Baroka laikmeta dzīvojamais nams Rīgā, Miesnieku ielā 8: Būvvēsture un mākslas vērtības

• Authors: Anna Ancāne

Title variants

EN

Baroque Dwelling House at 8 Miesnieku Street in Riga: Construction History and Artistic Values

• Languages of publication: LV

Abstracts

EN

The house at 8 Miesnieku Street is among Riga’s most outstanding late 17th – early 18th century monuments that have come down to us. This house has fortunately retained its initial basic volume despite several reconstructions and changes of interior layout. Several periods stand out in the construction history of the house at 8 Miesnieku Street. Marten Kröger (also Kruger) acquired the building plot in September 1700 and built a house there the same year. After Kröger’s death in 1702, it was inherited by his son-in-law, Small Guild craft member Christian von der Heyde. There is information that the builder was the city master mason Hinrich Hänicke (also Hönnicke). The house had three floors of dwelling space with office premises on the ground floor, ceremonial and living quarters on the first and second floor as well as two attic floors for the storage of goods and a basement. Both façades feature four pilasters in the Tuscan colossal order along the first and second floor, supporting a very protruding, profiled cornice. The decorative finish of the façades is enhanced by corner rustication. The limestone portal initially faced the main Miesnieku Street but in the early 19th century, it was relocated to the Mūku Street façade. The portal represents the so-called decorative group in which the interpretation of order elements is decorative rather than tectonic. The Miesnieku Street façade has a pompous two-level gable with a rich cascade of volutes and smooth pilasters. This design represents the most lavish type of Riga’s volute gables in the Baroque period architecture. Such an array of elements pointed towards Northern Dutch innovations in residential houses introduced by the noted architect Philips Vingboons around the mid-17th century. Initially the interior could boast of an opulent finish that was subsequently lost in numerous reconstructions and repairs during the later centuries. The plafond painting from the first floor ceremonial room, dismantled during the reconstruction of 1931, is one of the best preserved monuments of Riga’s Baroque interiors, demonstrating the period’s typical local striving towards luxury based on French examples adapted via Sweden and Northern Germany.

Keywords

EN

BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE; RIGA; DWELLING HOUSES; INTERIOR FINISH; PLAFOND PAINTING

• Publisher: Institute of Art History of the Latvian Academy of Art and Art History Research Support Foundation
• Journal: Makslas Vesture un Teorija
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 18
• Pages: 6-17

Contributors

author

Anna Ancāne

• Institute of Art History, Latvian Academy of Art, Akadēmijas laukums 1-302, Riga LV-1050, Latvia