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

was plastered with marked window frames and window openings with
plastic, profiled rims (at 4 Zirgu Street). In church architecture
retrospective tendencies predominated: flat pointed arches with the Late
Gothic tracery were used (St. Peter’s Church west-side façade portals).
V.5. Cornices and their decorative elements
In the Baroque period cornices were not only functional architectural
elements but also decorative accents and visual conclusion of the wall
plane. Cornices of Riga’s patrician houses were sometimes supported by
a series of small consoles (Dannenstern’s House at 26 Jauniela). In the 2 nd
half of the 17 th century almost all buildings with extended walls facing
the street had richly profiled, projecting and massive cornices. Consoles
on both ends of the cornice was a very common element of façade finish,
found on both nobility’s houses and the dwellings of other citizens; this is
a peculiar trait of the buildings’ appearance in Baroque-time Riga.
VI. RIGA’S LATE 17 TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE IN THE
CONTEXT OF INFLUENCE ROUTES AND ANALOGIES
Riga’s Baroque architecture can be described as international from the
viewpoint of influences, but Northern German or Western Prussian
impulses are not decisive any more. Several important landmarks deserve
mentioning in this wide-spaced scene.
Western Prussia
In the 1 st half of the 17 th century Danzig and other towns of Prussia
largely retained their influence in the Eastern Baltic region. But in the last
quarter of the century while Danzig underwent a political, economic and
cultural crisis, Riga experienced the most rapid growth. Influences of
Danzig decreased or remained inertial: the essence of Vitruvian
architecture was not properly understood and stalled in retrospection and
random use of classical elements. But in Riga Palladian buildings
emerged. Their façade conception, proportions and decorative program
testify to a true understanding and masterful interpretation of Classicist
ideas current in the 17 th century Northern Europe.
The Northern Netherlands was one of the main sources of Riga’s
architecture in the 2 nd half of the 17 th century. The trend initiated by Jacob
van Campen was an original, synthetic system with the task of expressing
the highest aesthetic values in architecture. Still the variation of the 17 th
century Classicism that developed in Riga was not a copy of van
Campen’s “severe style”. The more delicate version worked out by the
Vingboons brothers and Pieter Post was adapted in Riga; it was more
densely packed with ornament and showed restrained elegance. These
influences were strengthened through the use of architects’ printed
collections and seeing the realised buildings in situ in Amsterdam,
Leyden, etc. Master Builder Bindenschu’s hypothetical stay in the
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