4.Tapestry with the story of the Judgement of Solomon
In 1547, the town council commissioned tapestries from famous Flemish tapestry masters to decorate the Town Hall. A small coat of arms was woven into the tapestries to mark the Tallinn town council.
Expensive tapestries were a symbol of wealth and status. They were displayed on the walls only on ceremonial occasions. In the Town Hall they were used to decorate the Council Chamber, where the town council would receive venerable guests.
Currently, the Town Hall is decorated by copies made in Oxford. The original tapestries are some of the few examples of renaissance art in Estonia and are conserved in the Tallinn City Museum.
The tapestries depict Old Testament stories of King Solomon. To the right of the coat of arms, The Judgement of Solomon is depicted. The town council indicated with this story that they are as wise and as just as King Solomon.
4.1The Judgement of Solomon
The story is about two women who had both given birth to a child. One of the women smothered her child while sleeping and then switched the infants. When the other woman realised this in the morning, the two started arguing over the surviving child.
To ascertain the truth, king Solomon ordered a sword to be brought and the surviving child to be cut in half, so that each woman could get one half. One woman agreed, the other however begged that the child be given unharmed to the other woman. And with that Solomon was certain that the latter was the real mother of the child. He ordered that the child be left unharmed and given to the real mother.
The expression ‘Solomonic decision’, meaning a wise and fair decision made in a complicated situation, comes from this story.