EN
Italian artists have been working on the territory of Grand Duke of Lithuania since the beginning of the 16th century, which is associated with patronage of Sigismund the Old. Thanks to him and to the foundations of his follower Sigismund Augustus, Vilnius became an important centre of Florentine-Roman Renaissance. At first artists were coming to Lithuania through Cracow. Lublin and later Warsaw were important centres at the turn of the 17th century together with the changing artistic situation in Poland. In those days artists, who came to Lithuania, were mostly from Italian-Swiss border. In the 17th century much of their work fit into avant-garde artistic undertakings and from this point of view often Polish art did not follow suit. Italian artists’ activity is also very important for Lithuanian-Vilnius movements of late Baroque and Classicism.