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

plasticity. No direct borrowings of gable décor are found in Riga; the
silhouettes are quite complex but unified, with clear composition,
classical order elements and expressive ornamentation.
Volutes with acanthus ornament were the main decorative element of
Riga’s gables in the last decade of the 17 th century and the very beginning
of the 18 th century. Their origins are found in the samples of Amsterdam
architecture as well as in Dutch gables adapted in Hamburg. Acanthus
volute gables in Riga have been linked to the names of Henicke and
Bindenschu. These gables were sometimes enriched by architectural
décor, like pilasters, thus taking on the look of the then popular
“Vingboons’ gables”. There were cases when the volute did not merge
with the gable smoothly but created a sharp, seemingly cut-out silhouette,
like the one with six massive volutes on the end façade of the building at
4 Mazā Jauniela, facing the Town Hall Square (comparable with
examples at 21 Pelzerstraße and Cremon No. 24 in Hamburg).
A Baroque gable with acanthus volutes at 10 Mazā Minsterejas Street had
survived up to the 1920s. The flowing, dynamic acanthus lines as well as
the silhouette of the gable allow dating it by the early 1690s. Similar
examples decorated the buildings constructed between the ramparts after
the fire of 1689 and are dated approximately by 1690 – 1692. The most
splendid were located at 1 and 7/9 Zirgu Street.
Vingboons’ type gables with pilasters
There were gables complemented with the architectural décor of pilasters.
The oldest known example has been located on the building at 21
Grēcinieku Street (1682), prototypes for which are found in the buildings
designed by Vingboons in Amsterdam. This kind of décor had been used
also at the corner of Smilšu and Aldara Streets, 16 and 22 Smilšu Street
as well as at 28 Jauniela, 20 Mārstaļu Street, 9 Lielā Monētu Street, 17
Tirgoņu Street, 20 Mārstaļu Street. These lost examples and the gable at 8
Miesnieku Street allows establishing a typological group in Riga,
described as “Vingboons’ type” in the specialised literature.
V. 3. Portals
Already in the 1950s Aleksandrs Birzenieks singled out two main
compositional schemes of Riga’s portals – decorative and tectonic. The
first comprised portals in which decorativeness predominated over the
constructive side; the tectonic group included various relationships of
classical order elements. Several examples give an insight into the mid-
17 th century portals.
V.3.1. 1 st half of the 17 th century – 1650
Mid-century portals demonstrate a dual tendency – a system of
architectural décor taken over from the late Renaissance as well as
ornamental compositions permeated with Mannerist forms. The portal
located on the former mint house at 16 Mazā Monētu Street (1644),
22