In 2025, the exhibition Metamorphoses will take place in the Kadriorg Art Museum, focusing on the way Ovid’s Metamorphoses was harnessed in the service of Baroque political ideology, with the ceiling mural of the Kadriorg Palace acting as one the most significant examples.
As a result,, there was a need to focus on the technical status of the mural since previous restorations had left many questions unanswered, from its precise technique to its authorship. Twenty-four years after the last restoration, the inspection of the condition and a thorough examination of the ceiling plafond of the main hall of the Kadriorg Palace is essential and timely.
The ceiling murals of the main hall of the Kadriorg Palace are the only monumental paintings which have survived in the interiors of the palace’s main building. In the context of Estonia, they are unique and they are also significant for Europe as only a limited number of commissions of art objects were made in this geographic area in the first half of the 18th century, during or after the Great Northern War. Masters from Europe and Russia arrived in Tallinn to decorate the residence of Peter the Great, starting with the Roman architect Nicola Michetti and including the sculptor Salomon Zeltrechtini, who was invited from Stockholm. The iconographic programme of the state apartments of the palace had to support the ideology of the new authorities and to express the personal tastes of Peter the Great. From archival sources it is known that all of the ceiling murals were based on the texts of Ovid and Tacitus, which means that the Kadriorg Palace was an eminent example of the Baroque tendency to express the rhetoric of power through ancient narratives.
The central large-scale ceiling mural depicts the story of the goddess Diana and the hunter Actaeon known to us from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The composition is borrowed from an engraving by Magdalena van de Passe, which was based on a painting with the same title by Rembrandt. The origin of the four smaller painted emblemata is associated with Versaille and Louis XIV, repeating motifs from tapestries woven in honour of the Sun King: a sheaf of grain, a swallow, a rose and a lily.
Gallery
The paintings were included in the original designs of the palace, but unfortunately no written source has been found to prove that they were made in the 1720s. The only documents regarding the creation of the ceiling mural are from 1746, and they mention the artist Londicer the Younger (probably Johann Friedrich Londicer).
The Kadriorg Art Museum was opened as a museum of foreign art in 2000. The opening was preceded by the restoration of the Baroque palace, originally constructed at the beginning of the 18th century, and the conservation of the unique ceiling mural, led by the conservator Helje Vernomasing. The documentation of this large undertaking has only partially survived. The same goes for the renovation of the ceiling of the main hall during the 1930s, when the mural was removed in pieces for conservation and was then attached to the new ceiling.
Research
Besides inspection of the condition, art historical and technical research (XRF, pigment and binding agents) of the ceiling mural will be carried out with the hope of obtaining new and more precise information about the execution of the plafond. The mapping of the condition and research will be carried out in collaboration with the teachers and students of the Estonian Academy of Arts, as well as prominent specialists from other institutions.
The work will take place on top of scaffolding during the hours that the museum is open over the course of three days. On every day of the research, thematic lectures will also take place.
The examination of the condition will map out the need for future restoration or conservation of the plafond.
Project organisers: Eva Tammekivi (painting conservator at the Art Museum of Estonia) and Varje Õunapuu (guest lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts and a conservator).
Supporting members: Aleksandra Murre (director of the Kadriorg Art Museum) and Hilkka Hiiop (a professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts).
Preparatory research of the conservation and restoration history of the plafond (based on archive material, etc.) will be carried out by Eva Tammekivi.
The mapping of the condition of the plafond will be carried out by the students of the Estonian Academy of Arts under the supervision of their teachers.
The results of the mapping of the condition and the research:
- The data collected by the students of the Estonian Academy of Arts and other specialists during the mapping of the condition of the plafond will be entered into the digiteek programme
- Determining the condition of the plafond and the need for conservation or restoration
- New information about the creation of the plafond painting
- Compiling an article
- Public lectures during two evenings and a discussion seminar on the third day
Gallery
Planned technical research:
- XRF: Riin Rebane (Research Fellow in Analytical and Physical Chemistry at the Institute of Chemistry of the University of Tartu)
- Examination of pigments and binding agents: Signe Vahur (Associate Professor of Analytical and Physical Chemistry at the Institute of Chemistry of the University of Tartu)
- Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and/or RTI research: Andres Uueni (guest lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts and head of the MUKOLA laboratory, Archaeovision OÜ)
Schedule
26 March
10 a.m., introductory lecture: Eva Tammekivi. Mapping of the condition and research on the plafond
5‒6 p.m., public lecture: Aleksandra Murre. The art historical background and iconography of the plafond paintings in Kadriorg Palace
27 March
Mapping of the condition and research on the plafond
XRF examination with Riin Rebane
5‒6 p.m., public lecture: Hilkka Hiiop. Estonian plafond paintings and the discovery in the Estonian Knighthood House
28 March
Mapping of the condition and research on the plafond
NIR and/or RTI research, photographing the details
2‒3:30 p.m., public lecture and discussion: Triin Kröönström and Hannes Vinnal. The story of the Kadriorg ceiling mural based on archival sources and the changes in the use of artistic materials in the 18th century