CONF 19.07.2017

Material and Ceremonial Church Practices (Tallinn, 14-16 Sep 17)

Niguliste Museum, Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn, 14.–16.09.2017

Ulrike Nürnberger

Indifferent Things? Material and Ceremonial Church Practices
in the 16th and 17th Centuries in the Baltic Sea Region

A conference in the series of the Homburger Gespräche (Böckler-Mare-Balticum-Stiftung) and the fifth conference in honour of Prof. Sten Karling (1906–1987)

Dates: 14–16 September 2017
Venue: Niguliste Museum, Art Museum of Estonia (St Nicholas’ Church, Niguliste St. 3, Tallinn, Estonia)

Icon worship, the Catholic Church’s love of luxury, the grandeur of ceremonies and vestments, and the sale of indulgences were among the most significant criticisms expressed by the Reformation movement. It was, however, only in 1548 that a more serious dispute over adiaphora, or Mitteldinge, started in the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation; the attitude of the evangelical church towards “indifferent things” was ultimately formulated in the Konkordiaformel in 1570. Confessional and institutional regulations often differed substantially from the actual practices of congregations. Naturally, the two were interdependent, and it seems, therefore, productive to study the material and art history of the Lutheran Church of the early modern period through the relationship and mutual effects of the norms and their executors: pastors, members of congregation, artists etc. At the same time, the secular world, though seemingly outside the ecclesiastical life and practices, cannot be overlooked, together with its connections to power and money. We will, therefore, proceed from the view that in order to comprehend the Lutheran Church of the early modern period, it must be studied as a complex phenomenon, influenced by a number of factors, including material objects. Also, we are interested in whether “regional practices” existed, and will, therefore, focus on a particular historical area, the evangelical territories of the Baltic Sea region.

The working language of the conference is English.

Conference Committee:
Prof. Krista Kodres, Estonian Academy of Arts
Dr. Anu Mänd, Tallinn University
Merike Kurisoo, Art Museum of Estonia
Prof. Gerhard Weilandt, Universität Greifswald
Dr. Janis Kreslins, National Library of Sweden

In co-operation with the:
Böckler-Mare-Balticum-Stiftung
Art Museum of Estonia – Niguliste Museum
Estonian Academy of Arts – Institute of Art History and Visual Culture
Tallinn University – Institute of History, Archaeology and Art History

PROGRAMME

THURSDAY, 14 September
17.00 Andrew Spicer (Oxford Brookes University)
Adiaphora, Reformation and the Material Culture of Worship
18.00 Exhibition opening “Five forgotten paintings” (Niguliste Museum)

FRIDAY, 15 September
9.15–9.30 Opening Krista Kodres (Estonian Academy of Arts)

9.30–11.00
Gerhard Weilandt (University of Greifswald)
Destroy them! Reuse them? – How to deal with images of the old faith in the era of the Reformation in northern Germany.
Anu Mänd (Tallinn University)
Combining the Old and the New: Changes in the Tallinn Parish Churches from c. 1525 to c. 1550

11.00–11.30 Coffee break

11.30–13.00
Elina Räsanen (University of Helsinki)
Iconoclashes in Finland: Catholic Altarpieces in Transformation
Ulrike Nürnberger (Böckler-Mare-Balticum-Stiftung)
Modifying History – Remodelled Altarpieces in the Duchy of Schleswig

13.00–14.00 Lunch

14.00–15.30
Hanna Pirinen (University of Jyväskylä)
Donations as a Political and Religious Act
Marcin Wisocki (University of Wroclaw)
Visualising a way to heaven. Remarks on emblematic programmes in Lutheran churches in Pomerania

15.30–16.00 Coffee break

16.00–17.30
Vija Strupule (Riga)
The role of interior paintings in the Lutheran church indoor concept: the cathedral of Riga in the 16th–17th centuries.
Herman Bengtsson (Upplandsmuseet, Sweden)
Conflicting cults. Uppsala Cathedral and the Swedish Reformation 1527–1593

SATURDAY, 16 September
9.30–11.00
Merike Kurisoo (Art Museum of Estonia)
Indifferent things or not? Tallinn´s Church Order from 1608 and objects in ritual practices
Ojars Sparitis (Latvian Academy of Sciences)
The practice of the Confession and the evolution of Confessionals in the interior of Courlandian Lutheran churches

11.00–11.30 Coffee break

11.30–13.00
Martin Wangsgaard Jürgensen (National Museum of Denmark)
A meditation on the sinful man. Some thoughts on Lutheran devotional art illustrated through an example from 1586
Peter Gillgren (Stockholm University)
The Tomb of Christ: Representation and Spectacle

13.00–14.00 Lunch

14.00–14.45
Piotr Birecki (University of Wroclaw)
The Lutheran Church as a Space of Representation of Social Standing in Early Modern Ducal Prussia

14.45–15.00 Coffee break

15.00–16.00 Panel discussion

Further information:
http://nigulistemuuseum.ekm.ee/en/

Contact:
merike.kurisooekm.ee
+37255670250

Quellennachweis:
CONF: Material and Ceremonial Church Practices (Tallinn, 14-16 Sep 17). In: ArtHist.net, 19.07.2017. Letzter Zugriff 29.03.2024. <https://arthist.net/archive/16058>.

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