Page - 422 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 8422 Fugger’s minutes record the crucial decisions taken, which clearly indicate that the Duke’s primary concern was to have his collection arranged in their new home as soon as possible, rather than wait longer for—and spend much more money on—the representative, monumental and richly decorated pal- ace proposed by Strada. The expense involved in Strada’s project would have been considerable. Were the exterior facades, counting forty-six semicolumns on the ground floor and double that number of semicolumns or pilasters on the first floor, to be executed purely in brick, as in Lombard architecture, this would have been quite labour-intensive; and the specialized brickmakers and -layers would have been difficult to find in Bavaria and expensive to employ.54 Were the facade—or even only the columns themselves—to be executed in stone, the expense would be even more staggering, and that holds as well for the interior, were Strada planned to use no less than eighty-two Tuscan col- umns in stone.55 It is not surprising that the Duke, whose counsellors constantly upbraided him for his exorbitant spending, and influenced by Fugger, who himself had always preferred to patronize learning rather than conspicuous display, should have decided for a more sober execution: ‘Auswendig soll alles glatt sein’. the meeting actually took place in June 1569 (Hubala 1958/59 p. 136; Von Busch 1973, pp. 133–135; 300, n. 105). 54 The Italienische Bau at Landshut had been completely built by masons and bricklayers recruited in Mantua. 55 This calculation does not consider the columns articulating the walls of the library indi- cated in Zwitzel’s drawing. Figure 8.42 Simon Zwitzel, design for the Antiquarium, section, 1569. Figure 8.43 The Munich Antiquarium after the air attack of April 1944, showing the construction of the vault and the iron tie-rods.