Page - 387 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

387The Munich Antiquarium yours [i.e. Strada’s own design], and then to discuss the whole project with you.10 The implication from these two letters is that Strada was to be involved in the creation of the Antiquarium in various roles: as an agent of the Duke and expert he had provided a large part of its contents, as an antiquarian he was expected to help realize a satisfactory display of the collection, and as an archi- tect to provide ideas and designs for the building that was to house it. It should be noted that in Munich the second of these roles was considered more im- portant than the third. This is already indicated by the fact that Strada was not the only architect to be asked for suggestions and designs. But it is explicitly stated in a letter Fugger wrote to the Duke in March 1569 from Vienna, where he had received Strada’s designs for the projected building. He suggests what the Duke should write to Strada: first he should stress that no decision had yet been taken, because the expected designs—including Strada’s—still had to come in. But then he also should tell Strada that, though he would like him to come to Munich in person, Strada had already worked for him so often and so long that the Duke dare not ask the Emperor to let him come now, lest he might be refused to come to Munich later, when he was most needed. And he was most needed not for the design of the building, but for the arrangement of the statues to be housed in it.11 It is not quite clear whether Fugger had sent off the drawing of the site to Strada already with his letter of 14 November 1568, but that is very likely, since three days earlier he had sent off a similar siteplan to Stopio in Venice, so that he could discuss the Duke’s plans with some local experts, probably architects such as Palladio, and could ask them for preliminary designs.12 On his own 10 DOC. 1568-11-13, Fugger to Strada, 13 November 1568: ‘Circa il palazzo che vuol fabbricare S[ua] Ecc[ellenz]a, quella e deliberata di far tutte le preparationi per esso e poi che fa far [disegni(?)] d’alcuni maestrj come anc[or]a il V[ost]ro et poi consultar con Voi il tutto’; Von Busch 1973, p. 298 ff.; Weski / Frosien Leinz 1987, Textband, p. 466, nr. 136. 11 Fugger to Duke Albrecht, 5 March 1569, quoted in Von Busch 1973, p. 128–129: ‘Des ge- bews halber khindet E.g. khain entlichen Bericht geben, weil Sy dessen noch nicht entschlossen auß mangl der abriß, dern Sy noch von mer als aim ort gewertig, so sy ge- dacht mit mir auch zu beratschlagen, unnd also die selb sach zue meiner ankhonfft auf schieben<...>Seiner person halben, wolen Ine E.g. gern haben, weill sy aber Ine so offt und ettwan gar lange Zeit gebraucht, darüber Ir Mt etwas unwirsch sich gegen etlichen verne- men lassen, so wolt sy nit gern Ir Mt zu vill molestirn, und ettwan ursach gebend das Sy Ir den hernach wann man Ine zue ordnung der antiquiteten am nottigsten brauchen mist, gar waigerte’. 12 Fugger had announced his intention to send the plan already earlier, witness Stopio’s let- ter to him of 7-11-1568: ‘Et circa lo schizo che V.S. mandera per la fabrica delle Anticaglie, non manchero di consultarlo con questi periti acciò la cosa habbia da riuscire bene…’. [BHStA-LA 4852, fol. 183/174; cf. Weski/Frosien-Leinz 1987, Textband, p. 466, nr. 135].