Exhibition “Delft Blue. Ceramic Treasures from a Private Collection”

This exhibition at the Mikkel Museum tells the story of the famous Delft ceramics, which became a special art phenomenon in the 17th and 18th centuries, not only in the Netherlands but throughout Europe. All the works come from a unique private collection in Estonia, created with great dedication and expertise.
Ceramic dishes, which began to be produced in the Netherlands following the example of Italian masters as early as the beginning of the 16th century, became a widely popular fashion item a hundred years later. The success of Delft masters was ensured by imitating the forms and painting motifs of the coveted but very expensive Chinese and Japanese porcelain. The most common characteristic of Delftware became the blue-and-white dishes painted with cobalt.
The decorative complexity of Delft paintings and the diversity of the vessels’ external shapes make this art phenomenon one of the most prominent expressions of the Baroque style in ceramic art. The exhibition at the Mikkel Museum in Kadriorg, based on a private collection, provides a good overview of the couple of dozen factories and masters that operated in Delft over more than two centuries.
Curators: Heikki Pauts, Aleksandra Murre