Resurrection

History of the work

On grave number 343 in section UH8 of the Schosshalde cemetery, the metal sculpture 'Auferstehung' (Resurrection) by Marcel Perincioli stands on a stone plinth. It was made in 1979. The list of works on the Perincioli family website calls it a bronze and records its purpose: the grave of Hélène and Marcel Perincioli. The sculptor thus designed the grave monument for himself and his wife, more than two decades before his death. The city's data give the material simply as metal.

Hélène Jörns was a craftswoman; according to the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland the two married in 1936. Perincioli, born in Bern in 1911, trained with his father Etienne, a sculptor from Piedmont, and continued his studies in Paris and Berlin. He became known for athletes and dancers in stone and bronze. Religious subjects are also a firm part of his work, for example the bronze doors of the Nydegg church (1953–1955) or a Pietà in the cemetery of Flawil (1954).

The artists' lexicon SIKART describes how Perincioli at first worked mainly in stone and later increasingly in bronze; in the end he modelled the originals for his casts directly in wax. From 1939 to 1980 he lived in the municipality of Bolligen, first in Rörswil, then in Flugbrunnen, and afterwards in the Villette estate in Muri near Bern.

Perincioli died in Bern on 10 September 2005; Wikipedia lists him among the well-known people buried in the cemetery. About 160 metres away stands his 'Grosser Engel' (Great Angel) of 1958/59. Comparing the two bronzes, made twenty years apart, is a good reason to visit both spots one after the other.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · perincioli.ch: Verzeichnis grösserer Arbeiten von Marcel Perincioli · HLS: Perincioli, Marcel (Matthias Oberli) · SIKART: Marcel Perincioli (Johanna Strübin Rindisbacher) · Wikipedia (de): Schosshaldenfriedhof · Wikimedia Commons: Bronzeplastik Auferstehung 4/4 (Marcel Perincioli 1979)