Dating the newly discovered ceiling painting in the house of estland's nobility in tallinn. from archival research to dendrochronology

In the course of renovating the Estonian Knighthood (Ritterschaft) House in the autumn of 2022, a magnificent find came to light in the ceiling of a first floor room - a figural plafond painting on a canvas attached to the ceiling. This find is sensational since it adds to the number of rare and fragile canvas plafonds, only a few of which survive in Estonia. This article demonstrates how archival research and dendrochronology can work together hand in hand. According to historical documents, this part of the Knighthood House was built around the year 1690, because it was described as nearly finished in the spring of 1691. By applying dendrochronological dating, it was possible to ascertain that the trees that form the main wooden structures were felled after the growing season of 1689 and were used in construction, probably in 1690. The uxkull family of Vigala manor sold their newly completed town palace to the Knighthood of Estonia in 1694 for unknown reasons. The plafond painting probably originates from the period between those two dates, 1690 and 1694. Thus, the Knighthood House's plafond ceiling is the only firmly dated painting of this kind in Estonian architecture. It originates from an earlier period than most other plafond paintings in Tallinn, which are assessed using stylistic comparison as dating from the period after the Great Northern War, specifically from 1721 to 1760. The nearly 60 m2 plafond is certainly the largest in Estonia. The use of distemper and oil paint techniques together makes this painting remarkable. It is also the only known plafond with more than one painting layer from different periods. At the time of writing, the painting has not yet been exposed to view. Its thematic subject matter and the details of its technical realisation will be revealed only after its restoration. The question of the authorship of the plafond painting also remains unanswered at this stage. The overpainting with Rococo ornamentation covering the original painting can be cautiously associated with the name of the guild painter, Gotthard Holm, who was paid for work done in the Knighthood House in the 1760s.