Page - 486 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 9486 functions of the Roman thermae both as places of physical and mental recre- ation or regeneration and of social and cultural exchange, and as an expres- sion of imperial splendour and munificence, made them suitable examples on which to draw for the Neugebäude project. Their existence and their charac- ter were well known from classical sources, conveniently summarized in, for instance, Des bains et antiques exercitations grecques et romaines, written by Jacopo Strada’s Lyon associate Guillaume du Choul, first printed in 1554 and repeatedly reprinted and also translated into Italian in 1559. Their imposing physical remains allowed a good idea of what they originally had looked like, and these remains were assiduously studied, measured and sketched by Renaissance antiquarians, architects and artists. Just as Bramante’s design for St Peter’s and many other Renaissance buildings, the ‘Massivbau- weise’ or massive brick construction of several elements of the Neugebäude was derived from such Roman monuments. Apart from material doubtless in- cluded in Strada’s collection, the architecture of the Roman baths was known in Vienna through the suite of 25 plates engraved by Joannes and Lucas van Doetecum after drawings by Sebastiaan van Noye. Published by Hieronymus Cock in 1559, these illustrated the Baths of Diocletian in detail [Figs. 9.70–9.72 and 9.74].85 A comparison of a detail of one of these prints with the huge reception hall in the West pavilion of the Neugebäude [Figs. 9.72–9.73] strongly suggests that the latter was a direct imitation of the former: note the huge window niche and the equally large blind niches in the corners (perhaps intended for fountains?), but also a detail such as the simple but elegant cornice dividing the wall from the vault. Van Noye’s print provides a hint as to what further architectural artic- ulation may have been intended for this space.86 Also the plan of Diocletian’s described by Carlo Francesco Manfredi, envoy of the Duke of Savoy, cited in Lietzmann 1987, p. 159. 85 Thermae Diocletiani imperatoris, quales hodie etiamnum exstant sumptibus et ardenti erga venerandam antiquitatum studio Antoni Perenoti, episcopi Atrebatensis, in lucem eductae, industria et incomparabili labore Sebastiani ab Oya, Caroli V architecti, tanti herois impulsu quam exactitudine ad vivum a fundo usque descriptae, ab uberiori prorsus interitu vindi- catae et ab Hieronimo Coccio Antwerpiano in aes incisae; a suite of 27 prints, engraved by Johannes and Lucas van Doetecum after designs by Sebastiaan van Noye, published at the expense of Cardinal Granvelle in Antwerp, 1558; integrally published by Nalis 1998, pp. 44–63; see also Peter Fuhring’s catalogue entry in Hieronymus Cock 2013, pp. 118–123. The Duke of Bavaria possessed a set pasted on canvas, cf. Diemer/Diemer/Sauerländer 2008, 1,1, pp. 52–53, nr. 136. 86 Unfortunately the wooden construction that once carried the floors of the later muni- tions depot obstructs the view in my photograph. Perhaps a similar wall articulation of columns and entablatures was envisaged, which could have carried galleries for