Page - 461 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

461The Neugebäude The Carmelite Monastery of the Descalzas Reales in Madrid preserves a relic of the True Cross, which is set in a small reliquary that was made by Maximil- ian ii, as is attested by an inscription on the foot of the monstrance in which it is placed [Fig. 9.38].43 The inventory of the Munich Kunstkammer drafted by Johann Baptist Fickler in 1598 likewise lists some objects that were made by Maximilian himself.44 We have seen above that Maximilian had collabo- rated in the physical creation of his earlier garden in the Prater, not only plot- ting its outlines himself, but actually planting some of its trees with his own hands. And we know that even before that, when acting as Charles V’s viceroy in Spain, he had been personally engaged in the plans to improve the course of the Pisuerga and the water supply of his capital, Valladolid. It is difficult to imagine that someone with these interests would have left the fun of the planning of his grandest project to someone else. On the contrary, it can be expected that he participated in its planning and supervised its execu- tion as closely as his heavy political responsibilities allowed. Certainly this is not contradicted by Giovanni Michiel’s report quoted above, which explicitly lists the ‘building of a garden’ among Maximilian’s preferred occupations.45 So it is quite possible that perhaps the general plan or concept of the Neuge- bäude and at least some of its more eccentric features should be considered as the fruits of Maximilian’s leisure hours, of precisely ‘quel più tempo, che può robbare alli negotij’, as the Venetian Ambassador phrased it. These fruits rip- ened by spurts and starts—whenever Maximilian found some time to spend on his plans, when Dietrichstein or Arco had sent some interesting material, or a visiting dignitary gave an account of a rival project elsewhere in Europe. They were fertilized by the scientific and scholarly literature Maximilian perused, perche non perde mai hora, che non faccia qualche cosa. Et quando altro manca, soleva lavorar di sua mano in cose d’ oro et argento, hora attende à destilationi d’ olij, d’ acque et di minere, nelle quali sà mirabili secreti’. (Fiedler 1870, p. 280, as cited in Lietzmann 1987, pp. 34–35). 43 Rudolf 1995, p. 166, pl. 144. He may have made it for his wife, who would spend the last years of her life in the Descalzas Reales; it was presented to the monastery by their daugh- ter, Archduchess Margaretha. 44 One of these was an artificial vivarium, a habitat filled with plaster casts of all sorts of animals (Diemer 2004, p. 129, nr. 1455); the other a ‘Schauessen’, a faience plate decorated in the manner of Bernard Palissy with casts or naturalistic representations of various fruits and ‘Lebkuchen’ (ibid. pp. 131–132, nr. 1457). The technique of casting animals from life was also extensively used by Wenzel Jamnitzer, Maximilian’s favourite goldsmith and Strada associate. 45 ‘Oltre le quali occupationi ne ha al presente un altra, 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 lontana da Vienna; cosa per riuscire (finita che sia) regia veramente et Imperiale’. (Fiedler 1870, p. 280, as cited in Lietzmann 1987, pp. 34–35).