Baltic Journal of Art History

“Melancholy is my joy and these discomforts are my tranquillity”: On the Development of the Artist’s Image

Holger Rajavee — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This article examines the historical development of melancholy
as one of the key elements of the artist’s image in Western culture
from antiquity to the twentieth century. Originating in the ancient
theory of the four humours, melancholy gradually evolved from a
medical concept associated with black bile into a complex intellectual,
philosophical and aesthetic category. The study explores how
melancholy became linked to artistic creativity and exceptional
intellectual ability, while simultaneously retaining its pathological
connotations. Particular attention is paid to the role of Pseudo-
Aristotle, Marsilio Ficino, Renaissance art theory, artists’ biographies,
and later philosophical and psychological interpretations in shaping
the enduring association between the artist and melancholy.
The article argues that the persistence of melancholy in arttheoretical
and art-historical discourse cannot be explained solely
by the survival of ancient medical ideas. Rather, melancholy became
an integral component of the artist persona, functioning as a cultural
construct that justified artistic individuality, eccentricity, solitude, and claims to creative genius. Through an analysis of writings
by authors ranging from Vasari and Bellori to Diderot, Schelling,
Schopenhauer, and Freud, the study traces the expansion of the
semantic field of melancholy and its transformation into a defining
feature of the artist persona.
The final part of the article investigates the visual manifestations
of melancholy in artists’ self-image. Drawing on iconographical
traditions associated with Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia, the symbolism
of Saturn, and selected self-portraits from the Renaissance to the
nineteenth century, it examines the ways in which artists represented
or alluded to melancholy in their own likenesses. The article concludes
that, despite the remarkable longevity and adaptability of the concept,
explicitly melancholic self-representations remained relatively rare in
comparison with the dominant image of the artist as a self-confident
and socially elevated creative individual.

“Skins of these animals are most precious, especially among distant nations”: Fur, Ecology, and Empire in the Pelt Portraits of Michel Sittow

Ruth Sargent Noyes — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This article proposes ‘fur studies’ as a new art-historically grounded framework for understanding the material, ecological, and imperial dimensions of fur in early modern culture. Focusing on two portraits attributed to Michel Sittow, the essay examines how pelts and their depictions functioned not merely as signs of luxury or status, but as agents shaping ecological knowledge, global trade, and human–animal entanglement. Situating Sittow’s paintings within Baltic and North European networks of fur extraction and exchange, the article reconstructs what it terms Renaissance ‘pelliferous epistemologies’: regimes of knowledge surrounding furbearers, pelts, and their geographies of origin. Through close visual analysis of species-specific fur rendering, the study argues that Sittow’s portraits engaged contemporary questions of truth, perception, artistic labour, and human experience, while inscribing their sitters within wider ecological (“more than human”) and imperial geographies. In doing so, the article reconsiders furbearers and their skins as a critical but understudied category in Renaissance art, material culture, and environmental history. A second part, to be published in a subsequent volume of the Baltic Journal of Art History, extends this enquiry to sacred imagery through an examination of St. Adrian of Nicomedia on the Tallinn Passion Altarpiece.

Closer with Art: Supporting Social and Emotional Wellbeing through Art Museum Education

Hanna-Liis Kont — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Wellbeing has, in recent years, become an increasingly emphasised priority for art museums in Estonia. In this article, I introduce art museum practices that are aimed at supporting social and emotional wellbeing, with a particular focus on lessons for general education school groups conducted between 2021 and 2025. Drawing on relevant examples, I argue that when art institutions prioritise wellbeing, they also strengthen people’s connections to art.

The article brings forth key developments and approaches in art institutions. The primary research questions are: what developments characterise art museum education related to fostering social and emotional wellbeing in Estonia, and how has art mediation been used in practice to support it? The discussion includes the benefits, challenges and future potential of such work.

The central case study is the Close-up and Closer with Art lesson for 1st to 4th grade students, run at the Tartu Art Museum and the Rüki Gallery in Viljandi. Related examples from the Kumu Art Museum and other venues are also introduced. These cases reveal characteristic developments, including a stronger emphasis on social values, improved access to art, cross-disciplinary partnerships, co-creation of learning materials with teachers, and investment in sustainable formats. While focusing on wellbeing has increased first-time visits by children to art venues, it also underscores the responsibility to ensure that the children have positive experiences in order to encourage repeat visits.

Educators have linked art mediation with the promotion of social and emotional wellbeing through a range of approaches, including the integration of self-led elements, the encouragement of self-expression and the use of new tools for interpreting artworks through emotion. Notably, giving teachers an active role in lessons is emerging as a valuable approach, enabling them to gain deeper insight into their students and to diversify their own teaching practices. These examples support social and emotional wellbeing and learning by fostering self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship skills.

In the future, there is potential to share such educational practices more strategically within and across art institutions, as well as to establish more efficient means for collecting and utilising student feedback. Cross-disciplinary partnerships can continue to support new outreach initiatives, while long-term collaboration can further integrate museum education into general education.

A Pastor, a Fire and a New Beginning: Dating Evidence from 5 Tähtvere Street, Tartu

Marcus A. Roxburgh, Lea Teedema, Alar Läänelaid, Kristina Sohar — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The earliest records of a house and surrounding land where 5
Tähtvere Street now stands date back to the last quarter of the 18th
century, when a large plot of land between Herne, Kroonuaia, Marja
and Tähtvere Streets came into the possession of pastor of Jaani
Church Theodore Oldekop. In the last century 5 Tähtvere Street
has seen many changes. The street is now at a different height than
it used to be (Fig. 1A) due to resurfacing over many decades, and it
was damaged by a Soviet bomb in 1944 (Fig. 1B). Today number 5
is recognised as culturally important and has heritage protection.
In the summer of 2025, the latest renovation of Tähtvere Street took
place. The lower part of the front log wall had been under the rising
street for a long time and was no longer safe, so repairs needed to
take place (Fig. 2A). During these repairs we collected samples of
wood from the decayed logs in the hope of dating them (Fig. 2B). This
was so that we could address the lack of knowledge of the building’s construction date. The aim was to study the early history of the
building (from archive and written sources) with the addition of new
dendrochronological research and to compare the results. Theodor
Oldekop became a pastor at Jaani Church in 1752 and lived with his
family in a house on the corner of Kompanii and Suurturg Streets.
A major fire broke out in the city on the 25th June, 1775, destroying
most of the wooden houses within the city walls, the pastor’s house
among them. His losses were estimated at 4,000 rubles for his house,
his library and other household belongings. In March 1776, Oldekop
requested a reconstruction loan and in April the board decided to
allocate 400 rubles to him. But in April 1777, the board received
a new application. He claimed that he had almost completed the
construction work on the wooden house on his garden plot outside
Jakobi Gate but needed another 100 rubles. Theodor Oldekop died
in 1806, and his widow in 1833. Their heirs sold the property along
with other buildings to pastor Theodor Heinrich Gehewe. A visual
overview of Supilinn in the late 1830s is provided by the plan drawn
up in 1837. Houses and other buildings are drawn within the garden
plots. The house belonging to pastor Gehewe (Gehöwe on the plan)
is depicted as larger than the others (Fig. 3B). The Dendrochronology
Laboratory at the University of Tartu’s Geography Department was
contacted to help resolve the dating question. Dendrochronology is a
very accurate technique that is used to date ancient wood and so the
samples collected from the wall were submitted to the Laboratory for
analysis. A visual inspection of the log samples revealed that they
were all pine and hewn on the sides. A V-shaped groove was cut
into the lower side so that they could be set securely together. This
groove was filled with sphagnum moss. There were lath nails on the
inner surfaces, some of which were hand forged. Finally, there were
black burn marks on the outer surfaces of the logs suggesting they
had been exposed to accidental fire damage. Sample preparation
and subsequent dating analysis took place at the Laboratory. Core
samples were drilled from the under-bark wood surfaces (Fig. 4)
and the annual ring widths were measured (Fig. 5A). The ring width
series were compared with ca. 270 pine reference chronologies from
Estonia and other parts of Europe. The results showed that log 1
dated to 1773 and best matched the pine chronology of the house
at 37 Jakobi Street, Tartu. Log 2 dated to 1774 and best matched the
Estonian pine chronology 3epestcr. The date of log 3 was interpreted as terminus post quem because its surface was missing some of the
outermost rings. An estimate puts it as also being felled sometime
around 1773–1774. Construction timber was usually felled in winter
and used fresh in the following warm season; therefore, assuming
the use of fresh wood, the building would have been erected in 1775.
However, pastor Oldekop only applied for the loan to build this
house in March 1776. Construction probably began in May 1776 at the
earliest. In addition, the ring width series of the logs are dissimilar
(Fig. 6D) with each cross-dating to a different reference chronology.
This suggests that the logs originated from different forests. Logs
from different felling dates and sources could have been mixed when
sold as merchants coped with demand after the great fire. Finally,
the mixture of handmade and machine-made nails found in the
samples suggests a refurbishment took place during which older
nails from previous construction were reused in the replacement of
worn out laths. A nail smith rented property from pastor Oldekop
at the time of the great fire and it is possible that the handmade
nails came from this smithy, perhaps in the initial construction of
the house, although the use of these nails could also have occurred
after pastor Gehewe took up residence. Pastor Oldekop’s original
home on Kompanii Street was destroyed in the fire along with many
other buildings. His response was to relocate his home to his garden
plot outside the city, i.e. today’s 5 Tähtvere Street. A fire and a new
beginning for pastor Oldekop could be seen as important milestones
in the development of Supilinn.

Estonian Artists in the Geislingen DP Camp, 1945–1950: Endel Kõks and Agathe Veeber

Kadri Asmer, Ingrid Sahk — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This article examines the correspondence of the Estonian artists Endel Kõks (1912–1983) and Agathe Veeber (1901–1988) as a source for the study of artistic life in the Estonian displaced persons (DP) camp at Geislingen, Germany, between 1945 and 1950. While research on Estonian exile culture has traditionally focused on literature and intellectual history, the everyday practices of refugee artists have received considerably less attention. Drawing on previously unpublished correspondence preserved in Estonian archives, the article reconstructs the material conditions, professional networks, and creative aspirations that shaped the work of two artists living in post-war exile.

The correspondence reveals that artistic practice in the DP camps was conditioned by severe material shortages, uncertain prospects for resettlement, and the need to reconcile creative work with the practical demands of everyday survival. At the same time, it demonstrates that exile was not merely a period of waiting or loss, but also one of artistic development. Both Kõks and Veeber continued to work actively, engaged with contemporary Western European art, and sought to maintain their professional identity despite displacement.