Page - 508 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 9508 shortly after Maximilian’s death.113 But it is unlikely that he was the only ex- pert involved. In view of the scope of the project, the most ambitious artistic commission he undertook, Maximilian would probably have involved many people, including the various architectural and other professionals at his court. Among those who may in various ways have contributed to Maximilian’s plans for the Neugebäude, Jacopo Strada is the only one who is documented as having made a design for it, which was, moreover, well received by its patron. Given the time when he made it, probably in the autumn, at the earliest in the summer of 1568, it must have been a design related to Maximilian’s earliest plans for the Neugebäude, since the first preparations for its laying out began only in the last month of this year.114 But if Strada had made the original design for the central building, he was probably also involved in working out the later adaptations required by his patron, and several stylistic features of the main building do seem to confirm that supposition. On the other hand there are also features which do not invite an attribution to Strada, such as the odd, irregular plan of the two end pavilions of the main building, which seem quite un-Italian and un-classical. Having lived in and travelled throughout Germany Strada knew the German architectural tradition and he was of course aware of fortification architecture, the probable source for the odd plan of the two end pavilions. Yet his Antiquarium design, his own house, his efforts to publish Serlio’s treatise on architecture, his insistence in his letter to Archduke Ernest that he was competent in designing palaces ‘al modo di Roma o Napoli, con bel’ modo et ordine di architettura’ make clear that he considered himself a champion of the correct, Vitruvian style.115 The final designs of such elements may have been due to one or more of the other architects or engineers Maximilian involved in the development of his project. We cannot be certain how Strada’s consultancy in this project functioned, but we can hazard a guess. We know that there seems to have been a relation- ship of mutual respect and confidence between Emperor and his Antiquary, 113 On Ferrabosco’s role at the Neugebäude, see Lietzman 1987, pp. 107–110, who does not realize that the permanent supervision of the execution of the project, which she rightly concludes cannot have been Ferrabosco’s task, does not preclude his having prepared drawings for it. Ferrabosco is documented working at the castles of Pressburg, Kaisere- bersdorf and the Hofburg in Vienna; after Maximilian’s death he was occupied with the construction of the residence for Archduke Ernest (the Ernestinische Trakt or Amalien- burg of the Hofburg). It is doubtful that he was the architect of Bučovice Castle in Moravia (cf. below Ch. 10. 4). 114 In June Strada was still in Venice (Doc. 1568-06-16), but presumably already back in Vi- enna for some time by the middle of August, when he was paid his salary as Imperial Antiquary (Doc. 1568-08-17). 115 Doc. 1579-05-00 (Strada to Archduke Ernest); the letter quoted and discussed in Ch. 4.4.1.