Page - 8 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Introduction8 His source is the correspondence of Niccolò Stopio, a neo-Latin poet resi- dent in Venice at the time, and—like Strada—engaged in the trade of art and antiques. Excerpts of Stopio’s correspondence, which is preserved in the Ba- varian State Archives in Munich, had been published already in 1874 by Jacob Stockbauer in a study of the artistic patronage of Duke Albrecht v of Bavaria, patron of both Strada and Stopio. Four years later it entered the Titian bibli- ography through the use made of Stopio’s correspondence in Crowe and Cav- alcaselle’s huge monograph on the painter, first printed in Florence 1877–78.5 Stopio’s original correspondence was sent on loan to Vienna to be used by Heinrich Zimmermann, who was preparing a biography of Strada which has never appeared. He did, however, write a carefully considered article on the exact dating of the portrait, in which Stopio’s letters are likewise quoted exten- sively.6 But these letters led neither Crowe and Cavalcaselle nor Zimmermann to negative conclusions similar to those of Pope-Hennessy’s. These were close- ly echoed, on the other hand, by a more recent discussion of the portrait by Augusto Gentili, under the heading ‘Comprereste un’auto usato da quest’uomo?’ This led a reviewer to characterize Strada more or less as the sixteenth-century equivalent of a mafia boss: ‘In Titian’s portraits it is not always the fine coat that makes the fine gentleman, and Jacopo Strada’s very ‘chic’ air does not mask his greedy eyes, which certainly do not make one eager ‘to buy a used car from the man’; conveniently forgetting that mafiosi of our own time rarely have their likeness taken by the greatest living portrait-painter.7 This interpretation of Strada’s character, based on an uncritical acceptance of Stopio’s letters, does not do justice to Strada, and moreover throws no light on Titian’s decision to paint his portrait, and to paint it in this way. In my ex- amination of Strada’s career I will have occasion for a close reading of Stopio’s reports, placing them within the context in which they were written. This will, I hope, provide a more balanced view of Jacopo Strada’s true character and of his relationship with Titian. 5 Stockbauer 1874, pp. 29–52 (Strada), 53–69 (Stopio) and passim; Crowe /Cavalcaselle 1877– 1878, ii, pp. 353–359. 6 Zimmermann 1901. 7 bicci 2006, review of gentili 2005: “Agile e gustoso il saggio che Gentili dedica alla ritrat- tistica tizianesca, capace di far emergere oltre l’apparenza sottili caratterizzazioni psico- logiche. Nei ritratti di Tiziano l’abito non sempre fa il monaco e l’aria molto chic di Jacopo Strada non maschera il suo sguardo avido, che certo non invoglia a ‘comprare un’auto usata da quest’uomo’”. Gentili had actually written (pp. 55–56): “<…> consegnando all’immagine il gesto pressante, il mezzo inchino ossequioso, lo sguardo rapace; e risolvendo nella vanitas <…> le frenetiche attività del mercante e le effimere presunzioni del cortigiano. La statua di Venere diventa un semplice oggetto di commercio; l’antiquario, uno scaltro venditore; lo spettatore, un possibile acquirente”.