Liberty Style: What it is, how it was born and what its characteristics are

Art Nouveau is an artistic movement that developed throughout Europe between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Let's see how it was born, why it is called that and what its peculiarities are.

How the Liberty Style was born

This is an artistic trend that was born in France towards the end of the nineteenth century and then spread with great success throughout Europe and the world , establishing itself until the first decade of the twentieth century , that is, during the Belle Époque period , which ended with the outbreak of the First World War.

This movement originally took the name of Art Nouveau and took different names in different countries: in Italy it was called Stile Liberty.

This name derives from the name of the warehouses founded in London in 1875 by A. Lasenby Liberty , which specialized in the sale of products from the Orient : in fact, an important element of this style is the fascination for what is exotic and comes from distant and mysterious lands.

The basic idea of ​​this new style is the desire to mark a break with the past and with art tied to rigid rules and traditions , opting for freedom and creativity.

Furthermore, this style also aims to oppose the then emerging mechanization and industrial mass production of objects, preferring craftsmanship and customization.

What are the characteristics of the Liberty Style?

The new artistic trend, during the period of its maximum expression and diffusion, permeates architecture, the figurative arts, the applied arts and design.

It favors free creation and everything that is handcrafted: decorations, in any field of application, must make objects, environments, paintings, architectural forms beautiful and light.

The peculiarities of the Liberty style are:

– the marked elegance ;

– forms inspired by nature , in particular floral motifs and stylizations of plants and flowers;

– dynamic figures and lines , such as wavy shapes, soft and sinuous features, moldings and veining;

– the female image as a recurring theme, chosen both for its beauty and harmony, and for its growing importance in the society of the time;

– a taste for the exotic and oriental ;

– the use of artistic and decorative glass in architecture;

– the use of wrought iron , both in buildings for railings and balustrades, and in craftsmanship and design for lamps, furnishing accessories, profiles, and handles.

In Italy, interesting Liberty style buildings can be found not only in large cities such as Milan and Turin, but also in various locations on the Ligurian Riviera, in Tuscany and on the Riviera Romagnola.

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