LATVIAN ORNAMENTS. GENESIS OF THE TRADITION (1869–1924)

In 19th century Latvia, as elsewhere in Europe, peasants’ dress featured ornamental motifs. In the initial decades of the 20th century, some specific visual symbols were extracted from these ornaments and designated as latvju raksti (Latvian ornaments). This subset gained widespread adoption in later periods of 20th and 21st century Latvia, establishing a tradition of usage. Similar to folk songs, the collection of old textiles became an important activity at the end of the 19th century. The collected items were used to create appropriate outfits for song festivals or, in the case of Rihards Zariņš, to showcase Latvian art style, which was to become a model for young artists. In 1911, Matīss Siliņš published the most popular symbols of Latvian ornaments – sun (saulīte), star (zvaigznīte), swastika (uguns krusts), and fir needle (skujiņa) – contextualizing them within the Latvian or Livonian (Livs) identity, thus imbuing them with a nationalistic significance. Subsequently, Latvian ornaments played an important role in the newly formed country – they became part of national symbolism (national flag variants, the national coat of arms, ornamentation of premises in the President’s palace, etc.). In 1923, Jānis Sudmalis and Ernests Brastiņš published brochures in which they attempted, in their own words, an explanation of Latvian ornament symbolism. For Sudmalis, Latvian ornaments were an essential part of national culture and art that represented long-lost traditions. Traditions that needed to be awakened and brought a renaissance of Latvian art, true to Latvian style, as he imagined it. For Brastiņš, Latvian ornaments encompassed the worldview of the (imagined) nation and were part of the religious rituals of Latvian ancestors. He used Latvian ornaments to create a folk-song-based nationalistic Latvian religion. The tradition of depicting and interpreting Latvian ornaments could be regarded as an invented tradition in Eric Hobsbawm’s sense. It served to create the Latvian nation and unify it in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.