Page - 195 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

195Tasks at the Imperial Court Strada set out from Nuremberg probably immediately after the 26th of Janu- ary, the date of Jamnitzer’s reply. A lucky chance presented him with a sec- ond recommendation and a further work of art to present to the Archduke. Ferdinand had some time earlier requested Paul Pfinzing, a Nuremberg patri- cian serving as a secretary to Philip ii, to obtain a good, full-length portrait of Charles v. Pfinzing had sought out the best portrait of Charles available in Brus- sels, which was a three-quarter length in the possession of Cardinal Granvelle. Granvelle had immediately ceded the portrait, painted by Titian, to Pfinzing, who had moreover procured the exact measurements of the Emperor, in order that the Archduke could have the portrait ‘completed’. Unfortunately Pfinz- ing’s luggage train had been attacked by robbers just before reaching Nurem- berg, and though the painting was recovered, it had been damaged (and the Emperor’s measurements had been lost). Having heard of Strada’s visit to the Archduke, he asked him to take charge of the portrait, and to present it to Fer- dinand together with his covering letter. In it Pfinzing gave his description of the incident and offered excuses, and recommended his messenger in lauda- tory terms: ‘an exceptionally fine artist and a man also experienced in other fields’, and he added that Strada, ‘without my help—though that were quite justified—will extoll his art himself’.13 Strada’s visit to the Archduke appears to have been short, and we have no indication of its outcome. Though the project regularly crops up in the sources during the next years, Strada is never mentioned: perhaps the Archduke did not share Strada’s conception of the work, did not give in to Strada’s demand of total control over its execution, or Strada himself meanwhile was too much oc- cupied with other obligations. On the other hand it is perfectly possible that he did continue advising the Archduke and Jamnitzer—or both—in an informal way during the further development of the project, which never materialized for lack of silver. Already on 12 February Strada was back in Nuremberg. of the sort to be included in the projected group of Adam and Eve in Paradise: should the Archduke not like them, he could return them, ‘so mach’s ich auf einen deckel zu einem drinkgeschir’ (‘then I use them to decorate the cover of a drinking cup’). 13 DOC. 1557-01-26: ‘ain treffentlicher feiner künstler und sonst erfarner mensch’, and he added that Strada, ‘one das ich es thue, wiewol es billich geschehe, sein kunst selbst lo- ben wuerde’. It probably recommends rather than derogates the artistic proficiency of the Flemish painters of the day that none of them dared to tamper with a Titian original. The painting cannot now be identified with certainty: cf. Wethey 1969–1972, 2, p. 194, cat. nr. L-5. The style of the letter is instructive: compare the cringing tone and surfeit of ceremo- nial phrases of Pfinzing—a member of the Nuremberg patriciate—with the free, down- to-earth practicality of Jamnitzer’s and the urbane and self-assured manner of Strada’s epistle: it is clear a social inferiority complex not necessarily made part of the mental make-up of a sixteenth-century artist.