Page - 162 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 3162 During Strada’s stay in Rome, which coincided with the last two years of Ju- lius iii’s pontificate, interconfessional strife was still held in check by the faint hope that the Council of Trent might lead to some form of consensus between the Church of Rome and the Protestants. Julius iii himself, often characterized as the last Pope of the Italian Renaissance, was no religious fanatic, and was more interested in a good administration of the Papal State than in burning heretics. A typical representative of the curial ‘bourgeoisie’, he was a friend of humanist erudition and a sensitive patron of the arts, as is demonstrated in Alessandro Nova’s monograph on Julius’ commissions.94 The Villa Giulia as planned by Vasari and Vignola would have been perhaps the most convinc- ing example of the integration of a splendid collection of antique sculpture in a setting of contemporary classicizing architecture; an integration so perfect that it is difficult to decide whether the Villa was conceived to house the antiq- uities, or whether the antiquities were collected to decorate the Villa. The Villa Giulia must already have been one of the principal attractions in the emerging tourist-industry, of which the existence is documented by the publications of various types of guide books, such as Lucio Mauro’s Le antich- ità della Città di Roma, printed together with Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Delle antiche statue che per tutta Roma, in diversi luoghi, et case si veggono.95 Such industry is moreover attested by the succes of several publishers of prints illustrating the principal monuments of ancient and contemporary Rome, such as An- tonio Salamanca and Hieronymus Cock, and in particular Antonio Lafreri.96 The popularity of such material is indicated by the fact that Giovanni Battista Cavallieri’s Antiquarum Statuarum Urbis Romae Liber, a sort of visual comple- ment of Aldrovandi’s guidebook first printed probably in the 1550s, was there- after continually reprinted in editions of ever increasing bulk.97 Collections such as those in the Belvedere in the Vatican, the Capitol, and in the courtyards or gardens of the palaces of the Roman nobility and the various cardinals resident in Rome would be normally of easy access to the interested visitor—many of whom were connected to the household of one of these prel- ates or magnates in one way or the other. Apart from the Vatican, probably the grandest collection was those of the Farnese, which incorporated several earlier collections acquired by purchase—such as that of Raphael’s friend and patron Agostino Chigi, and that of the Sassi family—or by inheritance: in particular those housed in the Palazzo Medici-Madama acquired through antiquities of the mid-Cinquecento, still are aware of their presumed descent from An- toninus Pius. 94 Nova 1988. 95 Venice 1558; Mauro’s book had already appeared in an earlier edition (Venice 1556). 96 Bober/Rubinstein 1986, pp. 467, 455, 461. 97 Bober/Rubinstein 1986, p. 454; Gallo 1992.