Page - 523 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

523Other Patrons of Architecture information about whether at a later date Strada may have been employed or consulted by Rožmberk in connection with his later projects, such as the charming country retreat Kratochvíle [or ‘Kurzweil’, that is: ‘Pastime’], built between 1583 and 1589 near Netolice in Southern Bohemia [Fig. 10.11].13 Cer- tainly Strada maintained contact with Rožmberk, who in 1576 had written a quite friendly recommendation for Strada to the Elector August of Saxony; and Strada was still corresponding with Rožmberk’s secretary, Václav Březan, in 1585. Yet there are no concrete data at all on Strada having been directly involved in Rožmberk’s projects, and neither do we know of contacts between him and the architects who realized these projects, such as Ulrico Aostalli and Baldassare Maggi. My conclusion would be that Rožmberk indeed was a patron of Jacopo Strada, but that his patronage was mostly directed towards his library and collections, though it may have included some general, informal advice on the architecture and decoration of Rožmberk’s residences. 13 On Kratochvíle, see Jakubec 2012. Figure 10.10 The Rožmberk palace on Caste Hill in Prague, restructured ca. 1554–1574; reconstruction drawing by Michael Brix. Figure 10.11 Kratochvíle, built for Vilém z Rožmberka 1583–1589 by Baldassare Maggi, in a painting by Jindřich de Veerle; Netolice, Kratochvíle Castle.