Art and Science 



all in the Canton Ticino, are by a Swiss or 

 German artist who has migrated southward ; 

 but the reverse migration was equally common. 

 Being in the neighbourhood, and wishing to 

 assure myself whether the sculptor of the 

 Saas-Fee chapels had or had not come lower 

 down the valley, I examined every church and 

 village which I could hear of as containing 

 anything that might throw light on this point. 

 I was thus led to Vispertimenen, a village 

 some three hours above either Visp or Stal- 

 den. It stands very high, and is an almost 

 untouched example of a mediaeval village. 

 The altar-piece of the main church is even 

 more floridly ambitious in its abundance of 

 carving and gilding than the many other am- 

 bitious altar-pieces with which the Canton 

 Valais abounds. The Apostles are receiving 

 the Holy Ghost on the first storey of the com- 

 position, and they certainly are receiving it 

 with an overjoyed alacrity and hilarious ecstasy 

 of allegria spirituale which it would not be 

 easy to surpass. Above the village, reaching 

 almost to the limits beyond which there is no 



cultivation, there stands a series of chapels 



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