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Fine Art Stein: One of them is Stein-am-Rhein, a precious "stone" without flaws, whose meandering main street is perhaps the quaintest in Switzerland, though very few Americans ever find it. High above the town is the Castle of Hohenklingen, where dwelt the feudal lords of Stein. Another enclave is Schaffhausen, with the white thunder of the Rhine Falls. To reach the town from Zurich, if you come that way, your train must pass through five miles of Germany, though you'll scarcely be aware of this.From then on, technological change accelerated to the point where it was visible within a man's lifetime. With what was soon called "The Industrial Revolution," there came the spreading impulse to speculate on the changes that were yet to come in science and technology. In fact, science fiction might almost be called the literary response to the Industrial Revolution. In 1818, for instance, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, wife of the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, published Frankenstein. This was the tale of an anatomy student, Victor Frankenstein, who put together a monster which he brought to life and by which he was eventually killed.
On this street is the house (now a '< museum) of Chalamala, a famous fool whose task it was to amuse the counts and their lady friends. I think of Stein-am-Rhein, Moral, Aarberg and Romont as special legacies, needing nothing to enhance their value. 1 Among individual paintings in the galleries, see Holbein the Young-er's best-known masterpiece, "Adam and Eve," in Basel's Kunstmuseum. Eve, a high blonde, fat and pudgy, still less, yet the most untutored layman sees why this is a great picture. Among items of special character see the Library of St. Gall's old Benedictine Abbey—this abbey was founded over 1000 years ago by an itinerant Irish monk named Gallus— for this room is rococo at its best, stucco gone mad, cupids flying all over the ceiling but its fine art stein old carved woods lend richness and tone to the whole ensemble. |
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