City Life Museum Lecture: A Research Project on Rare Tapestries

The joint project “Global and Local: Tallinn’s Priceless Early Modern Tapestries” by the University of Tartu, the Estonian Academy of Arts and Tallinn City Museum will study rare 16th-century tapestries held at Tallinn City Museum over the course of a year. The project and its findings will be presented in a series of lectures during the autumn 2026 season at Tallinn City Life Museum, Vene Street 17. Lectures take place once a month on Tuesdays at 17:30 in the museum’s education room.

1 December – Hannes Vinnal. Global or Local? The Colours of Tallinn’s Tapestries at the Turning Point of an Expanding World

Research into Tallinn’s tapestries offers a valuable opportunity to look at a pivotal period in the history of European colours. A range of new dyes came into use during the 16th and 17th centuries. This was connected with the so-called discovery of the New World and the opening of sea routes to Asia. New colonial goods began to compete with Europe’s domestic production. Colours are therefore rich material for exploring the history of globalisation, in both its beauty and its pain. Tallinn’s tapestries stand at this turning point in the mid-16th century.

I also consider it important to look at the history of local textile-dyeing practices in connection with Tallinn’s tapestries. This field has been little studied so far. How did the art of dyeing develop in our region during the 16th and 17th centuries? This helps us understand the significance and meaning of such colourful luxury objects in the context of Tallinn, and forms part of their local reception.

PROJECT INTRODUCTION

The project “Global and Local: Tallinn’s Priceless Early Modern Tapestries” brings together the expertise of art historians, historians, scientists, collection managers and conservators. Its focus is on tapestries depicting King Solomon and plant motifs, commissioned by the Tallinn City Council, and the antependium from St. Olaf’s Church, commissioned by alderman Lutke van Oyten. The works were made in the 16th century in tapestry workshops in Enghien and Brussels in the Low Countries, where Europe’s most important dynasties also commissioned tapestries. These rare tapestries were among the most valuable works of art commissioned at the time of their creation.

“It is a wonder that objects so old, so finely crafted and so valuable in terms of their materials have survived in Tallinn,” says the project lead, Kerttu Palginõmm, a researcher in textile history at the Institute of History and Archaeology at the University of Tartu.

Using interdisciplinary methods, the research project aims to ensure the preservation and conservation of this unique European cultural heritage, and its display in the future.

Contact: pia.ehasalu@linnamuuseum.ee; tel. +372 56479459

Image: Antependium from St. Olaf’s Church, mid-16th century, TLM 8494