Page - 493 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

493The Neugebäude very influential: Philibert de l’Orme’s cryptoportique at Anet, illustrated above, is another variation on the theme [Fig. 9.60]. The rhythm of this solution appealed so much to the designer of the Neuge- bäude that he used variations of the motif elsewhere, sufficiently often for it to be named ‘the Neugebäude motif’ in the more recent literature.93 Thus the brick wall surrounding the service court in front of the peschiere consists of square piers carrying alternating wide segmental arches and narrow, round arches framing blind niches [Fig. 9.84]. Finally the walls of the two huge halls under the arcades of the main build- ing, the so-called ‘Schöne Säle’, are articulated in a similar manner. In combina- tion with the low wide vaulting they create a quite monumental, though not particularly Italian or even classical effect [Fig. 9.85]. The close resemblance of these halls with the Munich Antiquarium as actually executed at about this same time [Fig. 9.86] may reflect the close connection of Maximilian’s court with that of his sister Anna and his brother-in-law, Duke Albrecht v of Bavaria. In that case Strada, being involved in both projects, was probably the channel by which knowledge of the solution chosen for the vault of the Antiquarium came to Vienna.94 There is another parallel between the Villa Madama as planned and the Neugebäude: that is the long and narrow courtyard or hippodrome in front of the building, overlooked from a huge open loggia in the centre of the main floor (and from the other windows of the villa), and fronted on the other side by a long colonnade or arcade behind which was found stabling for no less than 93 Wehdorn 2004, p. 14 ff. 94 But note that the niches in the piers of the Antiquarium were fruit of a refurbishment at the end of the sixteenth century. Figure 9.84 The Neugebäude service court: the peschiere or fishponds to the left; the wall op- posite echoes, but does not exactly repeat the ‘Neugebäude motif’.