Legendary Swiss hero and national symbol of freedom, William (Wilhelm) Tell, is arrested. Fresco painted in the 1500s inside a chapel built in 1552 on the reputed site of William Tell’s birthplace at Bürglen, Uri canton, Switzerland. The painting is part of a fresco cycle depicting the story of William Tell. In this scene, and elsewhere in the cycle, William Tell may be identified by his distinctive orange and black parti-coloured clothes ( he wears a costume with its colour scheme split in two even halves down the centre of the body, popular during the 1300s).
Bürglen, Uri Canton, Switzerland: scene from a fresco cycle inside Tell’s Chapel (Tellskapelle), a chapel built in 1552 on the reputed site of William Tell’s birthplace. The frescoes in this cycle, discovered in 1949 beneath later wall paintings, are the earliest known frescoes to depict William Tell. Decoration on the west front of the chapel includes a fresco of William Tell placing an apple on his son’s head and the painted date 1588. In both that exterior fresco and the frescoes painted inside the chapel, William Tell is dressed in distinctive orange and black parti-coloured clothes. William Tell was a legendary Swiss hero and patriot. According to legend, he was a peasant and expert crossbow and arrow marksman from Bürglen who lived in the late 1200s and early 1300s CE, a time when Austrians controlled what is now Switzerland and the Austrian Habsburg emperors were seeking to dominate Uri. Tell’s story symbolises the struggle for political and individual freedom. He defied Austrian authority by refusing to pay homage to a tall pole set up by a Hapsburg official, Hermann or Albrecht Gessler, in the town square. As a punishment, on 18 November 1307, Tell was forced to submit to a test of marksmanship and shoot an apple from his son’s head. He split the fruit with a single bolt from his crossbow, without harming his son. However, Tell was arrested for threatening Gessler’s life with a second arrow. He was then imprisoned by Gessler, escaped, and ultimately killed Gessler. Tell’s daring exploits sparked a rebellion, leading to the formation of the Swiss Confederation. Bürglen also honours Tell’s memory with the Tell Museum and a late-18th century statuary group by Swiss sculptor and modeller Joseph Benedikt Curiger or Kuriger (1754-1819).
Size: 2832px × 4256px
Location: Tell’s Chapel or Tellskapelle, Bürglen, Uri Canton, Switzerland
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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