Art Nouveau is an artistic style that arose in Europe at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries under the influence of Japanese and other Egyptian art. In various countries, it can be called in different ways - Art Nouveau, Art Nouveau, Secession. But its general features are similar. Smooth, viscous lines resembling a wave or a whip, a deliberate lack of symmetry, and, of course, ornament.
In modernity, patterns are no longer an optional detail, but the most important emotionally saturated rhythmic element. Hereafter, we will reveal the secret of these patterns.
You can conditionally divide art nouveau patterns into several groups.
Plant patterns
Especially popular were ivy and bindweed, iris flowers, roses, lilies, orchids, chestnut leaves, thistle. Significance for the artist was not only the shape of the plant, the bends of its stem or petals, but also allegorical significance. Roses - a symbol of love, iris - languor and bliss, thistle - independence, lily - innocence and death.
Stylized images of animals.
Mysterious bats became at that time perhaps the most popular animals among artists. They symbolized the spirits of the night, the ability to feel the innermost forces of nature, already lost by man.
Swans met in abundance with their exquisite beauty - an allegorical union of love and death.
Peacocks, as well as their feathers, are one of the few images filled with joy, a symbol of the sun and rebirth.
Insects
Of course, the most spectacular images of insects are embodied in the jewelry of the renowned Rene Lalique, in a variety of patterns they are very impressive. Dragonflies, butterflies, Egyptian scarabs - they were very popular in the Victorian era, but during the modern period their forms were rethought.
Female images
A special place among the Art Nouveau patterns was occupied by the female image. Seductive dancers, naked nymphs, all kinds of allegories of the seasons and fertility, mysterious witches with flowing locks of hair are intertwined in the designs of posters Mucha or Toulouse-Lautrec and look at us from the facades of Moscow apartment buildings.