Page - 392 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 8392 Corinthian pilasters framing ample windows topped with segmental pedi- ments, and the whole is topped by a huge cornice. Erich Hubala, who first published this drawing, noticed that this top section corresponds to the top level of the courtyard facades of the Palazzo Farnese in Rome, added by Michelangelo to Sangallo’s earlier building, as illustrated in Etienne Du Pérac’s print of 1560 [Fig. 8.5]. The right half of the design shows a view of the interior: on the ground floor, dedicated to the display of the antiq- uities, the huge space was to be divided into two long, narrow aisles by a row of columns carrying a complicated system of vaulting: apparently the architect did not feel sufficiently confident to span the entire width with one vault.20 The Munich plan is dated 1568 and must have been made almost immediately after the siteplan had become available in early November of that year, as is clear from the corresponding proportions. It also makes clear that its designer had been told to add a story over the actual space intended for the collection of antiquities. Doubtless he had also been told that this upper floor was to 20 München, HHStA, Plansammlung 7933; Hubala 1958–1959; Von Busch 1973, pp. 128–132; Frosien-Leinz 1980; Frosien-Leinz 1983; Weski/Frosien-Leinz 1987, Textband, pp. 47–49. The drawing is dated 1568 in a small cartouche in the pediment of the central gable, so it was probably conceived almost immediately after the site had been selected and the siteplan made available. The drawing has been mistakenly illustrated as by Jacopo Strada in Hitchcock 1981, Fig. 209. Hubala 1958–1959, p. 130, carefully analysed and illustrated the system of vaulting proposed. In view of the speculation about a possible Netherlandish origins of its designer, its resemblance to the ‘Zuilenzaal’ or hall of columns of Count Henry iii of Nassau’s palace at Breda may be of some interest. Figures 8.5–8.6 Palazzo Farnese, Rome, courtyard: top floor designed by Michelangelo; engraving by Etienne du Pérac, 1560; compared to the 1568 design for the Antiquarium (detail of Fig. 8.4).