Page - 96 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 296 Archduke in person. This conception of his function as ‘sopradicapo’ closely corresponds to the task he had undertaken when he accepted the commission of the Marquis of Marignano, as sketched above, though now he would not be responsible to acquire the materials and would leave the actual execution of the piece to Jamnitzer and his helpmates.61 The young Archduke accepted Strada’s offer by return of post, requesting him to come to Prague and to take with him all materials that might be useful, and Strada immediately set out. But though the vicissitudes of the project— which for lack of silver never seems to have been realized in its entirety—can be followed in the Archduke’s correspondence with Jamnitzer for several years, we find no further reference to Strada. We know that by March 1559 several ‘Visierungen’, designs, had been proposed, none of which had been found en- tirely satisfactory, but we do not know whether Strada had a hand in their conception—or in their rejection. Possibly Strada was not able to continue the general supervision of the project as a whole after he received his appointment as a court architect to the Archduke’s father, the Emperor Ferdinand i, in the spring of 1558.62 Yet it is rather more likely that, being present at the Impe- rial court, he remained involved in the continuation of the project—parts of which appear to have been executed at court—and was at least occasionally consulted by the Archduke.63 2.5.4 The ‘schöner Brunnen’ Commissioned by Maximilian ii Strada’s planned collaboration with Jamnitzer on this project has been one of the arguments advanced to support the assumption of Strada’s participa- tion in a project commissioned a decade later from Jamnitzer by the Arch- duke’s elder brother, King Maximilian, who had by that time acceded to the Imperial throne. This extremely ambitious object, nowadays referred to as the ‘schöner Brunnen’ or ‘Prager Brunnen’, was commissioned in 1568, but was only 61 It seems surprising that Jamnitzer, of whom several splendid designs (Visierungen) for works executed by him (including the Merkelsche Tafelaufsatz) have been preserved, should wish to work after drawings provided by others. On the other hand it may well be that for this important commission he liked to have some erudite assistance. Strada’s artistic experience and worldly wisdom made him suitable for that task, and Jamnitzer must have known him sufficiently well to know what to expect of him. I think it most probable that the two planned to discuss the technical and artistic aspects of any sketches and designs in detail, before submitting them to the Archduke. 62 See Jamnitzer’s letter to Archduke Ferdinand, Nürnberg 27 March 1557, quoted in Schön- herr 1888, p. 296; for Strada’s appointment at the Imperial court, see below, Ch. 4. 63 Schönherr 1888.