Page - 498 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 9498 9.10.4 Palazzo del Te, Mantova The third relevant example Maximilian knew at first hand was Giulio Ro- mano’s Palazzo del Te at Mantua. Like Genoa and Milan Maximilian visited Mantua four times on his trips to Spain, and his relationship with its owner, and his host, was even closer than with Andrea Doria. During his first visit Francesco Gonzaga, second Duke of Mantua, was betrothed to his sister Cath- erine, whom he would marry in 1549. Francesco’s younger brother Guglielmo, who succeeded him after his premature death in 1550, would eventually marry another of Maximilian’s sisters, Eleanora. The splendour of the Gonzaga court was known to Maximilian by repute even before he first arrived in Mantua in June 1548: two year before he had spent ten days in Landshut, and had thus come to know the brand new imitation of the Palazzo del Te built and deco- rated for Duke Ludwig x of Bavaria-Landshut by Mantuan artisans and after a Mantuan design. Apart from his own experience of the Palazzo del Te, Maximilian could study the set of extremely detailed measured drawings documenting the plan, the facades and the decoration of every single room that had been commis- sioned by Jacopo Strada in the summer of 1567: a study which would be ac- companied Strada’s first-hand account of the history of the building and his expert comment on its various features.102 Nevertheless the palazzo del Te did not greatly influence the design of the Neugebäude: probably the two were too different in conception. For Maximilian the gardens were the raison d’être of the complex, whereas in Mantua it was the building itself. Yet there are some features of Giulio’s creation that may have influenced the ideas of Maximilian and his architect: significantly, these are all related to the garden facade of the Palazzo del Te. The most evident and important example is the extended garden facade [Fig. 9.92]. This consists of a piano nobile opened up by arcaded galleries over a rusticated substructure which is similar to that of the Neugebäude, though 102 Discussed and illustrated below, Ch. 12.5.2. Figure 9.92 Ippolito Andreasi, the garden facade of the Palazzo del Te, drawing, 1567.