The Object and Its Interpretation: The Research Methods of Medieval Architecture in the Estonian SSR
The Object and Its Interpretation: The Research Methods of Medieval Architecture in the Estonian SSR

Summary/Abstract: 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.

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