Page - 515 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

515Other Patrons of Architecture dell’Allio (ca 1515–1563). After Dell’ Allio died in 1563 it was finished by his two assistants, Benedikt de la Porta and Peter Tadei. The Landhaus is one of the fore- most monuments of the Renaissance in Austria, and Dell’Allio was a very tal- ented designer, as is clear from the beautifully proportioned facade [above, Fig. 5.83]. He was one of the many Lombard engineers active in Italy, and his facade betrays his schooling in the Lombard tradition of the late Quattrocento and early Cinquecento: note the spacing of the windows, in particular the central bay, and the typical double window surrounds. It is clear that when Dell’Allio produced his design for it, he had not yet been exposed to more up-to-date design in the style of the Roman or Venetian High Renaissance. That seems to have changed in the last years of his life, witness the totally different character of the beautiful courtyard [Fig. 10.1]. This is surrounded by three levels of well- proportioned arcades carried on piers, on which is superimposed a carefully detailed order of pilasters, pedestals and entablatures, culminating in a cornice of protruding consoles carrying the roof. In fact the difference with the facade is so great that one wonders whether Dell’Allio himself can have been responsible for it—if so, he must quite sud- denly have been confronted with a more avant-garde style. Perhaps he paid a visit to one of the more advanced centres in Italy, such as Verona, Vicenza or Venice, where he could have seen some of the works of Sanmicheli, Palla- dio or Sansovino. But it might also be that he was made aware of more recent developments by a meeting with his newly appointed colleague at the Impe- rial court, Jacopo Strada, and a study of the materials in his possession. Prob- ably Dell’Allio occasionally visited Vienna, or Strada made the acquaintance of Dell’Allio when spending a few days in Graz on his way to or from Venice.1 To my mind the similarity between the courtyard of the Landhaus and that of the Vienna Stallburg—which were built at exactly the same time—can hardly be a coincidence: together, they are the first two examples in Austria of a courtyard lined with arcades—a ‘Laubenhof’—where the arches are carried on piers instead of on columns, and where the proportions are based on Vit- ruvian principles [Figs. 10.2–10.3]. Yet there are also significant differences: the Stallburg courtyard is very slight and sober, almost pedantically correct, with 1 Graz was a natural stop over in the habitual route Vienna–Venice and vice versa. Strada vis- ited Venice in the late 1550s to prepare his edition of Onofrio Panvinio’s books, and probably also in the early 1560s, when he travelled to Rome to buy antiquities for Hans Jakob Fugger. At the Landhaus Dell’Allio’s patrons were the Estates of Styria, but as an engineer in fortifica- tion he was directly employed by the dynasty, for whom he also remodelled the Burg, their residence in Graz. It is perfectly possible that Strada would have taken the trouble to get ac- quainted with these buildings, and to meet his colleague, if available during one of his visits.