Lehti Keelmann, an Art History Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, received a 2014 AABS Dissertation Grant. She is investigating art patronage of the Tallinn Brotherhood of the Black Heads during the 15th and 16th centuries. Single, and ambitious, these young, wealthy men sought to make their mark. The Brotherhood consisted mostly of sons of town councilors who maintained an active role in the town’s cultural landscape, whether through equestrian processionals or setting up a “Christmas tree” in Tallinn’s town square. The Brotherhood was deeply ingrained in the social fabric of the town, charged with defending the town as its militia, sponsoring local monasteries and churches as a confraternity, brokering trade as a merchant organization, and ultimately, participating in the business of acquiring luxury articles such as altarpieces. Lehti’s research trip to Tallinn allowed her to finish the principal archival research for her dissertation and to complete essential visual analysis on the two altarpieces co-commissioned by the Brotherhood of the Black Heads.
The art commissioned by the Brotherhood, whether large-scale altarpieces or regalia, reflects the multi-faceted responsibilities of the organization and its desire for self-expression. What values are communicated in the materiality and visual programs of these art objects? To what degree do the altarpieces that the Brotherhood commissioned portray the organization as one with strong links to Tallinn or, more broadly, as a merchant body in the far reaches of the Hanseatic League? These are some of the questions that drive my study and, this summer, led me to Tallinn, Estonia, where with the support of the AABS Dissertation Grant, I conducted firsthand research at the Tallinn City Archive and engaged in close visual analysis of art objects related to my dissertation at the Niguliste Museum and Tallinn City Museum.
The AABS Dissertation Grant has given me the means through which to conclude my research and continue to write my dissertation in a timely manner. Thank you – aitäh, paldies, ačiū!
