FROM ARCHITECTURE TO ORNAMENTALISM

Brussels is one of the Art Nouveau capitals of Europe. The architects and their clients who favoured this style had a love of colour, arabesques and animal and plant motifs borrowed from nature. They drew on the know-how of exceptionally skilled craftsmen. The facades and interiors of the houses were adorned with sgraffiti, curved woodwork, delicately tinted stained-glass windows and allegorical wrought-iron work. The polychromatic materials and intricate lines of Art Nouveau architecture are a rich testimony to the decorative arts, as the photos of Jacques Evrard and Christine Bastin illustrate.