Page - 232 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 4232 in the entry of Karl Friedrich of Cleves, while a figure on foot with a similar headdress scattering fruits and flowers may be a design for one of Ceres’ or Pomona’s followers in the same entry [Fig. 4.17]. Others, such as the two Di- anas, on horseback and on foot [Figs. 4.14–4.15], the Europa and the Moorish Woman [Figs. 4.18–4.19] have been identified with figures from the 1571 festival on the occasion of the wedding of Archduke Charles and Maria of Bavaria, the same occasion for which Strada designed the dressed-up elephant.84 Here I will not speculate on such identifications, not only because the information about the various festivals is as yet insufficient, but also because the function of the drawings in Vienna is not clear. Their location among other remnants of material such as Strada and his workshop included in the various libri di dis- egni intended for the Kunstkammer of his patrons, strongly suggest that they document elements of the decorations after the fact. Their state of preserva- tion and the manner in which they are drawn suggest that they are copied from the original designs either by Strada himself and by his son Ottavio or by other draughtsmen in his workshop. 84 Kaufmann 1976, pp. 61–63 and passim, modified in Kaufmann 2010. Figures 4.18–4.19 Jacopo Strada, Europa, and a Moorish woman, designs for the costumes of an entry in the 1571 Vienna festival; Vienna, Österreichische National- bibliothek, Cod. min. 21,3, fols. 33–34.