Proceedings of the Art Museum of Estonia 2 (7)

The current special issue of the “Proceedings of the Art Museum of Estonia” grew out of the international research and exhibition project “Tracing Bosch & Bruegel. Four Paintings Magnified” (2010–2013), initiated by the Kadriorg Art Museum. The serious work done in preparing and carrying out the project attracted attention in academic circles as well as amongst wider audiences, both in Estonia and abroad. It brought several prestigious awards to the Art Museum of Estonia.

The most significant fact in the “Bosch & Bruegel” project, however, is that it introduced the term “technical art history” into Estonian art history. It also intensified discussion about questions, such as: How important is technical research in evaluating artworks? For which artworks should technical investigations be used? How can technological possibilities make art more understandable to society?

Estonian art historians and conservators, together with their colleagues in the East and in the West, have been investigating and introducing the material side of artworks for decades, although it has never been as topical as it is now. Today, after all, the technical means of investigation and databases with research results continue to improve all the time, and interdisciplinarity has become the key word in understanding each phenomenon and object.