Martynas Altomontė Lietuvoje ir nauja jo ankstyvosios biografijos koncepcija

ENFrom the moment when in the twenties of previous century the author’s signature was found on the monumental composition „Battle near Vienna“, in the parochial church of Žulkvė (Žolkvi) near Lvov, Martin Altomonte was considered as a church-painter of Johann III Sobieski, invited from Italy by duke. This version was most fully developed by Mariusz Karpowicz (1966) and Volodimir Ovsijcuk (1991), who found him among Žulkvė artists’ group. According to this traditional version M. Altomante had constantly been at the Duke’s since 1684. Though Vladas Drėma as far back as 1979, basing on the metrics of St. Ignatius Church in Vilnius found out that painter was living there from June 1685 to April 1687 at least. This information has documentally proved out the Lithuanian period in the artist’s biografy and compeled us to overview the main points of the traditional version of Altomonte activities during the eghties and nineties of the eighteenth century. One of the most interesting conclusions of the finding was that in Lithuania the artist turned to „Battle of Vienna“ theme for the first time. There was a sketch dated 1685 of that period, which was later on developed into the monumental composition of Žulkvė parochial church. Since there was no mentioned that both sketches were drawn to the order of Johann III in Vilnius in April 1687, we can draw a conclusion that it was a private initiative of M. Altomonte, expecting to show the sketches to the duke.It might happen so during a visit of Johann III to Vilnius. The fact was, that after some preparations, „Battle near Vienna“ was begun in Žulkvė. Of course it was a separate order of duke only - Altomonte never was duke’s court painter. His name was not found in the list of Duke’s artists untill the Johann’s III death. The cycle „Battle near Vienna“ known from the literary sources, as it came clear was created about 1698 only. Evident information about Lithuanian period in the bibliography of Altomonte claimes to overview most of the traditional convictions on artist’s life and activities before he moved to Austria in the beginning of the eigteenth century. Besides the inscriptions in the metrics, no other concrete information about his activities in Lithuania was not found. It might be supposed only that he had come there together with Michael Angelo Palloni, with whom he had ties of friendship later on in Warsaw.