The year 2025 marks the 500th anniversary of Michel Sittow’s death in his hometown of Reval (now Tallinn). Sittow’s life, career, and œuvre exemplify how, in the Late Medieval and Early Modern world, professional mobility was no less significant than it is today. The seminar aims to explore the international visual and political contexts surrounding Sittow in order to better understand his experiences within the artistic production and visual culture of late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Europe.

Presentation

The year 2025 marks the 500th anniversary of Michel Sittow’s death in his hometown of Reval (now Tallinn). Sittow’s life, career, and œuvre exemplify how, in the Late Medieval and Early Modern world, professional mobility was no less significant than it is today. The seminar aims to explore the international visual and political contexts surrounding Sittow in order to better understand his experiences within the artistic production and visual culture of late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Europe.

The seminar brings together early-career and established scholars from various fields, including history, art history, visual culture studies, and artwork restoration and conservation. It offers an academic forum for discussing the background of Michel Sittow’s life and works and their international reception.

Registration

Registration form for the attendees (open until 28.11.2025): https://forms.gle/ZHFFD3W35ms5oeYJ6

Program

4 December 2025 Thursday 

• Estonian Academy of Arts. Põhja pst 7, 10412 Tallinn, Estonia
  
  13.30 Welcome of the participants
• 13.45 – Keynote: Cultural Dynamics across Europe at the Time of Michel Sittow (c. 1469-1525): Implications for Art History Research - Julia Trinkert (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf)

14.30 Coffee break

15.00 Baltic and Scandinavian Territories and their cultural interactions

• Migrations and Interactions of Artists, Visual Culture, and Natural Materials between the Baltic Region and the Holy Roman Empire - Ruth Sargent Noyes (Estonian Academy of Arts - EKA)
• New Style in a Local Setting: South German Art in Late Medieval and Early Modern Prussia - Andrzej Woziński (University of Gdańsk)
• Haaken Gulleson meets Michel Sittow. Local and Continental Sculpture in the Northern Periphery - Lars Nylander (Hälsinglands Museum)
• From Gdańsk to the Iberian Peninsula for figs, raisins and oranges - Beata Możejko (University of Gdańsk)

Debate

5 December 2025 Friday 

Estonian Academy of Arts, Põhja pst 7, 10412 Tallinn, Estonia

• 9.30 – Keynote: Making, Matter and Meaning: Technical Art History and Interdisciplinarity - Erma Hermens (University of Cambridge)

10.15 Coffee break

10.45  The Iberian Peninsula political and artistic landscape before, during and after Michel Sittow’s stay (1492-1502)

• This historiographical evaluation of the Polyptych of Isabella of Castile  - Jessica Weiss (Denver Metropolitan State University)
• Stanisłaus Polonus and Itinerant Printers around 1500: An Art Historical Look at the Geography of Early Printing - Karolina Mroziewicz (University of Warsaw)
• From the Southern Netherlands to Portugal: When, Where, By Whom, and For Whom Was The So-Called Hours of Dom Manuel Made? - Gregory T. Clark (University of the South, Sewanee)
• Some Observations on Workshop Practices of the Benson Group in Export Production - Sacha Zdanov (Fondation Périer D’Ieteren – Université Libre de Bruxelles)

Debate

12.30 Lunch Break

14.00 Visit to the Tallinn City Archive (Tiina Kala / Juhan Kreem)

16.00 All roads lead to… Mechelen. The visual culture and artistic migration in the Low Countries at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries

• Continuity and Change in the Inventories of Margaret of Austria - Geoffrey Nuttall (Independent scholar)
• 'Dissuading the Emperor'. The Spanish impact on the journey of Jan Gossart to Rome and his further oeuvre - Max Wiringa (Catholic University of Leuven – KU Leuven)
• Fairford Church: Subtle Clues Discovered during the Conservation and Restoration of the Complete Glazing Scheme Suggest Both a Date and a Designer - Keith Barley (Barley Studio, York)
• The Altarpiece from Ringsaker: The Low Countries’ Rivalry with the Holy Roman Empire for the Scandinavian Altarpiece Market - Jakub Jakubik (University of Silesia in Katowice)

Debate

17.30 Concluding remarks

20.00 Conference dinner

6 December 2025 Saturday

11.00. Visit to the Niguliste Museum (Merike Kurisoo and Greta Koppel)

More information on the event: oskar.rojewski@us.edu.pz

Organisers

Anneli Randla, Anu Mänd, Oskar J. Rojewski

Scientific committee

Till-Holger Borchert, Ana Diéguez-Rodríguez, Bart Fransen, Catheline Périer-D'Ieteren, Andrew Sears, Matthias Weniger