Page - 71 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

71Travel—Wenzel Jamnitzer contradicted by the fact that Strada—though he did receive a stipend or some other form of monetary recompense—did not settle in Augsburg, as a Fug- ger creature or familiarius, but maintained an independent establishment in Nuremberg.9 2.3 The Landshut Hypothesis Lack of precise information prevents us from deciding which of these hy- potheses is the right one, and to some extent they all may have contributed to Strada’s decision. In addition to these, it is possible to suggest a more concrete occasion that may have furnished the immediate cause for Strada’s transfer across the Alps. Though it must likewise remain hypothetical, I think this sup- position sufficiently probable and important to discuss it in detail. This oc- casion is the construction and decoration of the so-called ‘Italienische Bau’ of the ‘Stadtresidenz’ in Landshut, one of the principal seats of the Dukes of Bavaria.10 The direct stimulus for the construction of this purely Renaissance dwell- ing, which had no precedent in Germany, had been the trip to Italy made by Duke Ludwig x of Bavaria-Landshut in the spring of 1536. Shortly before his trip, the Duke had decided to have a new residence built in the centre of the little market town on the banks of the Isar: construction of its entrance wing, later known as the ‘Deutsche Bau’, had already begun, under the supervision of the local architects Niclas Überreiter and Bernhard Zwitzel or Zwietzel. During his trip, Duke Ludwig first visited Trent, where he was received in the Mag- no Palazzo, the residence that had been recently refurbished by the Prince- Bishop, Bernhard Cles.11 By the middle of April Ludwig had arrived in Mantua, and if the advanced taste of Cles’ apartments had already impressed this very cultured and erudite Prince, he was virtually blown over by the splendour of Federico Gonzaga’s plaything, the Palazzo del Te. This is borne out by the en- thusiastic letters he wrote to his brother, Duke Wilhelm iv of Bavaria: 9 On Hans Jakob Fugger and Strada’s relationship with him, see below, Ch. 3. 10 On the Landshut Stadtresidenz, see now Lauterbach/ Endemann / Frommel 1998, and Langer / Heinemann 2009; earlier literature used here: Mitterwieser 1922; Wischermann 1979; Thoma/ Brunner/ Herzog 1980; Hitchcock 1981, pp. 94–99; rasp 1984; Sarzi 1988; For- ster 1989; on its decoration Verheyen 1966(b); Bulst 1975; Dacos 1985; Kronthaler 1987. 11 Cles (or Clesio) was in Rome at the time of Ludwig’s visit. On Cles and the decoration of his apartments in the Castello di Buonconsiglio, see a.o. Bernardo Cles 1985; Frangenberg 1993, and below, Ch. 5.2.1.