Biberist (SO)

Castle Vorder-Bleichenberg

Location, Object

Village of Biberist, district of Wasseramt, Canton of Solothurn. Castle Vorder-Bleichenberg, built 1602-1609, enlarged and decorated 1678-1680 by members of the local patrician family von Roll. Renovated 1970-1971. Its two floors include a small private theatre with stucco decorations, a chapel, and several painted ceilings, all c. 1680 and commissioned by Johann Ludwig von Roll (1643-1718). Now a public museum.

Emblems (10)

Context
Ground floor, south-eastern annex, room 4 (“Blumenzimmer”). Boarded ceiling (c. 4.55 × 4.55 m) with eight framed emblems painted in tempera, each showing a flower and a Latin motto (nos. 1–8), arranged around the non-emblematic central panel; renovated and installed in their current place in 1970–1971. Two more boards (nos. 9 and 10) are stored in the museum archive and belong to the same cycle that once covered the ceiling of the central room on the first floor (room 6), where they were discovered in 1970–1971. The original decoration must have consisted of 25–30 panels.

Authorship, Date
Anonymous, perhaps painted by Wolfgang Aeby (Lörtscher 1978, 222), c. 1680.

Significance
Secular praise of the natural beauty of flowers; meditation on the transience of life.

Source
Hoefnagel 1592 (mottoes of nos. 5, 7 and 8).

Literature
KF 3: 777–778; Tatarinoff 1972: 89ff.; Graf 1974: 157, 162; Lörtscher 1975: 75f.; Lörtscher 1978: 222; Carlen 1987: 60.

Biberist, Castle Vorder-Bleichenberg,
exterior from north-east.

Biberist, Castle Vorder-Bleichenberg,
exterior from south.

Biberist, Castle, south-eastern annex with room 4 on ground floor.

Biberist, Castle, room 4, view from main hall.

Biberist, Castle, room 4, view from southern corner

Biberist, Castle, room 4, view from eastern corner

**Biberist 1**
A hyacinth.
Dic quibus in terris inscripti nomine Regum nascantur flores: ænigm[a] [Vergil, ecl. 3.306-307].

**Biberist 2**
A red tulip.
Sunt flores sydera terræ.

**Biberist 3**
A wilting white tulip.
Mane Helena sub vesperam Hecuba.

**Biberist 4**
A white iris.
Coeli sunt sydera flores.

**Biberist 5**
A red anemone.
Co(n)querimur natura brevis quod gratia floru(m), est ostendata oculis illico dona rapis [Ps-Ausonius, De ros. nasc., 41-42].

**Biberist 6**
A white iris.
Telluris aulæa.

**Biberist 7**
A white anemone.
Magnus Veris honos, et odoræ gratia Floræ [cf. Martial, epigr. 6.80.5].

**Biberist 8**
A white tulip.
Nil michi cum tenebris, si nox, si nubilia claudor. Soli me pando. Soi [recte: Sol] mihi solus amor.

**Biberist 9**
Two yellow narcissuses (daffodils).
Mihi est Color optimus Auri.

**Biberist 10**
Two orange and red tulips.
Non sic innumeros arcu mutante colores, incipiens redimitur hyems [Claudian, rapt. Pros., 2.98-99].

Copyright note: Added 2017, revised 2026. All photos taken by the author, June 2017. Floor plan reproduced from www.schloesschen-biberist.ch.