Page - 77 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

77Travel—Wenzel Jamnitzer If such an assistant did indeed exist, it is likely that he also would have been entrusted with the diplomatic supervision of the Mantuan crew in the man- ner here suggested. Frommel does not give names, but for such a hypothetical function two candidates spring to mind: the exact contemporaries Giovanni Battista Bertani and Jacopo Strada, who both in all probability received their artistic education in Giulio’s studio.21 As an outstanding architect of great originality and profound theoretical erudition, moreover as Giulio’s successor as Prefetto delle Fabbriche in Mantua, Bertani seems to hold the better cards. But in view of Strada’s own interest and proficiency in architecture—as dem- onstrated by his designs for the Munich Antiquarium and for his own house in Vienna (modelled on Giulio’s Palazzo Stati-Maccarani in Rome) and by his edition of Serlio’s Settimo Libro—he certainly remains a serious candidate for such a function. In my opinion, his documented presence in Germany shortly after the completion of the Stadtresidenz tips the balance in his favour. It remains the question whether such a responsibility would have been en- trusted to such quite young assistants: both Strada and Bertani were hardly twenty-two years old when construction started in 1537. Even if Strada had been charged with this responsibility, it is unlikely that he was directly involved in the design itself, because in that case he would probably have referred to it in the preface of his 1575 edition of Serlio’s Settimo Libro.22 If he did have some role in supervising the execution of the building, he probably also was involved in the execution of the decoration. Work on this continued until 1542, shortly before his presence in Germany is securely documented. In any case, he can- not have been unaware of the project: on a second brief visit to Mantua in October 1536, Ludwig x had conferred with Niccolò da Milano, and had studied the gesso models kept in Niccolò’s studio. This suggests that Niccolò was asked to organize a team of stucco-workers to execute the decoration, and in fact many of the colleagues that had collabo- rated with him in the Palazzo del Te can be identified in the accounts. Among these we find Giovanni Battista Scultori, better known as an engraver, who sich die Wirkung des Baus trotz makelloser Ausführung von jener der gesicherten Werke Giulio’s unterscheidet’. 21 Bertani was already employed in Giulio’s equipe working in the Palazzina della Paleologa in the Palazzo Ducale in 1531, though afterwards he appears to have worked for a long time independenltly in Rome and perhaps elsewhere; cf. Carpeggiani 1992, pp. 14–17. 22 If Strada did indeed became a close friend of Perino del Vaga, this most likely happened in Rome, where the latter only returned towards the end of 1537; in which case Strada could hardly have been in Landshut before the end of the following year (cf. above, Ch. 2.2).