Page - 253 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

253Imperial Architect: Background 4 Maximilian’s project for the canalisation of the Pisuerga at Valladolid is referred to in Ana Díaz Medina, ‘El gobierno en España de Maximiliano ii (1548–1551)’, in Edelmayer / Kohler, Kaiser Maximilian ii., 1992, 38–54, esp. 50; on Archduke Ferdinand’s hunting lodge at Prague, see now Dobalová/Hausenblasová/Muchka 2014; Simons 1998, Simons 2005 and Simons 2009, pp. 99–130. made it suitable both as a receptacle for his huge collections and as a residence of his morganatic consort, Philippine Welser.4 The interest in architecture of Ferdinand i and his sons of course was by no means exceptional among the princes of sixteenth-century Europe: any patronage could easily be explained merely by the need for representation. It was imperative that Ferdinand at least to some extent gave visual expression to his status as highest-ranking prince of Europe, ‘il primo signore del mondo’, as Strada had it. This need would almost automatically give rise to attempts of emulation with rival princes, both within the Empire and elsewhere, in particular his brother, Emperor Charles v; his brother-in-law, the French king Francis  i; and his nephew, King Philip ii of Spain. Given that fact, it is remarkable that the architectural patronage of the Austrian Habsburgs from Ferdinand i up to and including Rudolf ii was actu- ally rather modest, and bears little comparison with that of these royal rivals: one thinks of the commissions of French kings (the Louvre, the Château de Madrid in the Bois de Boulogne, Chambord and Fontainebleau), of Charles v (the Palace at Granada), of Philip ii of Spain (the construction of a new major city and residence at Madrid, and of the palaces of Aranjuez and El Escorial), or even of Henry viii of England (Whitehall and Nonesuch). It even seems modest compared with that of many territorial princes of Italy and the Em- pire: think of the Palazzo del Te and the immense ducal Palace at Mantua, the residences of the Elector August of Saxony at Dresden and Duke Albrecht v of Bavaria at Munich, and Duke Wilhelm v of Jülich-Cleves-Berg’s newly built Figure 5.1 Ambras Castle, Innsbruck; engraving by Matthäus Merian, ca 1640. Figure 5.2 Ambras Castle, reception hall (‘Spanische Saal’).