SILVIJA GROSA JŪGENDSTILA PERIODA PLASTISKAIS UN ...

façades was monotone, and the details were quite small in relation to the surface of
the façade itself. Changes in the plastic forms occurred slowly.
II.2. Architects and clients: The role of social prestige in selecting the décor
of buildings in Rīga at the turn of the 19 th and 20 th centuries
Some of the architects who were working in Rīga at this period of time
had been educated in St Petersburg, as well as at several building schools in
Germany. Many others were graduates of the Faculty of Architecture of the Rīga
Polytechnic Institute (known earlier as the Rīga Polytechnicum). Most of the
architects who worked in Rīga during the period of Art Nouveau were Baltic
Germans. There were comparatively few Latvians, and even fewer architects of
other nationalities.
During the period that is under consideration here, architecture in Rīga
was, generally speaking, at a high level of professionalism. The development of
architecture was not, however, determined by one or a few leading architects.
Elements of traditionalism were very much in place, and this was a levelling
process. Traditionalism was particularly evident in the décor of public buildings,
and that explains the concept of the Domestic Revival (Heimatstil in German) –
something that has attracted virtually no attention in broader studies that have been
produced in the past. The Domestic Revival was common in Rīga during the early
period of Art Nouveau, when there was a freer interpretation of historical styles in
accordance with rationally considered functional solutions.
The most extensive variations in décor during the Art Nouveau period
were found on those buildings that were erected in Old Rīga and in the so-called
“district of boulevards.” Beginning in the latter half of the 19 th century, buildings
in these areas featured quite a bit of decorative sculpture. That was also true in the
former suburban areas of the old city of Rīga – ones which became fancier zones
once changes in the city’s building code were implemented. Décor, of course,
made the buildings more expensive, and it can be concluded that it was a sign of
prestige for building owners in social and economic terms.
This author agrees with Jeremy Howard, who at one time looked at the
styles that were chosen for buildings in Rīga during the early period of Art
Nouveau and concluded that although it might be tempting to link the appearance
of a building to the ethnicity of the architect of client, for instance, the fact is that
the situation was far more complicated than that, and the issue of ethnicity really
appeared on the table only after the 1905 Revolution. This was one factor which
facilitated the spread of National Romanticism.
Analysis of the plastic décor of buildings erected during the early period
of Art Nouveau (irrespective of the stylistic solutions that were used) shows that
there were efforts to compensate for ethnic complexes that arose as the result of the
complicated socio-political situation which prevailed in Rīga at that time. Each of
the main ethnic groups in Rīga had its own motivations in terms of choosing
conventional forms of architectural décor. For Latvians this was a matter of self-
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