Presented here are exquisite glassworks featuring floral motifs selected from the collection of the Pola Museum of Art.

In the 1890s, a new decorative art movement emerged in France. Taking fresh inspiration from nature, and departing from traditional designs, the decorative works produced by this movement, known as Art Nouveau (“new art”), richly embellished their surroundings with the plant and insect forms they lavishly employed as motifs.

Long favored as motifs in art due to their splendid appearance and expression of the transience of life, flowers were especially prominent in the radical, trend-setting designs of the Art Nouveau movement. Enthusiastically taken up around the world, they would become the signature style of this fin-de-siècle era.

Chosen from among the museum’s approximately 300 Art Nouveau glassworks, the exhibition assembles fine pieces by Emile Gallé (1846-1904), the Daum Brothers (Auguste, 1853-1909; Antonin, 1864-1930), and Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933). To enhance the viewer’s enjoyment, they are displayed alongside outstanding paintings that feature floral motifs.