The Research Methods of Medieval Architecture in the Estonian SSR

The Object and Its Interpretation 17 The Object and Its Interpretation: The Research Methods of Medieval Architecture in the Estonian SSR Kersti MARKUS The article views art historical writing both in the context of its time and in its later reception. While in the 1950s and 1960s the scholars at the University of Tartu continued using methods that had been practiced before the war (motif analysis, and building archaeology and archival research), the 1970s can be considered a time of innovations. Social history and studies of function arose along with the analysis of style. Scholars educated in Leningrad or scholars that entered the field through interdisciplinary research were at the forefront of the innovations. In the 1980s stylistic analysis combined with building archeology became the most prominent method of research, remaining dominant in the following decades. The author claims that the personalities of charismatic researchers were behind the choice of method, their role being particularly significant within a closed society. Art historians constantly produce a variety of texts. We pose questions and try to solve them. We think that we are dealing with a specific problem although, when solving it, we make choices based on our previous knowledge and, naturally, the age we live in. How do we write the texts and why do we do it in one particular way and not in another?1 How much are our texts dependent on the previous traditions of writing on art, even if we think that we are not consciously influenced? To answer such questions we have to study earlier texts on art, both in the context of their time and in their later reception. In this article, I will consider the work of the leading researchers of medieval architecture of the Soviet period in terms of their approach to objects, the questions they posed while interpreting them and how relevant their method was in their 1 The history of Estonian art history has been the subject of two conferences. The results were published in: Eesti kunstiteadus ja -kriitika 20. sajandil. Toim. T. Abel, P. Lindpere. (Eesti Kunstiakadeemia toimetised 9.) Tallinn, 2002; Kuhu lähed, Eesti kunstiteadus? Pühendatud Armin Tuulse 100. sünniaastapäevale. Kunstiteaduslikke Uurimusi 2008, kd. 17 (3). KERSTI MARKUS 18 time, compared to the research done in the West. Since it was a society officially dominated by the Marxist-Leninist world-view, one might assume that these ideas also influenced research on architecture; yet, in reality it was not so. The isolated society posed a much bigger problem. Only researchers with a ‘clean past’2 were allowed to travel abroad; moreover, these trips were scarce and usually limited to the socialist countries. Professional literature reached Estonia through the interna- tional exchange of the F. R. Kreutzwald State Library (now the National Library of Estonia) and the Scientific Library of the Tartu State University, or through person- al contacts. The chief contacts with the outside world were through private correspondence.3 However, not all mail reached the addressee. It is, therefore, even more admirable how much determination and passion was exhibited by the researchers in developing their field and looking for opportunities to find out what was going on beyond the Iron Curtain. I have only chosen articles and monographs from academic publications as source material for the present article. Such a statement might seem strange to a modern reader, but in Soviet times the outcome of research was often published in newspaper articles, as these were the quickest way to reach the audience. The attitude of the people towards the Estonian cultural and historical heritage was then loaded with much more emotion than in the current Republic of Estonia, which explains the large circulation numbers of cultural papers in the Soviet era. National heritage was a link for the people with lost liberty. The bulk of the writing from the Soviet period concerning medieval architecture has been stored in archives (the National Heritage Board Archives, and the Tallinn Culture and Heritage Department Archives). Since the volume of fieldwork was extensive, the majority of the writing existed then in the form of reports. Therefore, the focus of my inter- est is the work in which researchers had opportunities to place objects of research into a broader context indicative of the writer’s way of thinking, and the examples that followed. I will limit myself to research on ecclesiastical architecture, touching only briefly on secular architecture. 2 Working-class origin, service in the Soviet Army and joining the Communist Party were advisable. Many scholars who were allowed to go abroad had agreed to cooperate with the KGB. 3 On correspondence see for instance: M. Nõmmela, A. Tuulse ja V. Vaga kirjavahetus. – Artiklite kogumik. (Eesti Ajalooarhiivi toimetised 9.) Tallinn, 2002, pp. 187–221; Villem Raam. Bibliograafia. Koost. K. Alttoa, E. Palginõmm. Tallinn: Eesti Muinsuskaitse Selts, 1991, pp. 28–29. The Object and Its Interpretation 19 Continuity Estonian academic art history was founded in the 1920s and 1930s at the University of Tartu by two Swedish researchers. The assistant professor at Lund University Tor Helge Kjellin became a professor of art history in 1922, but for economic reasons remained in Tartu for just two years.4 New elections only took place 10 years later and the assistant professor at the University of Gothenburg Sten Ingvar Karling was elected (he was a professor at the University of Tartu in 1933–1941).5 These choices were of momentous significance for the research of medieval art in Estonia. Baltic German art historians treated the medieval art in Estonia as a part of German art. However, in his report at a conference in Lübeck in 1921, Johnny Roosval, a professor at Stockholm University, linked Estonian art with a particular northern Baltic region, going back in time to the 11th–16th centuries, when different centres were dominant in different centuries (Gotland, Scania and Lübeck).6 Both Kjellin and Karling supported this approach and, therefore, viewed Estonian art within the broader context of the Baltic Sea region. Karling was the first to emphasise the role of Estonia in the synthesis of foreign impulses, pointing out the local language of architecture, master masons and materials.7 Krista Kodres has said: ‘Sten Karling was a rather typical European art historian of his time; in his opinion the historical and art historical belonged together. Yet art, in his opinion, had a history of its own: it was not so much the history of style as the history of masters, schools of thought and art regions.’8 In such an intellectual environment, the first generation of Estonian art historians was formed at the University of Tartu. Voldemar Vaga studied art history in Kjellin’s time. However, as a philologist and Francophile, he was more oriented towards Paris, where he attended lectures at the Sorbonne University in 1928/1929, including the seminar of Henri Focillon. Numerous trips abroad took him to both Finland and Sweden, as well as to most of the European countries; he also repeat- edly visited museums in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) and Moscow.9 Armin Tuulse and Villem Raam were Karling’s students and, influenced by the atmosphere of the 1930s, were considerably more involved in the debate surrounding the German and 4 No extensive overview has been published on Kjellin’s influence on Estonian art history. However, the following articles offer some information: M. Peil, Kunstiteadlased Tartu ülikoolis 1919–1949. – Tartu Ülikooli ajaloo küsimusi 7. Tartu: Tartu Riiklik Ülikool, 1979, pp. 118–126; M.-I. Eller, Tartu Ülikooli osast eesti kunstiteaduses 1920–1930-ndail aastail, I. – Kunstiteadus. Kunstikriitika 5. Tallinn: Kunst, 1983, pp. 60–75; E. Kangor, Art Historical Photograph Collection of the University of Tartu. From the Past to the Future. – Baltic Journal of Art History 2009 (Autumn), pp. 153–178; E. Kangor, Tartu Ülikooli kunstiajalooõpetuse moderniseerimisest ja kollektsioonide rollist kunstiajaloo professori valimistel aastatel 1919–1921. – Tartu Ülikooli ajaloo küsimusi 40. Tartu: Tartu Ülikool, 2012, pp. 93–119. 5 For more about the ‘Karling’ school of art history, see K. Kodres, „Aus dem Volk selbst herausgewachsen”. Sten Karling and his Book „Holzschnitzerei und Tischlerkunst der Renaissance und des Barocks in Estland”. – Art and the Church: Religious Art and Architecture in the Baltic Region in the 13th–18th Centuries. Eds. K. Kodres, M. Kurisoo. (Eesti Kunstiakadeemia toimetised 18.) Tallinn, 2008, pp. 9–19. 6 J. von Bonsdorff, Hansekonst – finns det? – Gotlandia Irredenta: Festschrift für Gunnar Svahnström. Red. R. Bohn. Sigmaringen: J. Thorbecke, 1990, pp. 47–59. 7 K. Markus, Kultuuriregiooni probleem Eesti vanema kunsti uurimisel. – Eesti Teaduste Akadeemia toimetised. Humanitaar- ja sotsiaalteadused 1993, kd. 42 (3), pp. 301–308. 8 K. Kodres, Sten Karling ja Eesti kunstiajalugu. – S. Karling, Tallinn. Kunstiajalooline ülevaade. Komm. K. Markus, K. Kodres. Tallinn: Kunst, 2006, p. 9; see also K. Kodres, Freedom from Theory? An Attempt to Analyse Sten Karling’s Views on (Estonian) Art History. – Journal of Art Historiography 2010, vol. 3, pp. 1–17. 9 M. Nõmmela, Voldemar Vaga (1899–1999) ja Eesti kunsti ajalugu. Tartu: EKM Teaduskirjastus, 2008, pp. 33–35. KERSTI MARKUS 20 Scandinavian influences. In 1937 Tuulse attended the University of Königsberg on a scholarship, where he took part in the lectures and seminars of Wilhelm Worringer and studied the Teutonic Order castles of Prussia under the supervision of Karl Heinz Clasen. This was preceded and followed by studies for self-improvement in Sweden. Villem Raam also took part in the 87-day Baltic course in Stockholm in 1938.10 After the occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union in June 1940, Sten Karling stayed in Estonia and taught during the autumn semester in the re-named Tartu State University.

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