Page - 509 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

509The Neugebäude which was expressed in various favours Maximilian accorded Strada and mem- bers of his family, and in the support he gave him for some of his editorial projects. Strada’s house and Musaeum could be reached from the Imperial apartment by means of a three minutes walk along a covered way on top of the battlements. From a letter by Strada to Jacopo Dani we know that Maximilian occasionally availed himself of that possibility, and called it ‘the delight and museum of Strada, because he saw there so many rare and various things as ever struck the eye’.116 Strada’s studio included the workshop where he prepared his libri di disegni, such as the numismatic drawings he made for Hans Jakob Fugger and the Duke of Bavaria and for other patrons, including Ferdinand i and Maximilian ii. For Strada the design was central to his activities, and a faculty indispensable for all artistic, scientific and technical endeavour; and also to gain a better under- standing of the world, as he explained to Adam von Dietrichstein, preceptor of the young Archdukes Rudolf and Ernest: In truth, my lord, by drawing one gains knowledge of an infinite number of things, and one’s judgment in all fields is far more excellent, and amply transcends that given by any other discipline, the more so when engaged by a literate gentleman such as you. If the Emperor had sent his two eldest sons to study drawing under Strada’s guidance, as this letter implies, it appears that Strada had convinced him of this point of view.117 As we have seen, Strada’s Musaeum—an amalgam of studio, library and Kunstkammer, of artist’s workshop, and of bookshop and emporium of works of art and antiquities—housed an immense quantity of documentation in drawings and prints both of Roman antiquities and of the contemporary Italian architecture that was inspired by them. Titian’s portrait gives an indication of Strada’s enthusiasm, of the conviction with which he presented his choicest objects to his august visitors. In the same way he will have shown his drawings, his prize possession documenting the canonical ex- amples of his own profession. In view of Maximilian’s interest in architecture and engineering, such meetings must have increased his understanding of architecture and have stimulated his ambitions to create at least one monu- ment that could compete with those commissioned by his peers in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. As a cosmopolitan courtier who was at the same time an expert in the field of the most up-to date architecture and design, Strada is the 116 Doc. 1581-11-02 (Strada to Jacopo Dani). 117 Doc 1566-03-01 (Strada to Adam von Dietrichstein); cf. below, Ch. 11.6.