- [Narrator] This is "Heart of the Andes,"
a painting by the American artist Frederic Church.
He painted it as a tribute to Alexander von Humboldt.
It is the artist's largest and most ambitious painting.
It is heavily influenced by Humboldt's own work,
in particular his plant geography map.
Humboldt called this map his Naturgemälde
or picture of nature.
And Humboldt filled it with the data relating plants
to their environments that he recorded in South America.
Church used the Naturgemälde
as a template for this painting,
conveying a similar wealth of visual detail.
50 years after Humboldt explored the Andes Mountains
of South America,
Church journeyed there himself
using Humboldt's writings as a guide
and in many cases literally following in his footsteps.
Like Humboldt's Naturgemälde,
Church's painting doesn't depict a single place.
Instead, it covers the same range of territory
from the Amazon River basin
to the snow-capped summit of Mount Chimborazo.
This is Church's visualization
of Humboldt's plant geography map.
(birds chirping)
Church painted over 100 identifiable plants
in "Heart of the Andes,"
many of them the same plants that Humboldt cataloged
during his South American expedition
including the arum,
the passion flower,
and the morning glory vine.
(dramatic music)
(birds chirping)
(water rushing)
(dramatic music)
Church also personalized this landscape
signing his name on this tree trunk.
Notice the tiny, detailed brush strokes
that Church uses here to create each plant.
Mark Twain saw the painting and marveled,
- [Mark voiceover] Your third visit
will find your brain gasping
and straining with futile efforts
to take all the wonder in
and understand how such a miracle
could have been conceived and executed
by human brain and human hands.
- [Narrator] The abundance of life in this painting
is not solely botanical.
Church painted the local people he met
during his two journeys to South America.
(birds chirping)
Church further enlivens the scene
with a small village at the center of the painting.
Nestled along the river,
the village is part of a unified whole
where people are living in harmony with nature.
(people chatting)
During his travels, Humboldt always sought out local guides,
respecting indigenous people's understanding of nature
as being far superior to that of their colonial rulers.
It was with the help of these guides
that Humboldt had climbed Mount Chimborazo in 1802,
which at the time was considered the highest mountain
in the world.
He did so dressed in 18th century clothes
and without access to supplemental oxygen.
In Humboldt's words
- [Humboldt Voiceover] We see Chimborazo
appear like a cloud at the horizon.
It detaches itself from the neighboring summits
and towers over the whole chain of the Andes
like that majestic dome
produced by the genius of Michelangelo.
- [Narrator] Humboldt ascended to an elevation
of 19,413 feet,
a mountaineering record that lasted for 30 years.
By the time Frederic Church first saw Chimborazo in 1853,
it was known as Humboldt's mountain.
(dramatic music)
In many ways, "Heart the Andes" is Humboldt's picture.
In fact, Church planned to send the painting to Berlin
for Humboldt to see.
Sadly, Humboldt had died at the age of 89
just days after Church completed the painting.
"Heart of the Andes" is a visual summation
of Humboldt's influence on Frederic Church
and a testament to the explorer's deep
and sustained influence on American art.