Frescoes

In 1903 Julius Voegtli created a unique work of art in the form of a large ceiling painting in the ‘Villa Ciment Vigier SA’ salon. It was created in the style and technique of fresco painting. Voegtli, with the help of local carpenters, erected a large scaffold, at the top of which, lying on his back, he attached layer after layer onto the ceiling. Fresco painting is a method in which the color pigments, previously ‘soaked’ in water, are applied to the fresh, chalky plaster. The Italian word fresco means fresh.

The town hall in his native Biel was embellished by a pair of Julius Voegtli gables: two banner bearers over four meters high. Compared to the work on the ceiling fresco in the ‘Villa Ciment Vigier SA’, this creation was by far not as complex because a wall fresco was much easier to create than a ceiling fresco.