The Power of Things
The exhibition The Power of Things focuses on a number of works in the Niguliste Museum from the Late Medieval and Early Modern Period, among them the great painting Danse Macabre by the Lübeck master Bernt Notke and the altarpiece of the Virgin Mary of the Brotherhood of the Black Heads by the Master of the St Lucy Legend from Bruges. Placing them side by side with the objects from the collections of the Tallinn City Museum and the Estonian History Museum, a meaningful dialogue develops between the world of painted and material objects.
Tallinn’s Dance of Death
The Dance of Death painting in the Niguliste Museum is the most famous and valuable art work in Estonia. The new exposition solution for the rare and impressive work has been created by KOKO Architects.
Rode Altarpiece in Close-up
History, Technical Investigation and Conservation of the Retable of the High Altar of Tallinn’s St. Nicholas’ Church
This is a large-scale project which will last several years and is focused on the conservation of the Late Middle Ages retable of the high altar in St. Nicholas’ Church. The retable is one of the grandest and best preserved northern German altar retables from the Late Middle Ages.
The Art Museum of Estonia’s collection of medieval and early modern ecclesiastical art is exhibited at the Niguliste Museum. The centrepieces of the collection are late-medieval altarpieces and wooden sculptures. The best-known work in the museum is the painting Danse Macabre from the workshop of Bernt Notke, a master from Lübeck. A 7.5-metre-long piece of the original work, completed at the end of the 15th century, has survived to the present day. One of the gems of the exhibition is the altarpiece of the high altar of St Nicholas’ Church, which was made in the workshop of Herman Rode, a master from Lübeck, and which arrived in Tallinn in 1481. This is one of the most magnificent and best preserved late medieval northern German altarpieces in Europe. The collection also includes three Netherlandish retables – the Passion altarpiece made in the workshop of the Brügge master Adriaen Isenbrandt, the altarpiece of the Virgin Mary of Tallinn’s Brotherhood of the Black Heads, which is attributed to the Master of the St. Lucia Legend, and the Holy Kinship altarpiece from Brussel’s workshop. In addition, there are altarpieces and sculptures from various Estonian churches.