Features of Art Nouveau

Features of Art Nouveau

For Art Nouveau lovers as myself Bruxelles is a real paradise. Each town quarter  contains lovely buildings in this attractive style from around 1900. Its architecture is already widely treated in numerous books. Therefore, the subject I want to show here in these pages is the much less known but equally fascinating stained glass works. Windows, doors or cupolas as integral part of the building provide filtered light to the dwellings, a concept so dear to Art Nouveau architects, in a highly artistic way.

Window in Hotel Hannon

         In the period around 1900 emerged a new style in European Art and Architecture, the Art Nouveau style. Leaving behind Victorian sentimentality with its constant look to the past it meant a turning point in Western Art and Architecture by exploring a progressive and adventurous way of expression. Even if the newly created style was rather short-lived its importance lies in the application of new concepts in Art as well as in Architecture all over Europe and beyond. Its significance even goes beyond its creation by paving the way for future movements as Art Deco and Modernism. Taking conscience of the beauty of nature and incorporating it into art and architecture was a basic aim of Art Nouveau artists. Appreciated motives range from flowers and trees to insects, from waves to ondulating curves. The representation of these objects does not want to be an imitation but a highly stylized form of it. The Art Nouveau Style is distinguished by its elegance, sensuality and decorative effect. Flowing curves and double curves insinuating writhing plants, undulating lines as for instance Horta’s famous whiplash curve, flames and waves or the flowing hair of female figures are most characteristic expressions applied in both the structure and the decoration of the building. Although Art Nouveau often is boldly asymmetric it achieves great harmony. 

                                                        Horta's whiplash motif


       Contrasting with this highly sensuous style we find another nearly opposing tendency in Art Nouveau - the geometric line. Paul Hankar in Belgium was a defender of this trend, strongly influenced by the Viennese and the Scottish Art Nouveau. Geometric forms as circles, semi-circles or triangles play an eminent role pointing already to the future Art Deco. This geometric austerity in iron structures or sgraffiti as decorative elements made the houses affordable for a much wider public, being the "democratization" of house building another goal of Art Nouveau architects. The Ciamberlani house in Brussels is a perfect example for this style.

Hotel Ciamberlani by P. Hankar

The new concept of “Gesamtkunstwerk” or total art wanted to create a fusion between structure and ornament. Thus columns or beams became thick vines with spreading tendrils like that of a living organism, leaving behind previous efforts of hiding structural elements. Either in curvy stone work, in swirling iron balconies, in thematic sgraffiti or in stained glass windows, the architect sought the greatest possible harmony among the different elements. In order to obtain this goal of total art the Art Nouveau architect not only designed the building but every single element in it such as floor mosaics, stair landings, door handles and even furniture. 

Iron balcony by V. Horta

        One of the major assets of Art Nouveau construction is the use of natural light in planning a building with the intention of bathing its interiors in light, adding quality of life to its inhabitants. The use of stained glass panels fitted perfectly into the concept of a well lit dwelling. The typical long but narrow building plot of Brussels often became a site of experiment with innovative sources of light, as a glassed dome in the central section or stained glass doors for the otherwise central dark room. Stained glass windows looking out to the street, particularly on the ground floor, often shelter the inhabitants from outside-viewers while filtering soft light to the inside. 
In the next post I will enter fully the subject of stained glass with the presentation of some works with one of the dearest motifs to Art Nouveau architects and artists: flowers and plants.