Page - 520 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 10520 10.3 Other Patrons: Vilém z Rožmberk From a survey of Strada’s emoluments as court antiquary and architect it ap- pears that his employment at court only provided a part, probably no more than a small part of his income.7 Nevertheless his position was of great advan- tage because of the prestige it accorded to him personally, and to the services and products he could offer other patrons. Moreover the court itself provided a lucrative market: a trendsetting community of individuals many of whom were well educated and shared many of the basic assumptions informing Strada’s activities; who were rich, or at least needed to appear so; who were competing with one another in prestige and, as members of the imperial household, were in any case expected to contribute to the splendour of the court; and who were therefore willing to invest in display and other activities or objects that would enhance their prestige. Strada’s house and Musaeum, which was a minor cul- tural centre in itself, was an explicit advertisement of the ways in which he himself and his workshop could satisfy such needs. Strada’s house and his collection would in any case be accessible at least to the higher-ranking members of the court. Just as his collections probably in- fluenced the Emperor himself and his architects when planning the Stallburg and the Neugebäude, they must have influenced those members of the impe- rial entourage who themselves engaged in constructing houses in town or on their possessions in the country. In those cases they would have profited from Strada’s comment on the materials he showed them, and from his informal advice on their projects. It can be expected that some of them would also have 7 Cf. Jansen 1988(c); slightly revised English version: Jansen 1992. Figure 10.5 The Amalienburg in the painting by Samuel van Hoogstraten, 1652; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum. Figure 10.6 Cypriano Biasino(?), Schloss Dürnstein, 1630.