Mercy

History of the work

On the lawn north of the car park, between the buildings at Morillonstrasse 79 and 87, stands a sculpture in pale Jura limestone. Marcel Perincioli made it in 1954; his catalogue of works lists it as the group “Barmherzigkeit” for the Zieglerspital. Wikidata gives a height of 215 centimetres, with a width of 115 and a depth of 50 centimetres.

The title suits the history of the site. The merchant Georg Emanuel Ludwig Ziegler, who died in 1867, left his fortune to the city of Bern on condition that it found a hospital for residents without means. The Ziegler Foundation was set up in 1868, and the hospital opened in the Bellevue country house, which Ziegler had bought in 1858. The Bellevue, built around 1740, still stands at Morillonstrasse 87. In 1950/51 the architects O. and W. Eichenberger added a three-storey extension at number 79, which according to the city’s building inventory survives almost unchanged.

Perincioli (1911–2005) was the son of Etienne Perincioli, a sculptor who had come to Bern from Piedmont, and learned the craft from his father. In the early 1930s he continued his training in Paris with Charles Despiau and in Berlin with Wilhelm Otto. He became known for runners, javelin throwers and dancers. In the same years as “Barmherzigkeit” he made the bronze doors of the Nydegg church and a Pietà for the cemetery in Flawil. According to SIKART he worked mainly in stone at first and increasingly in bronze later on.

The Zieglerspital closed at the end of August 2015; since 2016 the federal government has used the buildings temporarily as a centre for asylum seekers. The building inventory describes the garden, with low concrete walls, seating and several artworks, as typical of its period. On the way to the sculpture, take a look at the Bellevue: the columned porch on its north side was added around 1780 by Carl Ahasver von Sinner for the banker Ludwig Zeerleder.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Perincioli: Werksverzeichnis Marcel Perincioli (offizielle Website) · Wikipedia (de): Marcel Perincioli · HLS: Matthias Oberli, Perincioli, Marcel · SIKART: Johanna Strübin Rindisbacher, Marcel Perincioli · Wikipedia (de): Zieglerspital · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Morillonstrasse 75 (Zieglerspital, Bettentrakt) · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Morillonstrasse 79 (Erweiterungstrakt) · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Morillonstrasse 87 (Bellevue) · Wikidata: Barmherzigkeit (Q101579993) · Wikimedia Commons: Jurakalkskulptur Barmherzigkeit (Marcel Perincioli 1954)