Page - 76 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 276 sought, in my opinion, in the regular, if not continuous, presence in Landshut of someone to whom Meister Sigmund and his helpmate Antonio, who were charged with the day-to-day supervision of the work, could refer any particu- lar problem arising on the site, and who in general kept an eye on the correct execution of the entire project. This must not necessarily have been a profes- sional builder: it may well have been a gentleman from Mantua who coupled a developed taste and some personal artistic ability to a more than superficial understanding of the most advanced—e.g. Roman—architecture and deco- rative design and a thorough acquaintance with Giulio’s work. He should be a gentleman both in birth and education, not a mere craftsman, in order to overcome the prejudices of Ludwig’s court-officials and to meet the Bavarian erudites who advised Ludwig in his plans on their own level. Because he was a gentleman, and present in a more or less informal way at the Landshut court, any financial gratification that he may have received for his work would not be found in the actual building accounts: it is not impossible that he should even be regarded as an informal envoy of Federico to his Wittelsbach cousin.19 Christoph Frommel, who attributes the design of the Italienische Bau un- reservedly to ‘Giulio Romano’s Mantuan architect’s office’, postulates the exis- tence of an assistant: … a great talent <…> who was more than a purely executive collaborator, whose presence, though it left no further traces, explains why the effect of the building, notwithstanding the perfection of its execution, never- theless differs from that of Giulio’s certain works.20 Kölbl’s design for its archaic, arcaded facade—began in 1560, after its model had been examined by a commission of which Strada, by that time himself architect in Imperial service, was a member—still reflect De Preda’s plans, it is clear that though he may have been a good master-mason, he would have been incapable of independently supervising, much less designing a structure of the quality of the Stadtresidenz. See Kühnel 1959, pp. 324–325; Kühnel 1971, pp. 37–38, Abb. 6. 19 John Bury has formulated a similar answer to the question of the problematical relation- ship between designer and executor of a stylistically advanced project in an out-of-the way location, in his case the Palace of Charles v in Granada, which he holds to be a design after Raphael or Giulio transmitted, or even actually made by Baldassare Castiglione—at the time resident in Spain as Papal Legate to Charles v—and merely executed by Pedro Machuca (Bury 1987). 20 Lauterbach / Endemann / Frommel 1998, p. 84: ‘Giulio Romano’s Mantuaner Baubüro’, postulates the existence of an assistant, ‘ein großes Talent <…> das mehr als nur ausfüh- rende Kraft war, das keine weitere Spuren hinterließ, aber doch erklären wurde, wieso