Page - 233 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

233Tasks at the Imperial Court Likewise this must have been the case for two separate volumes of similar copies of festival designs from Strada’s workshop, which have been identified recently in the Kupferstich-Kabinett in Dresden.85 Both volumes reproduce several of the same inventions found in the Vienna volume; the more volumi- nous one contains a title page and ninety-nine designs carefully drawn in pen, brown ink and a light yellow/brown wash [Fig. 4.20–4.22]. The title describes these costumes as ‘antique’, ‘Greek’ and ‘Roman’ equestrian statues, but also refers specifically to their use in a festival context. The designs are certainly not directly based on antique sources, but document costume designs for contem- porary festivals—witness the drawings for musicians and for figures in fanciful medieval or oriental garb. Just like Strada’s numismatic albums, of a similar lay-out and style, this volume was certainly intended for a patron’s library, rath- er than for an artist’s workshop. This supposition of their documentary function is corroborated by the ex- istence of a number of woodcuts by Jost Amman of ‘Stattliche Mummereien / so vor zeiten grosse Potentaten gehabt haben’ [Fig. 4.23–4.25]. Two of these are based on designs also present among the Vienna drawings [cf. 4.18–4.19]. Ilse O’Dell, who first published these woodcuts, did not know the Vienna draw- ings. She nevertheless linked the prints to the Stradas, because of the contract drawn up in November 1574 between Ottavio Strada and the engraver, who was to cut no less than two hundred of such ‘Mummereyen’.86 It is not quite clear in 85 These two volumes were identified by Gudula Metze, curator at the Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden, who signalled them to Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann. I am grateful to Prof. Kaufmann for suggesting that I be informed, and to Dr Metze for showing the material to me at short notice, for discussing it with me and for allowing me to include a first brief appraisal here. The volumes were mentioned earlier in Hölscher / Schnitzer 2000, pp. 133–134 cat. nr. 42 and Melzer 2010, pp. 441, without mentioning their provenance from Strada’s workshop. skd-kk, inv. nr. Ca 93: Equestrium statuarum, tam virorum quam mu- lierum, formae elegantissimae, una cum vestimentis ipsorum acu artificiosissimae pictis et arte Phrigionica ingeniöse elaboratis, quibus olim induebantur, item cataphractorum equo- rum cum eorum phaleris ornatissimis, quemadmodum olim Romani et Graeci in bellis atque etiam pompis publicis et ludis curulibus circensibusque usi sunt, iuxtaque ipsos satellitum praecedentium quoque eiusmodi vestibus indutorum formae; his quoque larvarum atque vestimentorum histrionicorum, quibus antiquitus in tripudiis et saltationibus noctu uteban- tur, varia genera adiuncta sunt; a folio volume including a title page and 99 drawings in pen and brown ink and a light brown/yellow wash of various inventions for festival cos- tumes; skd-kk, inv. nr. Ca 94: untitled; a folio volume containing 30 drawings in pen and black ink reproducing various inventions for festival costumes. Both volumes reproduce many inventions also included among Strada’s Vienna festival designs. A brief note by Dr Metze and myself on these and some other books of antiquarian drawings from Stra- da’s workshop in Dresden is forthcoming in an Italian Festschrift. 86 O’Dell 1990, who provides a full transcription of the document (p. 244) and reproduces all of the twenty-one surviving woodcuts. They are now also available in the relevant volume of Hollstein’s corpus of German prints: Seelig 2003, nrs. 215/1–154, pp. 198–236.