Mai Lumiste as a Researcher of Kadriorg and Kadriorg as a Research Subject in Estonian Art History
Mai Lumiste as a Researcher of Kadriorg and Kadriorg as a Research Subject in Estonian Art History

Summary/Abstract: Mai Lumiste was a versatile and very capable art historian who took an interest in a variety of different subjects, including one of the central pieces of Estonian baroque architecture: the Kadriorg palace and park ensemble. This article takes a look at the attention paid to Kadriorg in Estonian art history and Lumiste’s important role as a researcher of Kadriorg, as well as the specifics of writing about architectural history during Soviet times. To generalise further, it can be said that the way in which Mai Lumiste wrote about Kadriorg and the way Estonian art historians in general wrote about older architecture between the 1960s and the 1980s serves as a telling example of the intellectuals’ survival and self-expression strategy in a totalitarian state.

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