a simple mostly interlinear translation, employing free version of deepL,
but many corrections/changes necessary.
It renders the 'Lawinendonner' as 'lavender thunder' (what a beautiful idea for a synaesthetic sensation), doesn't know 'ahndend', and gets lost in some syntactical irregularities of Friedericke Brun's poetic language.]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vwdie5wej52mvc6545xdmxd5/bafkreiameifnez2vwpcaai7qfa255ymhhs6zunhorog5avnqlt4sazohdu)
Chamounix at sunrise
(May 1791)
La Terra, il Mare, le Sfere
Parlan del tuo potere
METASTASIO
From the deep shadow of the silent fir-grove,
I, trembling, behold thee, crown of eternity,
Dazzling summit, from whose height
My divining soul floats into infinity!
Who sank the pillar deep into the earth's womb,
Which, for millennia, has firmly supported your mass?
Who towered high in the ether's vault
Mighty and bold your radiant face?
Who poured you down from eternal winter's high realm,
O streams of jags, with thunderous roar?
And who commands aloud with almightiness voice:
‘Here shall rest the solid waves!’
Who marks the path for the morning star there,
Who wreathes the eternal frost's seam with blossoms?
To whom sounds in terrible harmonies,
Wild Arveiron, your tumultuous waves?
Jehovah! Jehovah! crashes in the bursting ice;
Avalanche thunder rolls down the chasm;
Jehovah! rustles in the bright treetops,
whispers by trickling silver streams.
[Translation of Friedericke Brun's
'Chamounix beym Sonnenaufgange'
As I could not locate the english translation used by Coleridge, here a simple mostly interlinear translation, employing free version of deepL,
but many corrections/changes necessary.
It renders the 'Lawinendonner' as 'lavender thunder' (what a beautiful idea for a synaesthetic sensation), doesn't know 'ahndend', and gets lost in some syntactical irregularities of Friedericke Brun's poetic language.]
Romantic Landscapes (12.1)
#MontBlanc #Brun #Coleridge #RomanticLandscapes
In the first part, Coleridge's hymn paraphrases a poem by Friedericke Brun. Its sentiment is firmly rooted in 18th century, imitating Klopstock's religious poetry, but the landscape perception presages romantic views.
![Tuesday Night, 9’o clock. Sept. 18th 1798
Over what place does the Moon hang to your eye my dearest Sara ? To me it hangs over the left bank of the Elbe ; and a long trembling road of moonlight reaches from thence up to the stern of our Vessel, & there it ends. We have dropped anchor in the middle of the Stream 30 mile from Cuxhaven, where we arrived this morning at eleven o‘clock, after an unusually fine passage of only 48 hours -.
S.T. Coleridge to Mrs. S.T.Coleridge,
in 'Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge', Vol.1, p.415f [Nr.254]
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vwdie5wej52mvc6545xdmxd5/bafkreigk3cxbzulg7j5mhhwzzapkwsauaaix3q4nytnz4mw3lqp23zt7cm)
