I left outside on a stone
The ring given by the suitors:
Whichever bird got it,
Let him bring it back to those people

Tauta in Latvian means nation or general public, but in folksongs it usually comes up in the context of getting married and refers to people who are not blood relatives, so our heroine appears to be turning down a proposal.

The Latvian flag forms the background of this painting and drawing relief. Lightly drawn joined hands form a wreath over the flag. In the center of the piece, a forged stainless steel ring lays on top, its opening representing the ever expanding universe.

Circles are often seen as protective symbols, and represent such phenomena as completion, union, regeneration, and eternity. In this case the wreath’s circular shape represents eternity, for it has neither beginning nor end. 

During the annual summer solstice festival called Jāņi, Latvians often wear on their heads wreaths made of flowers, grasses, and flowers.  People gather to eat, drink, and sing in observance of ancient folk traditions related to renewal and fertility.
 

This morning the sun rose up
Out of a scarlet tree,
Young lads will grow old
Trying to find that tree.

In this artwork, a gold leaf tree representing the sun symbol (in the left middle quadrant) supports the “scarlet tree,” from which hangs the tree of life, one of the most popular elements of Art Nouveau. This tree of life image comes from a Riga building designed by Mikhail Eisenstein. In the initial stage of the Jugendstil movement, this motif—three or more parallel lines, the middle line extending lower than the others—frequently was used to decorate building facades. In the artwork, the larger brass symbol relief at the bottom is embellished to include open arms. The entire composition is a balance between the freedom of line and the rigidity of order. The brass element on the right balances the scarlet tree, making reference to and complimenting the brooch-like form on the bottom.

“The notion of a sun tree, or world tree, is one of the most important concepts regarding the cosmos. This tree grows at the edge of the path of Saule, and the setting sun (Saule) hangs her belt on the tree in preparation for rest.” The folklore texts have multiple variations and there are many different motives. The tree is the world structure itself, from the roots in the underworld to the branches of the heaven. Still, even this concept may have not been completely universally known. Still, this tree spoken of in the text is clearly some intangible tree, whatever it is, maybe - the path of the Sun, a human being can never follow in his/her life…

I have heard Riga mentioned many times before
Finally I saw it
All around - sandy hills
Riga itself lies in the water

The large face in this artwork is from one of the most recognizable Art Nouveau buildings in Riga located at 10b Elizbetes Iela. Riga is the capital and largest city in Latvia.  The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava River. Designed by Mikhail Eisenstein and completed by Konstantīns Pēkšens, the building’s two elongated and stoic identical faces seem to peer out over Riga. In the artwork, the wreath represents glory, with the gold leaf offsetting the more obscure copper element that hangs from the left eyebrow and defines the outline of the magnificent face. The bottom of the red-inked Latvian flag outlines the country of Latvia. 

In Riga one can find many blocks almost entirely comprised of Art Nouveau-style buildings. Examples are Vilandes Iela, Rupniecibas Iela, Alberta Iela, and Elizabetes Iela.  About twenty such buildings in Riga are attributed to civil engineer and architect Mikhail Eisenstein (1867-1921). 

10 b Elizabetes Iela (M. Eisenstein 1903) is one of the most iconic Art Nouveau buildings in Riga. The vivid blue and white color of the building, along with the extraordinary large, long faces at the top, make it an outstanding piece of architecture.

Whoever said it, lied,
That the Sun sleeps at night;
Does the Sun rise
From the same spot she set yesterday?

It isn’t true, it isn’t true,
That the sun sleeps at night.
Did she rise up in the morn’
Where she went down in the eve?

Just as a Latvian daina may have several similar translations, the subjects of a daina may be represented in more than one way. In both of these dainas, Saule, or the sun, enters the otherworld and travels through it during the night, so she can start a new day. 

In the artwork, the sun is represented as Apollo, the Greek and Roman god of light and prophecy. The bronze arc cradles the disk of concentric circles and dissects the vertical division of night and day. The copper wire also accentuates this division, and unites it by including one winged lion. 

This roof construction of a residential building at Alberta iela 13 (1904, arch. M. Eisenstein) features Gothic and Eastern symbols characteristic of the Art Nouveau style, including the head of Apollo flanked by winged lions. Architects started to actively include antique gods during the Classicist and Neoclassicist periods. What sets Art Nouveau apart from Neoclassical architecture is the attempt to create a new form of art that did not mimic the past. Curvilinear lines, asymmetrical shapes and forms, surfaces with decorations, and other patterns characterize Art Nouveau buildings. One of their most distinctive features, however, is contrasts in décor.  

This small farmyard
Has three gates openable
Through one the sun rises
In the other the Moon
In the third the suitors drive
Their horses out to graze

This daina divides the heavens into fields.  One interpretation of this Daina challenges that Tautas possibly represented Thoth. The word Tautas in Latvian means the opposition to one’s own people; the suitors who came from strange places, somewhere far.

The French symbolist movement in literature (1890-1900) rejected realism, and was an important influence on the Art Nouveau movement and its symbolic and philosophic approach to art and architecture.  The atmosphere in 19th-20th century Europe reflected a growing interest in countries considered exotic, such as Egypt.

The idea of night and day compositionally divides the centralized sun (feminine), moon (masculine), and ibis or Thoth, the Egyptian god of knowledge. The sun, moon and Thoth elements are repousse relief in copper and aluminum. Cut and punched constellations are laid over and under, and this layering was continued in several renditions that included the color drawings of Orion and Taurus on either side of the central motif. This pentimentio, or alternation in the painting, creates a feeling of depth that one might experience while looking at the stars.

Daina is from “Tautas Dziesmas”, published by LFK in 1930s. Also included in Copenhagen edition of 1952-1958.
 

Sun and God were fighting
At noon, at midnight:
God threw at the Sun
A silver stone.

In this artwork, the Sun, or Saule, is represented by a golden bronze plate with the center punched out by God or Dievs, who is represented by multiple silver and multi-colored turning equilateral triangles in the center. The explosion is characterized by the divisions of night and day and the trailing black lines.

“The word Dievs originates from proto Indo-European root meaning “to shine.” Christian missionaries chose Dievs to represent a Christian God (the same in Estonia and Lithuania), but traditionally the symbol represents the sky-roof over the earth (borrowing the Baltic Finnic shows the same- taivas and taevas are ‘sky). The Christian concept is that Dievs maintains order in the world, nothing happens without his knowledge.”

“Sometimes Dievs and Saule become enraged at each other because of their respective children, as, for example, when Dieva deli break the rings of Saules meitas or when Saules meitas shatters the swords of Dieva dēli. Their enmity lasts three days, which some scholars explain through natural phenomena; i.e., the three days before the new moon when Dievs, a substitute for the moon, is not visible.” Dieva dēli and Saules meitas are the usual characters participating in the heavenly wedding, mirroring the regular relationship between the in-laws.  The most widespread motif of the “heavenly family” cycle is the quarrel between the Sun and the Moon, in course of which the Sun throws a stone at the Moon, which is one of the mildest actions – the harshest being cutting the Moon into pieces (the phases are explained by this). One theory of the silver stone is that it is a representation of a comet.
 

Why is it that the tips of the sky
Are rosy every single eve?
Every eve the sun hangs out
Her silken skirts to air
 

Saule is the parallel to one’s own mother. In the text above the Sun is the rich heavenly ruler with her supernatural belongings, like the collection of huge silken skirts, that have to be hung out so they do not get harmed by keeping them in a chest all of the time.

This daina is strongly related to the Latvian connection to and love of nature. In the artwork, the gold leaf square is a symbol of the sun. Remnants of an old painted leather purse hang diagonally so that the flow of the folds appears more dramatic. The steel and brass in the artwork express movement and color.  Seeing light is a metaphor for seeing the invisible in the visible, enabling us to detect the contours of the fragile garment that holds our earth and all existence together.
 

Moon is counting stars
Are they all there at night-fall.
All of them are there
Just Auseklītis missing
Auseklītis went away
Wooing the daughter of the sun.

The residential building at number 8 Smilšu iela, Riga, 1902, is an example of eclectic decorative Art Nouveau by Baltic German architects Heinrich Scheel (1829-1909) and Friedrich Scheffel (1865-1913). They were responsible for the construction of around 35 residential and public buildings in Riga. 

The front façade of the building is enhanced by wrought iron balconies and distinctly symbolic ornamentation created by sculptors Sigismund Otto and Osvalds Vasils. The two female figures hold a garland, suggesting beauty and harmony, while the expressive mascaron of a female over the main entrance is symbolic of time. Her tranquil features and closed eyes allude to the night, and the stars spread among the curls of her head above the hair suggest the order of the cosmos. The moon face placed above her head represents male strength and vigor.

Latvian folk songs honor the dual nature of the moon (young and old). In this façade and in the artwork, the hair is threaded with ribbons bearing one version of the eight sided sign of Auseklis, or the morning star.

In many stories, Auseklis disappears and is found by Meness (moon). In general, Auseklis is portrayed as a young man who symbolically enters the underworld and is reborn and reunited with his mother. This makes Auseklis a life-death-rebirth deity. It also associates him with the Sun, which descends to darkness every night and then returns.
 

The lark sings higher
Than all other birds;
God’s judgment is wiser
Than all the world’s wisdom.

God is represented by a gold leaf and brass relief equilateral triangle that supports a glass circle with an etched diamond. The therefore sign (∴ ), also an abbreviated symbol for God, is placed on top of the triangle symbolizing the sky as a roof over the earth. The three copper dots are offset by the drawing of three grapes or berries just under the image of a lark. The lark came from a decorative solution of a National Romanticism building in Riga. The main ruler of everything is God or Dievs. The name is close to the ancient Indian deva meaning God and dyaus meaning sky. He could also be close to the ancient Greek god Zeus. The name Dievs is close to other Baltic languages and comes from the word deuio—the shining sky of the day. 

“The name Dievs is recorded in 9750 texts of Latvian folk songs (Latvju Dainās). God is the rightful ruler of all and the guider of stars, nature and humans. God is a fighter against evil and a judge of human destiny.  God is personified, but has no children or family.”

People my dekla laime
Drowned in the water;
My dekla is on the surface
Sitting in a silver boat.

Māra’s Wave, or zigzag, represents both water and earth (mountains), as Māra is the goddess of rivers, lakes, and seas as well as the goddess of birth and death and the protector of women and children. Māra takes on the functions of Laima in the western part of Latvia, but otherwise Māršava is the deity of cattle. Association of Māra with all things material comes from the neo-pagan religion Dievturība (introduced in 1925).

 The word Laima is related to laime, which means luck or fate. Laima is the goddess of human destiny, or luck (which may be also “bad”). 

“The phrase dekla laime is difficult to translate because of its obscure, ambiguous meaning in Latvian. Dekla is a typical deity of Kurzeme (western Latvia). There are different opinions on the etymology of the word and the functions of Dekla. Most folk songs speak about Dekla in connection with the determination of destiny.”

In the artwork, Māra’s turquoise wave divides the bottom third of the composition. A small top view boat-like form made of hammered copper and painted silver rests on copper paper with a side view boat line painted in red ink  (color red to denote love and/or death). On top of the boat rests a silver hammered design that represents Dekla. Bubbles rise from the boat to indicate drowning. Laima’s sign of a stylized fir tree is placed perpendicular to Māra’s wave and is upside down. 
 

Dear Sun, on your course, being so white/good/clean
Bring equality to this land:
The rich are burying the poor
Whilst still alive.

The Art Nouveau apartment building of L. Neiburgs  (master mason and contractor who constructed many of the Art Nouveau buildings in Riga) at Jauniela 25/29 was designed by architect Wilhelm Bockslaff, in 1903. The building’s ornamental decorations also feature the spirit of early Gothic. The powerful and dominant sun is adorned with a mask that surmounts a show window resembling a grand portal. The Goddess or God-like figure exhibits the traditional element of heraldry.  Emblematic and heraldic motifs were related to the tradition of historicism. One of the aspects of virtue; tikums’ is to respect Dievs, to ‘hold’ him as the Dainas put it. When someone suffers ill fortune, or is oppressed, the Dievs will lift them up and restore their self-respect. 

This artwork symbolizes renewal and one of the creative and driving forces of life- pride, as the highest human ideal. The stylised solar motif has been treated as a personification of the sun, yet the sun has not brought equality to the land.
 

Black roosters were singing in
Hell with waxen feet.

That’s how the lads were singing
who would scorn a girl’s virtue.

Many examples of humorous bantering between young men and women occur in the cycle of courting songs. This daina is a call and response song. Though an ensemble sang it monophonically at a Latvian summer intensive camp, the first part of the song could well be sung by males and the second part in response by females. 

Barons wrote of the apdziedᾱšanᾱs (call and response songs),  from which a skilled performer could choose and adapt to her needs: “Girls in particular singled out boys during apdziedāšanās. They attacked fiercely, no matter if reprimand was merited or not, perhaps who loves also teases.”[2]

In the artwork, the drawing of the singing male face came from this mascaron on the façade of a Jugendstil house by Mikhail Eisenstein (1905) at Albert Street, 2a in Riga.

The rooster is made of cast aluminum, covered with layers of paper and paint and sewn on with thin wire. The tail feathers of the rooster embrace the right side of the face and the gold leaf feet dangle like earrings.

I let only half my voice ring,
That made the people wonder;
What would they do
Had I let go of all of it?

In Riga, the Lyebedinskiy apartment building at Albert Street 4 was designed by Mihails Eizenštins in 1904. The building is a symmetrical composition that is accented by a central projection, crowned by a metal cornice that extends out of the façade. Above the cornice are three screaming heads of Medusa, also known as Gorgon heads, and at the top of the building are two roaring lions. This configuration illustrates one of the most distinctive characteristics of Art Nouveau architecture: contrasts in décor.

“Lions symbolize bravery and generosity while Medusa stands for villainy. There can be another interpretation which is connected to changes happening in society: the emancipation of women and emergence of feminism. Many women adopted Medusa’s visage as a symbol of female rage.”

During this same time Sigmund Freud published some of his most famous works. People’s interest in psychoanalysis and the study of neurosis was reflected in architecture as well: we can see many “disturbed” faces as decorations on the façade. Medusa’s hair, a mass of entwined snakes, is considered the seat of her extraordinary power.

The Gorgon heads were drawn on a slight diagonal instead of a horizontal format as in the Lyebedinskiy building. The smallest (originally centered) is placed on the bottom and as they move up and overlap the head becomes larger. These women appear to be singing and the fierceness of their expressions makes one wonder what would happen if they let it all out. The vertical dangling cast aluminum snake is associated with the unfolding rhythm of song and also interconnected to the coils of forms surrounding the heads as hair. This snake form is covered with parts of a Latvian handmade crocheted doily.

Why shouldn’t I live [Life is good]
On the shore of a large sea?
Whenever the sea throws a wave,
It throws out silver.

In this artwork, the golden symbol of Jumis extends out of a map of Latvia, with a coastline of silver leaf. The geometry forms squares and rectangles, and is countered and balanced by the organic biomorphic shape of the land. The rigid geometry of the Jumis symbol is abstracted further by enclosing the top right aluminum relief of a golden rectangle and by the order of the silver parallelograms. The hanging horizontal seed pod across the main Jumis axis references the harvest and the layering of opposites.

The symbol for Jumis (pr. Yoo-mis) refers to the Baltic pagan god who personified the harvest. The symbol of Jumis contains two stylized, crossed grain stalks, a glyph which may be related to the Sanskrit word for twin. The two tied stalks are reminiscent of offerings left after the gathering of the grain; they represent the two faces of Jumis, who is also related to the Roman Janus. The symbol for Jumis has been found on Iron Age wraps and jewelry, and has frequently been used as a decorative element in textiles. Jumis was also the synonym for plenty, old 18th century German dictionaries) translated it as “a double fruit”. The sign can sometimes be seen on rooftops.

Similarly, this symbol is meant to represent prosperity and good fortune, and is often found on clothing and decorative painting.

The time of leaves is coming,
The time of fear is coming for maidens:
The leaf falls rustling,
The girl runs trembling.
 

Autumn is wooing time, and the songs sung about that period (like wedding songs) contain some “theatrical text” for the ritual drama. These are played out according to the ancient tradition, when the stealing of the bride was still a commonplace event and the right way to find a wife. Miķeļi (autumn equinox) was the last summer day, when men sought maidens to woo and made drinking bets. After Miķeļi proposals had to be postponed for another year.

The artwork consists of layers of watercolor, paint and paper leaves that drift diagonally to rest softly on the ground. The top red color is the color of both passion and fear. The Art Nouveau style cast aluminum sculptural oak leaf relief is embedded in the top half of the composition. 

Hardiness and longevity made the oak leaf a symbol of power and bravery. There is a parallel to folksong imagery, where the oak is the tree of strength and manhood and is also related to thunder.

On the facades of Art Nouveau buildings, the oak leaf with acorns traditionally honors the valor of the home owner, symbolizing maturity, while an oak leaf with no acorns symbolizes young prowess.

This 1904 apartment house by Konstantins Pēkšēns is located in a semi-circle of boulevards in the Eclecticism style closed block environment. The gables’ contours are a stylized version of German Renaissance forms, and the decorative reliefs over both gables and spandrels are Art Nouveau oak leaves.

A spark of fire
Must be guarded in the cupped hand;
Let loose in the wind,
It causes many tears.

To keep a flame from going out, it is usually guarded with cupped hands. In this artwork, the hands are depicted in soft reflections and further guarded by the illuminated sweep of silver and gold swirls of wind and tears.

Cupped hands centrally protect light and are surrounded by silver leafed hammered brass and sterling silver tears.

Take your stand, oak,
In the middle of the yard,
They will bring you a linden-tree,
Plant it beside you.

“The linden, or lime tree (Tilia cordata, Latvian: liepa) and the oak (Quercus robur, Latvian: ozols) are considered the national trees of Latvia. The oak and the linden tree are characteristic elements of the Latvian landscape. Both trees are still widely used for medical purposes. Medicinal infusions are made of linden blossoms as well as oak bark. Latvian dainas often reflect ethical and moral concepts of earlier times. Amongst other trees, these folk songs most often mention the oak and linden tree. In traditional Latvian folk beliefs and folklore the linden tree is looked upon as a female symbol, but the oak a male symbol. The nation’s reverence for these trees, which in earlier times were considered sacred, can be witnessed, for example, in a landscape where, in the middle of a cultivated field there still remains a lone large, sacred oak or linden tree.”

This is clearly a wedding song; the moment that the bride is brought to the groom.  Stādīt means not only ‘to plant’, but also ‘to place’ – so they will bring the maiden and let the two stand beside each other. It is implied that the marriage will be for a long time (if not forever) as it is paralleled by the life of a tree – a time generally longer than the human life.

In this artwork, the oak leaf (tree) is situated proudly behind the spindly yet feminine linden tree form, which is made of a single plastic coated copper wire. She is bursting with joy to be planted next to the oak, who stands proud and strong by his decorative gold leaf pattern. The two become united by the continuous line of the right linden branch embracing the edge of the oak leaf.  

Soft is my tongue
Like a linden leaf,
I cheated the mother
Out of her dear daughter.

Folk songs reveal truths about human life. This daina is about the rivalry between a groom and his mother-in-law. The goddess Laima (luck) is sometimes associated with the linden tree. Laima helps arrange marriages, oversees childbirths, and arranges destinies. The linden corate, or heart-shaped leaf, turns yellow in the fall, while in the spring it is beautiful green color with a sweet smelling bouquet of creamy yellow flowers growing from its leaves. The text may point at the suitor’s ability to talk “the female talk”, speak the things the mother-in-law wishes to hear, so she is pleased with those, and thus agrees her most beloved daughter to be married. The bride would usually complain about her mother being kind while the mother-in-law – harsh, even evil. The two parties in a marriage were indeed at least rivaling for power in the family if not outright enemies.

In this artwork, a stylized tree—made from cast bronze and copper wire to indicate roots—sports several oversized leaves made of copper paper. The large bract leaf is made from leather and the flowers are copper wire.  A detail on the leaf on the right side of the composition offsets the root structure and stresses the leaf’s elegance and importance.

Roses bloom, poppies bloom
On the lid of my sister’s dowry chest;
When the lid was lifted,
Then the shawls did bloom.

Traditionally before weddings each girl had to prepare a dowry so that the bridegroom could determine whether the proposed will be diligent, hardworking and handy in crafts. Typically the brides’ dowry consisted of everyday items needed in households’ everyday life. Therefore women knew how to sew, knit, weave, crochet, tambour and do other handicraft jobs.

Two plumeria flowers from a Latvian crochet doily form the right side of the artwork, symbolizing springtime and new beginnings. The flowers are united by a petal in the crochet design representing the union of two people. The silkscreened poppies on cloth with two stems are held by a bronze leaf like curvilinear piece that both divides and holds the composition. A cast iron gilded rose emerges from the folds of the poppies: yellow edged with red means love is eternal.

The inked drawing of poppies is from the M. Eisenstein’s apartment building in Riga. In many cultures poppies represent sleep, peace and death. 
 

[Something] A white tree is blossoming by the field’s edge,
Is it a bird cherry or an apple-tree?
[Someone] white is walking along the road,
Is that a married woman or a maiden?

The significance of this human folk philosophy expresses both directly in comparisons and evaluations and indirectly in similes and attitude, thought and emotional context. Quite often a quatrain contains several values, ideas revealed in emotional experiences such as joy, delight and love. Virtue is specifically signified by the white color which represents the totality of human values: purity, beauty, kindness, the divine, etc.

The trees image in Latvian folksongs is commonly used figuratively, e.g. a tree symbolizes the social role of a person – like oak standing for a man, linden – for a woman. A blossoming apple tree symbolizes a married woman or mother. The apple tree as a symbol of mother, also may mean that an orphan will go to it for some consolation.

White is a desirable color, due to its symbolic meaning, therefore the white blossoming trees are usually employed in the parallelisms between the natural and human life so widespread in Latvian folk-poetry.

A characteristic example of perpendicular Art Nouveau architecture at Rūpniecības iela 3, built in 1908 by architect K. Pēkšēns. The somewhat lavish and elegant ornamentation of an apple tree relief is fully integrated into the architecture.
 

The bee and my sister,
Both have the same idea:
Both want to be led
Into a ready home.
 

There are many songs about wooing, getting engaged and preparations for the wedding, but this one is about giving the bride away. Bees produce beeswax and honey which are golden and relate to wealth and productivity.   

The ink drawing is from the vertically designed Art Nouveau apartment building, Vīlandes Street 14, designed by architect Konstantīns Pēkšēns in 1909. 

The decorative reliefs are based on the bee, which was a symbol of hard work and diligence in Art Nouveau. The hive is constructed more like a home than a beehive and has a bee in the center, as well as bees flying around the top.

The cast aluminum honeycomb-like structure on the right is layered over the drawing and under a small enameled bee. The bottom half is a laser printed photo that has been colored with dyes and watercolor. 

I was driven to Riga by a rooster,
Three peas in a cart;
The Riga gentleman wondered,
What a big cart load.

This is a nursery song, so the primary colors of red, yellow and blue fill the painted cast aluminum rooster relief. The front cast brass wheel forms a diagonal with the rooster to indicate speed. While the cart contains three copper disks as “peas”, one assumes that the three peas are women, and the rooster is the man driving the cart. The gentlemen of Riga were largely considered wealthy compared to the typical laborer or farmer outside of Riga.

This rooster is from a façade on Krišjāņa Barona iela. 

Steeples dating from the 1200’s in Riga had rooster weather vanes to tell which direction the wind was blowing; you would look where his beak was pointing. According to legend the Gailis (Latvian rooster) atop the Dome forecast times of abundance or famine.  One side of the rooster was painted black and the other gold. If Rigans saw the black side, it indicated the doldrums had gripped the Baltic sea, and no foreign ships could enter the harbor. But when the rooster flashed its gold side, then local merchants knew that ships would soon arrive. Today roosters are gilded on both sides in hopes for good times.

Just as some Latvians think that storks are a sign of good luck, the urban Latvians revere their gailias as symbols of alertness, peace, prosperity, and as one writer says, “(they stand) ever vigilant against the Powers of Darkness”- a central Latvian theme.
 

Oh, trouble my great trouble,
I do not feel troubled.
I place the trouble under a stone
And tread over it singing.

The silver stone rests on top and in the center of the composition. The stone floats over the edge of the rectangular copper paper, representing “great trouble” and pointing to the monumental Art Nouveau staircase. Curvilinear stair treads emphasize movement in contrast to the balance of the copper and silver paper reliefs. The forged steel line that hangs top center unites and continues to accentuate a more irregular path than that of the stairwell, suggesting the notion of song moving through space. 

The building at Alberta street 12 was constructed in 1903 as K. Pēkšēns’ private home by Pēkšēns himself together with Eižens Laube, then a student of architecture. The building is notable for its extremely powerful massing, expressive silhouette, and the impressive interior spiral staircase with ornamental ceiling paintings, quite possibly sketched by the prominent Latvian artist Janis Rozentāls. He was one of Art Nouveau’s most prominent Latvian artists, living and working in this home from 1904-15.
 

Where great smoke rises
There is little warmth;
Where great praise is sounded
There is little wealth.

Too much smoke means not enough fire, but one never sees smoke without fire. From this daina one learns that where there is too much praise a person often is blowing too much “smoke”—and their sincerity must be questioned. 

In this artwork, the silver-leafed hand at the bottom of the composition rises in praise from the stylized cast aluminum horizontal band of smoke. The hand is offset by the cupric patina diagonal background of green. One often associates green with money, prosperity, freshness, and progress. The patina on the veneer wood makes it appear old and perhaps calculated, particularly as it contrasts with the grey tones, which are subdued, detached, and quiet.  Gray smoke rises in concentric and layered circles to balance the composition.
 

Thunder-god rumbled
all the long summer;
May my dwelling rumble
this one night.

Dainas acknowledge that two realms are intimately connected and influence one another. This dance tune equates thunder bringing the summer rain to the dancing that is done in celebration of the resulting harvest in the dwelling of the owner. The stamp of feet and the jingling of the metal platelets attached to the boots of the men and the skirts of the women recalls and honors the gift of the Thunder god.

The brass and steel broach fastened to the vertical leather ethnographic set of symbols, counter and imitate a similar colorful horizontal frieze of ethnographic elements found on the garden arch at Krišjāņa Barona Street 62, by Architect Aleksandrs Vanags, 1909. This yellow rental building with shops was built in the style of National Romanticism. 

This ornamental frieze on the lintel of the gateway, and a slightly asymmetrically located bay starting from the first floor and joined by a balcony on the top floor, with a very subtle decoration on the façade, represented the idea of “quiet opposition” an affirmation of self- esteem, defense and preservation of the Latvian nation. 

The square Akas zīme or sign of the well is a symbol of protection and also the gateway to the afterlife. It represents the earth’s foundation and the beginning of the Sun’s new year. It protects the home, family, and connects with God. The Jumis symbol represents fertility and a good harvest.

Come out, mother of lads,
So I can look at you:
You are said to have horns at your forehead,
You are said to have a tail at your back

The ram is a long-held symbol of force, power, sacrifice, leadership and new beginnings.
The ram was chosen to represent the mother of lads or the mother-in-law. The encircled forged aluminum disk replicates the buttons under the rams’ heads and calls attention to the ram’s repetitive nature.

The Stockholm School of Economics in Riga on Strelnieku 4a was designed in 1905 by Mikhail Eisnstein. This Art Nouveau school building features youthful females, women in Viking boats with eagle figureheads at the bow, Atlas figures, and many ram’s heads. 
 

Old age, my old age,
Unnoticed you have come!
Had I seen you coming,
I’d have pushed you back with my hand.

In this artwork, the iron metal is aged as is the band of leather. The gold leaf hand is turned downward, as if to suggest that it is impossible to turn back time. Old age does come quickly, like passing of particles of sand through an hourglass.

 

I saw the Mother of Souls/the Dead
Entering the gates:
Covered with a white shawl,
Wearing sand shoes.

The sign of Zalktis (Serpent) represents wisdom, curiosity and knowledge. In Latvian mythology the harmless snake Zalktis was also the guardian of wealth or milk; but it is one of the chthonic beings – the ground dwellers that are believed to enter the Under-/Otherworld. He was a sacred creature protected by Laima and sometimes considered her sacred animal/sign. To harm one would bring bad luck. Associated with wellbeing, he had to be protected and cared for. 

In the watercolor, the serpent sign is geometric white light that wraps around the young woman superimposed on the tree of life.  The broken curvilinear bronze line cradles the sand shoes and extends up to heaven balancing her extended left arm.

The apartment house with shops located at Smilšu iela 2, designed by Konstantins Pēkšēns in 1902, is an example of one of Riga’s Art Nouveau masterpieces. The artistic and colorful composition of the façade expresses the diversity of its ornament, especially the group of images on the bay support. The young Herm under the bay window is contrasted with the old and separated by a tree with roots reaching to the underworld, and branches reaching up to represent life. The growing tree and the young and old are popular Art Nouveau motifs, conveying ideas of constant revival.