history of the alps

To use Bachelard’s terminology, we could say that in broad terms the
images of the mountains produced between the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 19th emanate two different imaginary auras. On the one hand we find a congeries of
images linked to the power and fragility of the Alpine environment, a part cursed with a gloomy aura of loss, of transience, of annihilation; on the other hand, purity, beauty, originality, healthiness, the challenge with oneself.