On 24 May 2012 a poster "From the Gothic Style to Art Nouveau" appeared in the west-side staircase vestibule of Rundāle Palace, next to the entrance door to the west-side block. Behind that door, a quite dark and mysterious world opens up, very different to the light and playful environment of the Palace designed by Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli. This permanent exposition of decorative art does not get to Art Nouveau yet; now only five premises of the planned fourteen in total are on view, and the chronological and stylistic development leads to the mid-18th century. The next two exposition rooms are due to be opened on 24 May 2013. Museum staff have named this new exposition rather conventionally - DEKO. Decorative arts are always placed behind their nobler sisters as the fine arts are thought to top the hierarchy. Nevertheless, decorative arts have been most closely related to people's daily life. In Latvia, much evidence of our cultural history has perished as a result of wars, revolutions and social transformations. Museum holdings include either individual objects or entire collections of which only a small part is exhibited. These are usually shown as illustrations of historical events or economic life and so are unable to elucidate the specificity of decorative arts in different countries. Not all European countries have a special museum of decorative arts, but in Latvia the chance to see close-up examples of canonical historical styles is even more limited. Already in the 1960s there was the idea to create a chronologically and stylistically arranged exposition of decorative arts in the Rundāle Palace Museum. Besides purchases from antique shops and loans from other museums in Latvia, another way to enrich the collections was taking over items from the churches of Latvia; their tragic fate in the conditions of Soviet occupation became even worse after the ideological action of 1961 when congregations were liquidated. Already during the first years of the Museum in 1964, one could see partly vandalised churches with their doors left open. Thus the whole of Latvia was traversed and everything that could be salvaged and placed in the empty premises was put in a truck rented from the local state farm and taken to Rundāle. Thus collections were created that did not directly belong to Rundāle Palace interiors. Apart from wood-carved altar retables, pulpits, benches, sculptures, altarpieces and votive plaques, the Museum also received many silver and tin items, and they did fit well with the idea of a future exposition of decorative arts. Besides churches, the Museum also systematically inspected manor houses. Much was salvaged from these too at the last moment - stoves, doors, parquetry, decorative reliefs or metalwork fittings. Already then it was evident that all this should be part of the future exposition. When a more detailed plan of the decorative arts exposition was devised during the last five years, "blank spots" also emerged showing that some styles, national schools and kinds of art are poorly represented or completely absent. The DEKO exposition envisages demonstrating all historical styles from the 15th century till the First World War in fourteen rooms, beginning with late Gothic and ending with Art Nouveau and 20th-century Neo-Classicism. The idea is to show both the major line of stylistic development in Western Europe and the reflection of these styles in Latvia. The first exposition room embraces Gothic, Renaissance and Mannerism in Europe and Latvia. A valuable exhibit in this room is the early 17th century Flemish tapestry "King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba". The second room, the former Palace kitchen, is dedicated to late Mannerism and Baroque: here one sees various 17th century pieces of furniture from different countries, items from the churches of Latvia, Dutch delftware vases and plates, including a rare pagoda-type example - a sitting Chinese figure used as a wine vessel. The third room with its semi-circular vaults and Tuscan wall pilasters seemed appropriate for a display of Italian furniture. The museum has been lucky to obtain Renaissance chests: the showcase contains the oldest piece of the collection - the so-called wedding box from the early 15th century made by the Embriachi family workshop in Venice. The fourth room contains examples of the mature Baroque, around 1700, with carpentry items from Northern Germany, Danzig and Hamburg type walnut cupboards, Dutch and South-German cabinets. The fifth room represents late Baroque. The exhibited Dutch chest of drawers shows typical rich inlays of flowers and acanthus leaves. The number of local works surviving from this period is small, so the inlaid bureau from the Švirkale manor not far from Rundāle is especially valuable; the item was created for the von der Brüggen family of landlords in the first third of the 18th century. European Rococo items as well as French Neo-Classicism, the so-called Louis XVI Style, are well represented in the Palace second-floor interiors and will not be repeated in DEKO, but objects created in Latvia during this period will be on view. Only European china and glass items will enrich this part of exposition. The wide collection of stove ceramics owned by Rundāle Palace Museum will be partly shown in the rooms of corresponding styles, concentrated in the sixth room in the former vestibule of the west wing. The textiles on view in the rooms adjacent to the Duchess's apartments will not be included in the exposition and neither will the decorative metalwork - door and window fittings, locks and weathercocks that are on view in the ground floor of the Palace. After the Second World War, museums of decorative arts have undergone significant changes in the interpretation and presentation of their exhibits. In the name of modernity, masterpieces of decorative arts were trapped in modern design showcases, surrounded by bright lighting and subjected to streams of neon light, as well as being contrasted with the rough textures of the exhibition space and backgrounds. Objects were removed from their original environment and presented as isolated artefacts. Expositions became too sterile and boring. This approach that has lasted over fifty years and seemed fresh and vivid at the start has become dreary dogma. In the newly opened Rundāle Palace Museum, decorative arts exhibits are arranged so as to retain their mutual connection and initial function. Windows are covered and each exhibit is illuminated separately. Some visitors are baffled by the low lighting level but this allows the artefacts to be singled out more expressively by spotlights. The subdued light also gives an idea of the atmosphere in the houses of bygone centuries. The light increases with each room, reaching daylight in the last part of the exposition, thus inscribing the dimension of passing time in the viewer's subconscious. Showcases, a common "bone of contention" in museums, have been created to be less obtrusive. Made of wood, painted black or dark grey, with a dark velvet or wool background, they fit into window openings, and are partly covered by curtains from the sides. Small diode lighting hidden in the showcase sides is subdued so as not to damage paper or textile. Visitors are kept apart from the exhibition area by a low, black-painted barrier that also hides the light sources. Annotations accompanying the exhibits are made not to stand out. No numbers are to be found next to the exhibits but the annotations are complemented by small pictures. Further information on the epoch, style and country is provided by texts on lectern type stands. The explanatory texts are stylised as small books with yellowish Verge paper type pages and a classical font. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]