Page - 439 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

439The Neugebäude might have been.14 Since then Strada’s contribution to the design of the Neuge- bäude is generally accepted, though no further attempts have been made to define this contribution more precisely. In the following I will first discuss the passage in Fugger’s letter, and then describe the complex and its architectural and iconological sources. On the basis of those I will try and summarize the ways in which Strada may have influenced the genesis of the Neugebäude. It is necessary to quote, to translate and to discuss the passage in Fugger’s letter in detail, because in earlier literature it has not always been correctly read or interpreted. In the midst of their strenuous activities relating to the acquisition of the Loredan statues for the Duke of Bavaria and the design of the Munich Anti- quarium, Fugger and Strada, who were old business associates and friends, also informed one another about other matters. Thus it appears that Strada had told Fugger about an architectural design he had prepared for the Emperor, who had been pleased with the result. In a letter written from his castle at Taufkirchen of 13 November 1568 Fugger compliments Strada on his success in the following words: I am pleased no end that you have succeeded so well with your design for His Majesty the Emperor, although I have never doubted what you could do, having known you for so many years; and the site of the palace being by its nature so suited to the purpose, he was lucky to find someone who could well design the building. I thought it was in the city, but now I understand it is in the country, please let me know in what place it is, and whether it will be merely a palace for pleasure, or whether it will be provided with some sort of fortification.15 From this passage Renate von Busch and Hilda Lietzmann concluded that it referred to Maximilian’s plans for the Neugebäude, and that seems a natural 14 Rieger 1951, pp. 142–143; Von Busch 1973, pp. 207 and 343, n. 102; Lietzmann 1987, pp. 110 and 127–128. Lietzmann’s contention (p. 118, n. 109) that the present author merely quoted this source from Von Busch in a note (Jansen 1982, p. 67, n. 25) without recognizing its implications, is contradicted by the passage on the Neugebäude to which this note refers: ‘Renate von Busch had discovered, moreover, that in 1568 Strada made a design for it which was well received’ (ibidem, p. 59). 15 Doc. 1568-11-13: ‘<…>Io me rallegro infinitamente che siate così ben reuscito col Vostro dis- segno per la Maestà del Imperatore, benchè non dubito punto di fatti Vostri, havendoVi conosciuto tanti anni; et essendo la piazza del palazzo di natura così accomodata, ha havuto ventura di trovare chi sapesse ben dissegnar la fabrica. Io pensava che fusse nella città, però intendo che è in campagna; Vi prego avisarme in che luocho sia, et se’l sara solamente palazzo di piacere, o pure con qualche fortezza appresso. A tanto Iddio da mal Vi guardi’; first published in Von Busch 1973, p. 343, n. 102.