Page - 358 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 6358 However traditional the building-type may have been for the region, the concept for the Stallburg also seems to owe something to the Serlio manu- scripts and other material in Strada’s possession. For instance Serlio’s project for a ‘palace in the countryside for an illustrious Prince in the French manner in his Sesto Libro [Fig. 6.21], which is closely related to his designs for Ancy-le- Franc, seems to be quite close to the conception of Stallburg courtyard.32 The exterior of the Stallburg [Fig. 6.19 and 6.22] is well proportioned but very sober: it is articulated merely by the rhythm of the windows in simple frames, topped by straight entablatures and resting on the simple flat stringcourses dividing the stories. The most expressive elements are the dentilled cornice carrying the roof and the heavy quoins, diminishing towards the top, at the cor- ners [Fig. 6.22]. Sources for these motifs are easy to find in Italian Renaissance architecture: significant instances are the Palazzo Adimari-Salviati, an early work (ca 1520) of Giulio Romano and therefore well-known to Strada [Fig. 6.24], (Litomyšl, Bučovice). Both on Jakob Hoefnagel’s bird’s eye view of Vienna of 1609 and on Suttinger’s view of the 1683 siege of Vienna the arcades of the front wing appear to have been run up to full height, but since the front wing is less than half as deep as the other three, its roof was—and is—much lower. 32 Serlio’s projected courtyard is only five bays square. The likeness would be even greater without the third story of the Stallburg, which as we have seen was probably added only after Maximilian had succeeded his father as Holy Roman Emperor. Perhaps initially an attic story as in Serlio’s prototype may have been intended. Figure 6.�� Sebastiano Serlio, project for a ‘magione del principe illustre al modo di Franza’, drawing from the Munich ms. of Serlio’s Sesto Libro; Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.