Beginning in the mid-1950s, Julius Bissier created his "miniatures," which form small organisms in egg oil tempera on linen, nettle, or cotton with specially made brushes. They are oriented neither to the reproduction of a representational world, nor to an already existing art form. Here Julius Bissier transcends the simple colorfulness of ink and expands it with the colors of watercolor and egg-oil-tempera. With egg-oil tempera on a fine, whitewashed linen fabric, Bissier can work as he does with ink drawings or watercolors, without having to accept an increased sensitivity to light. The color can flow, glaze the background, and also emerge opaquely as a luminous color. Bissier created pictorial myths that - detached from an unambiguous symbolism - convey a comprehensible sense of form derived from the experience of nature. The deep impression that the writings of the legal and cultural historian Johann Jakob Bachofen left on Bissier is clearly evident here. Bachofen's researches turn away from the "materialistic" interpretation of history and try to uncover the deeper, mythical and irrational layers. Bissier shared this intention. "The symbols in the pictures are mute parables that are rarely understood by the viewer, but are sensed as something inexpressible or poignant" - this statement of Bachofen's has found its pictorial implementation in Bissier's miniatures.