Online opening of the exhibition “Crazy about Dymphna” at Niguliste Museum in Tallinn start at 17 pm on EPCC.TV
Niguliste Museum has the honour to open the exhibition “Crazy about Dymphna”, organised in cooperation with The Phoebus Foundation. The exhibition presents a special display which introduces a 500-year-old work, tells the sad life story of the Irish princess Dymphna and uncovers the results and new findings of recent conservation work.
The exhibition is opened by Sirje Helme, CEO of the Art Museum of Estonia; Tarmo Saaret, Director of the Niguliste Museum; Sven Van Dorst, Head of the conservation studio of The Phoebus Foundation and Merike Kurisoo, curator and programme manager of the Niguliste Museum.
Musical performance by Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir is conducted by Lodewijk van der Ree and will present three choral compositions by Arvo Pärt and Josquin des Prez.
The St Dymphna altarpiece was painted around 1505 by Goossen Van der Weyden, a grandson of the renowned Rogier Van der Weyden. This brilliant example of the early Dutch painting tradition, with its peculiar pictorial programme, used to be part of the permanent exhibition of the Antwerp Royal Museum of Fine Arts. The seven painted panels of the altarpiece depict the tragic life and sufferings of the virgin martyr Dymphna. The work was commissioned for the Tongerlo (nowadays in Belgium) Abbey near the town of Geel. The Irish princess Dymphna died a martyr’s death in Geel and she has been revered in the region since the Middle Ages as a healer of mental afflictions.
The display presenting the story, meaning and recently completed conservation work of the altarpiece is coming to Estonia in cooperation with The Phoebus Foundation, which is one of the most significant and abundant private art collections in Belgium. The conservators of The Phoebus Foundation spent three years conserving the panels, in cooperation with Belgian and international experts. The conservation was accompanied by thorough technical research, which provided new insights into the meaning, origins and creation process of the altarpiece.
Curators: Katharina Van Cauteren (The Phoebus Foundation)
Coordinator: Merike Kurisoo (Art Museum of Estonia), Niels Schalley (The Phoebus Foundation)
Coordinator: Merike Kurisoo (Art Museum of Estonia), Niels Schalley (The Phoebus Foundation)
Find out more about the exhibition: https://nigulistemuuseum.ekm.ee/en/syndmus/crazy-about-dymphna/