SILVIJA GROSA JŪGENDSTILA PERIODA PLASTISKAIS UN ...

Plastic décor, stencilling and paintings on ceilings, lunettes or wall panels were
also used extensively in vestibules and stairwells. Presumably it was the paintings
which were particularly popular, but very few – landscapes, mostly – have
survived to the present day.
Glass was widely used in vestibules – polished glass in doors, as well as
mirrors. Stained glass was all but an automatic decorative element in stairwell
windows. This is a period during which stained glass art truly flourished.
Metal was also of key importance in interior design. The ornamental
solutions used for metal stair railings, for instance, were usually harmonised with
the décor of the rest of the relevant space.
VI.2. The traditions of Historicism in interior design and the arrival of Art
Nouveau: Examples The building at Vīlandes Street 1, which was designed by
Rudolf Zirkwitz in 1898, is one which has a vestibule that is decorated in a way
which represents a unique prologue to Art Nouveau in the history of architectural
décor in Rīga. The polychrome reliefs in the vestibule are based on samples from
the aforementioned collection of graphic artworks, “Allegories and Emblems,” by
Gerlach. The images are allegorical depictions of day and night, and the
interpretation is based both on the Berlin-Potsdam Rococo school and on Art
Nouveau.
The décor of flats themselves often involved stencilled artworks, and
often each room had a different stylistic solution. A typical example is in the
building at Brīvības Street 55, which was one of the most elegant apartment
buildings in Rīga in its day. It was the same aforementioned Bürgnerhof , which
was designed in 1900 by Albert Giesecke and Wilhelm Neumann.
Stencils could also be used in order to produce autonomous elements,
even including small paintings or parametric friezes. An example is the décor in
one of the rooms of a flat at Raiņa Boulevard 13, c. 1900. Other examples can be
found in materials that were published in the context of Rīga’s 700 th anniversary
celebration in 1901.
There were several public buildings during the early part of the Art
Nouveau period in which interior design was based on various versions of
Classicism from the 18 th and 19 th centuries (2 nd Rīga City (Russian) Theatre [the
Latvian National Theatre today], architect August Reinberg, decorative sculptures
by Otto & Wassil, 1900-1903; the building of the National Bank, architect
Reinberg, 1902). Sometimes the interior design of public buildings that were
erected around the year 1900 displayed an interest in Art Nouveau, with a merger
of allegorically emblematic and floral motifs.
VI.3. Interior décor with figurative messages
Paintings of various scenes were often found in interior design during this
period, and the idea of pantheism was part of the popularity of the cycles of nature.
Sometimes tondo or lunette formats were used to present realistic landscapes and
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