Page - 62 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter �6� own, earlier reconstruction in his fresco of The Vision of the Cross in the Vatican Stanze is striking [cf. below, Ch. 15.3].40 This familiarity with Giulio’s architectural work suggests that Strada would have been as welcome to study Giulio’s architectural drawings as he was to handle his coins and medals. These drawings were kept in a large cupboard in Giulio’s home, as is related by Vasari. For four days, during Vasari’s visit to Mantua, Giulio entertained his Tuscan colleague, showing him: <…>all his works, and in particular all the plans of the ancient buildings of Rome, of Naples, of Pozzuoli, of the Campagna, and of all the best antique remains which are known, in part drawn by himself, in part by others. Afterwards he opened an immense cupboard and showed him the plans of all the buildings that had been constructed according to his own designs and order, not only in Mantua and in Rome, but all over Lombardy; that I for me do not believe one can see either newer or more beautiful fantasies for buildings, nor better arranged ones.41 This means that Strada even as a boy was confronted with both the lat- est developments in architectural design and the best known monuments of  classical Antiquity; and it implies that he was also made familiar with the archaeological techniques that had been developed by Raphael and his circle in order to study the remains of such monuments and to restore them—at least in effigy—to their pristine splendour. Giulio had been closely involved in these projects—the fruits of which are evident in his Mantuan work—and he may well have continued his studies even after Raphael’s death. There is, for instance, some evidence that he planned to produce a set of drawings of the entire spiral frieze of the shaft of the Column of Trajan, just as Strada claimed to have done after him.42 Giulio’s studio and collection therefore provided 40 Pirro Ligorio reconstructed the bridge in quite different way in his master plan of Ancient Rome. For a more detailed discussion, see Jansen 1993, pp. 218–219. 41 Vasari/ Milanesi, 1906, vol. 5, pp. 552–553: ‘<…>tutte l’opere sue e particolarmente tutte le piante degli edifizii antichi di Roma, di Napoli, di Pozzuolo, di Campagna, e di tutte l’altre migliori antichità di che si ha memoria, disegnate parte da lui e parte da altri. Dipoi, aperto un grandissimo armario, gli mostrò le piante di tutti gli edifizi che erano stati fatti con suoi disegni et ordine, non solo in Mantova et in Roma, ma per tutta la Lombardia, e tanto belli, che io per me non credo che si possano vedere né le più nuove né le più belle fantasie di fabbriche né meglio accomodate’. 42 On Raphael’s project, see Mandowsky/Mitchell 1963, pp. 15–19; Fontana/Morachiello 1975; Barocchi 1977, 3, pp. 2971–2985; Nesselrath 1984; Pagliara 1986, pp. 38–45; Günther 1988, pp. 60–63, 318–327 and passim; on Giulio’s participation, see Vasari/ Milanesi, 1906, vol. 5,