Institute of Art History of the Latvian Academy of Art Anna Ancāne ...

V. 2.2. Bell-shaped gables predominated in Riga’s urban landscape
during the last two decades of the 17 th century, mostly in the districts to
the right from Kaļķu Street. Bell-shaped gables were the largest group;
such examples have survived at 10 Tirgoņu Street and 11 Miesnieku
Street. These gables were widely represented at Tirgoņu Street as well as
at Jēkaba, Mazā Pils, Mazā Jaunavu, Smilšu, Laipu Streets, etc. In the
Netherlands these gables evolved from step-shaped volute gables and the
so-called neck gables (halsgevel), but a wide variety of local versions
emerged in Northern Europe. In Riga just several examples of neck
gables have been detected – at 20 Tirgoņu Street, 1 Jēkaba Street and 2
Šķūņu Street. The most part of bell-shaped gables had a rather moderate
décor: dynamic silhouettes were topped by small pediments. Slopes of
bell-shaped gables were sometimes complemented with volutes (at the
corner of Šķūņu and Laipu Streets) or projecting garlands of fruits and
flower buds.
V.2.3. Volute gables are the second largest group whose roots are found
in the geography of Dutch influences. Unlike in the Netherlands, in Riga
stepped volute gables were not a transitional stage but an established
gable type that does not undergo further evolution. Bell-shaped gables
with elongated side volutes that represented the next developmental stage
in the Netherlands coexisted with stepped volute gables in Riga – this
could be a sign of conservatism and local peculiarity. The traditional
route of influences – the Netherlands–Northern Germany–Eastern Baltic
– can be expanded, comparing Riga’s volute gables with the Nuremberg
architect Jacob Wolf die Älder’s projects of rich gabled houses.
Representative volute gables were very common in newly built houses in
the last quarter of the 17 th century, especially in the 1690s. The façade
was plastered and coloured, so the Baroque volute gables took on
monumentality. The silhouette of the gable was the main bearer of
decorativeness.
Gables contoured by stepped volutes
The very popular gables with rather small, stepped volutes that were very
decorative and cascaded one after another on the entire slope,
demonstrated a civic and economic attitude (at 20 Mazā Kalēju Street, 22
Mārstaļu Street, 32 Grēcinieku Street (1681), 15, 18 and 24 Mārstaļu
Street (1 st half of the 1680s)). The example of Wismar in Mecklenburg
shows that cascades of volutes are found in both the 1670s and 1680s and
on the threshold of the 18 th century. In Riga the “loose silhouette” gables
with small stepped volutes existed already from the 1660s.
In the most lavish gables monumental volutes intertwined with acanthus
ornament were grouped symmetrically on two or three levels. This
variation can be attributed to the last decade of the 17 th century when they
became top modern. Their contours feature Baroque dynamism and
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