Page - 437 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

437The Neugebäude 9.3 Sobriety versus Conspicuous Consumption In view of Maximilian’s passion for gardens and gardening, it should not sur- prise that his one act of patronage on a really imperial scale again was the laying out of a garden, and the construction of a Lusthaus within it: the Neuge- bäude, plans for which began to be made in the course of 1568 [Fig. 9.13]. The tremendous scale of this project is indeed surprising: up till this time, except for festive occasions, all pomp and circumstance at the Imperial court, any conspicuous consumption in general, seems to have been restricted to in- terior furnishings and hangings, to sumptuous dress and armour, to precious gold- and silverware, to collector’s items and to ephemeral pomp on festive occasions.12 During his father’s reign Maximilian used the scanty funds at his disposal mostly for projects which were really necessary. Thus his architectural patronage was primarily directed towards realizing decent and representative lodgings for himself, his household and his guests, and any display of architec- tural pomp or luxury was dispensed with. The sober, functional style of the Stallburg is exemplary for this attitude, to which even the Prater Lusthaus conforms: basically a modest hunting lodge, its practical use is explicitly stressed in Tanner’s description. Therefore the huge scale of the Neugebäude project comes as somewhat of a surprise, in particular because its principal element, the huge, open colonnade of a length of a hun- dred and eighty meters, appears to have had no practical function other than 12 Note that the expense of ephemeral architecture for festive occasions could be phenom- enal, witness the wooden apparatus planned by Ferrabosco at Pressburg/Bratislava for the celebration of Rudolf’s coronation as king of Hungary, discussed above, Ch. 4.3.4; the wood alone for the ephemeral apparatus and temporary town built to lodge the partici- pants would cost about 6.000 Gulden (Doc. 1572-009-03). Figure 9.13 The Vienna Neugebäude in its present state.