Italien Artists in Austria

Italian artists fulfilled an important cultural mission in Central Europe. They brought the spirit and formal complexity of the Mediterranean world closer to Austria for the first and last time since Ancient times. Beginning with the end of the fifteenth century, Italian artists came to Austria in several waves of immigration. At first they were valued for their expertise in the construction of fortifications, a skill particularly important in a country which, beginning in 1529, was directly threatened by the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. They quickly established themselves also within the architectura civilis and within all the other art genres. Especially significant for their success was the fact that the italianità pervaded all social strata of early Renaissance society. The italianità dominated the literary, music, drama and architectural scenes, as well as the visual arts, and became the universal language of the politically and confessionally divided continent.