Page - 438 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 9438 display [Fig. 9.14]. It is plausible that Maximilian’s change of heart was largely caused by his accession to the Imperial throne: he may well have felt that his status required greater display than before. But I suspect that a subconscious wish to compensate the disillusion he suffered in the summer of 1568, with his failure in the inconclusive military campaign against the Turks, may have played some role. The fact that the Neugebäude was laid out exactly on the spot where Suleiman the Magnificent had pitched his tents during his siege of Vienna in 1529 certainly does not contradict this.13 In contrast to the Kat- terburg and perhaps even Kaiserebersdorf, it was a project of sufficient scale to be consulted with all resident experts, including Jacopo Strada. 9.4 Hans Jakob Fugger’s Letter That Strada was involved in some way in the genesis of the Neugebäude was first suspected by Renate Wagner-Rieger, chiefly on the basis of the French and possible Ottoman influences in its design, both of which she explains with reference to Strada’s career. A strong argument for this hypothesis was provided by Renate von Busch, who found and published a passage in a letter by Hans Jakob Fugger to Strada which appears to corroborate Strada’s partici- pation. In her monograph on the Neugebäude Hilda Lietzmann accepts this interpretation of the source, and critically discussed what Strada’s contribution 13 The significance of this fact was recognized by Renate Wagner-Rieger and Renate von Busch, and amply discussed by Hilda Lietzmann, whose findings, however, have met with little appreciation. Figure 9.14 Reconstruction model of the Vienna Neugebäude.