Gezicht op San Bernardino 1826

Rudolf Bodmer created this print of San Bernardino in Switzerland in the early 19th century. Prints like these were not just art, but a vital means of circulating images and information across a wide public. Notice how Bodmer frames this village. He’s not just showing us the buildings; he's carefully arranging the landscape to evoke a sense of place and perhaps, even a bit of romantic nationalism. The towering mountains in the background and the carefully positioned figures in the foreground give us a snapshot of Swiss life, idealized for a growing tourist industry. The very act of printing and distributing such images played a role in shaping cultural identity. As art historians, our role is to dig deeper. We can look into the archives, study travelogues, and explore the era's economic forces to fully understand the layers of meaning packed into what seems, at first glance, to be just a simple landscape.