Page - 479 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

479The Neugebäude porticus constructed over an equally monumental closed substructure or cryp- toporticus. Because of their massive masonry and often subterranean location, many ancient cryptoportici had been preserved sufficiently intact to allow some inkling of the pomp of the palaces their huge concrete walls and piers had once supported. Such monumental remains contributed substantially to the image of ‘the grandeur that was Rome’ in the mind of the lesser mortals of the Renaissance. Type and function of the cryptoporticus were, moreover, known from de- scriptions in classical literary sources, such as Pliny the Younger’s descriptions of his villas at Laurentinum and in Tuscany.76 They were imitated by Renais- sance patrons and their architects: the porticoed terraces at the Villa Medici at Poggio a Caiano and the Villa dei Vescovi at Luvigliano mentioned and il- lustrated above can be considered adaptations of the type [Figs. 9.26–9.27]. Substructures such as these were imitated by contemporary architects: thus the substructure of Pasqualini’s palace in the Jülich Citadel looks surprisingly similar to the substructure of Split, though in this case dependence on a more accessible example—perhaps the cryptoporticus at Reims, dating from the third century ad—is more probable [Figs. 9.57–9.59].77 An elegant, ornamental imitation of the type on a small scale is the cryp- toportique at the Château d’Anet, designed and built in 1547–1552 by Philibert de l’Orme for Diane de Poitiers, mistress of King Henry ii of France [Fig. 9.60]. 76 In a description of his villa in Tuscany in his letter to Domitius Appolinaris Pliny the Younger gives the classic reference of the cryptoporticus: ‘Underneath this room is an enclosed portico resembling a grotto, which, enjoying in the midst of summer heats its own natural coolness, neither admits nor wants external air’ Epistulae, ii, 17, 16–17; v, 6, 29–30]. 77 Jülich is interesting because it also imitates the ancient cryptoporticus carrying a loggia or peristylium surrounding a courtyard or atrium, examples of which can be found in Rome and many other places, such as Hadrian’s villa at Tivoli. Figures 9.57–9.59 The substructures of the Palace at Jülich (9.58) look remarkably similar to those at Split (9.57); but in this case dependence on a more accessible example, such as the third-century cryptoporticus at Reims (9.59) is more probable.