The Beginning of Time (or Expulsion from Paradise)

History of the work

On the west front of the Zytglogge, the large clock face sits in the middle of a mural. It is by Victor Surbek. According to the English Wikipedia, Chronos, the god of time, swoops down at the top with his cape fluttering, and below the clock face an angel drives Adam and Eve out of Paradise. The clock is thus part of the picture. According to the city's data it is painted in Keim mineral paints.

In 1890 Rudolf von Steiger had given the tower's two main fronts a new Rococo-style paint scheme. In the 20th century this version fell out of favour, and a competition in 1929 produced today's designs: Surbek's picture on the west side and, on the east side, a reconstruction of the 1770 scheme by Kurt Indermühle. The English Wikipedia dates the fresco to 1929; according to the German Wikipedia Surbek received the commission in 1930, and the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland and the city's data also give 1930.

Surbek was born in Zäziwil on 1 November 1885; his father later became head physician of the Inselspital. Through the painter Ernst Linck he came to painting, studied in Munich and Karlsruhe and then, from 1909 to 1911, in Paris, at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. There he met the painter Marguerite Frey, whom he married in 1914; from 1915 to 1931 the couple ran a painting school in Bern. As president of the Bern section of the artists' society GSMBA he campaigned in 1918 for the founding of the Kunsthalle.

Surbek became known above all for his school wall charts, which teachers used to show geological phenomena of the Alps. He also painted murals in the Kirchenfeld grammar school and the Tiefenau hospital. In 1964 he and his wife set up the Le Roselier foundation in Spiez. He died in Bern on 26 March 1975. When the hour strikes, it is worth pausing in front of the tower to look at the painted figure of Time above the clock face.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikipedia (en): Zytglogge · Wikipedia (de): Victor Surbek · HLS: Surbek, Viktor (Tapan Bhattacharya) · Wikipedia (de): Zytglogge · Wikimedia Commons: Beginn der Zeit