Fortress from the South

The watercolours dating from the 1860s and ‘70s mark the peak of Alt’s oeuvre. Features in this picture are the detailed rendering of the Fortress, the Benedictine Nonnberg convent founded by St Rupert between 712 and 715, and the mighty oak in the foreground, its bark painted with rapid brush-strokes and its bare spreading branch echoing the contours of the Festungsberg. The leaves, from light to dark green, like those on the hedge lining the path, are dabbed on. The gnarled form of the oak is reminiscent of the trees in 17th-century Dutch paintings. At the foot of the Festungsberg is St Erhard’s Church and the rows of houses in the centre of Nonntal.
Today, Alt’s view cannot quite be reconstructed; his standpoint was the site of the present Faculty of Natural Sciences of Salzburg University, and the view of Nonntal centre is blocked by the buildings in the Akademiestrasse.

HABERSATTER Thomas: Blick auf Salzburg/Focus on Salzburg, in: DUCKE Astrid, HABERSATTER Thomas (Hrsg./Edited): Stadt ∙ Land ∙ Berg. Salzburg und seine Umgebung. Town ∙ Landscape ∙ Mountain. Salzburg and surroundings. Residenzgalerie Salzburg. Salzburg 2022, S./p. 28–29