Page - 455 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

455The Neugebäude architectural features, which would be reused to some extent in the embellish- ment of Schönbrunn.32 9.6 The Personal Involvement of Emperor Maximilian ii Both written sources and the building itself provide evidence that the Emperor closely followed the development of his new project. His assiduous personal involvement is reported by the Mantuan envoy, Guglielmo Malaspina, in a let- ter to his master written in April 1569: After the dispatch of business His Imperial Majesty attends to a garden he is newly planting, and it seems that he spends as much time there as he can spare from business in which he is involved, for he doesn’t care about wind or rain, but continuously goes to that place; the Duke of Ferr- ara has sent him several crates of trees, and likewise Archduke Ferdinand, considering this is his [the Emperor’s] [principal] pastime.33 Maximilian’s personal interest is mentioned in similar terms by the Venetian ambassador, Giovanni Michiel, in a dispatch of 1571; discussing Maximilian’s occupations, he relates that at present the Emperor: <…>has another one, which is greatly to his taste, and in which he spends all the time he can spare from business; this is the building of a garden, half a league from Vienna; which will be, once it is finished, of truly regal and imperial aspect.34 32 The later history of the complex is summarized in Lietzmann 1987, pp. 82–101, and Kefelder 2010, pp. 26–71; on the Schönbrunn connection, see Knöbl 1988; Holzschuh- Hofer 1990; Dahm 2002; Dahm 2003. 33 Vienna, 13 April 1569; ASMn, Archivio Gonzaga, busta 451, filza i -3, ff. 115–117; published in Venturini 2002, nr, 48, p. 197. The formulation is not quite clear: ‘Sua maestà cesarea atende doppo gli negocii a un giardino che pianta di nuovo et tanto vi atende che par che possa robar tempo alli negocii in che assiduamente si trova, che non cura né di ven- to né di pioggia, ma continuamente va a questo luocho; il duca di Ferara li ha mandato parechie casse d’arbori insseriti, medemamente l’arciduca Ferdinando a tal che questo è il suo passatempo<…>’. 34 Fiedler 1870, p. 280, as cited in Lietzmann 1987, pp. 34–35: ‘al presente [ha] un altra [occupazione], di grandissimo suo gusto, nella quale vi mette tutto quel più tempo, che può robbare alli negotij, che è la fabrica d’un giardino, una meza lega lontano da Vienna; cosa per dover riuscire, finita che sia, regia veramente et imperiale’.