Page - 369 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

369An Object Lesson new house in its place testifies to his wealth at the time; it certainly also testi- fies to his ambition and to his aristocratic pretensions. Close to the Hofburg and to the Landhaus in the Herrengasse—this was the meeting place of the Stände, the Estates of Lower Austria—the Schenkenstrasse counted many aristocratic dwellings. Opposite Strada’s house, for instance, on the spot of the present Stadtpalais Liechtenstein, was that of Don Francisco Lasso de Castilia, Queen Maria’s steward, and next to him on the same side of the street he had as his neighbours Juan Manrique de Lara and Christoph von Teuffenbach.5 All these aristocratic dwellings were so-called ‘Freyhäuser’, which means that—unlike the homes of normal citizens—they were not subject to the billet- ing of members of the Imperial court, a heavy burden on Vienna householders. It should be noted that the possession of such a Freyhaus was a privilege gener- ally restricted to the nobility and to religious establishments, which indicates that Strada’s noble status was accepted in Vienna long before Maximilian ii’s patent of 1574 formally confirmed it.6 This privilege unfortunately implies that, in contrast to most non-noble dwellings of Vienna, Strada’s house is not de- scribed in detail as to living spaces, stables, fireplaces and fixed inhabitants in the Hofquartierbücher, the registers kept by the Hofquartiermeister, the court official responsible for allocating available lodgings to court-personnel and ar- riving guests. Strada’s obvious desire to stress both his noble status and to draw atten- tion to his erudite and artistic expertise was expressed in the design of his house. He probably was influenced by famous artist’s houses he had known, such as those of Raphael [Fig. 7.14] and Giulio Romano in Rome, and those of Mantegna and of Giulio in Mantua [Fig. 7.4]. Certainly it was quite advanced compared to other houses in Vienna, and it made a great impression on for- eign visitors. When Alfonso ii d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, visited his prospective brother-in-law in the summer of 1565, he went once or twice to Strada’s house 5 Perhaps Juan Manrique de Lara y Mendoza, Maximilian’s envoy to the Pope in 1562–63 (cf. Holtzmann 1903, pp. 429 and 445–451). Teuffenbach was a general and Maximilian’s envoy in Constantinople, see below, Ch. 10.9. 6 Occasionally the privilege was extended to important courtiers who were not noble (cf. Spielman 1993). In Strada’s case, however, there is no reason to doubt his noble status, which he had corroborated by documents sent from Mantua, and which Maximilian’s patent ex- plicitly confirms (DOC. 1574-12-27). Strada’s marriage to Ottilie Schenk von Rosberg, last of an ancient line of noblemen from Franconia, would hardly have been possible had he not been accepted as a nobleman even in 1544. His sons Paolo and Ottavio were accepted as gentlemen of the chamber of Archdukes Rudolf and Ernest. Perhaps most striking example is that in 1574 Ottavio, supervising the printing of his father’s book, bought for his own use a fur-lined mantle from Sigmund Feyerabend which this famous printer had been expressly forbidden to wear by the Frankfurt City Council (DOC. 1574-12-05).