Page - 541 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

541Other Patrons of Architecture pupils Giovanni Battista Bertani and Ippolito Pedemonte. Note in particular the carefully designed and beautifully proportioned corner pavilions, and the flat bugnato of the rustic level [Fig. 10.48–10.49]. The strongly marked, heavy stone string courses, emphasizing the horizontals of the facade and pulling the whole building together, are another Mantuan feature. It is moreover an element which immediately links Schwarzenau to the design of the Vienna Neugebäude [above, Fig. 9.105–9.106]. The careful detailing is a quite exceptional feature of Schwarzenau: ele- ments such as the elegant niches flanking a segmental entrance portal in the androne [Fig. 10.50], the well proportioned door-surrounds [Fig. 10.51] and some of the remains of the stucco decorations [Fig. 10.52] are purely classi- cal and Italian in taste. Over all the design of Schwarzenau is of exceptional quality: it demonstrates a profound grasp of the principles of classical, Vitru- vian architecture, and no concessions are made to vernacular tradition.41 This sophistication well fits the patron, an intellectual aristocrat who may well have owed this sophistication in the field of architecture not only to a first-hand knowledge of printed architectural treatises, but also to his familiarity with the many materials he had seen in Strada’s Musaeum and to the explanations and comments their owner had provided. Whether Strein had asked Strada to prepare designs for his project cannot be determined. I am inclined to think that this has been the case, in the first 41 Alena Skrabanek signals a similar understanding in the use of Serlio’s example in other commissions of Strein and his brothers: ‘Die nicht mehr wörtliche Übernahme des Vor- bildes bei den weiteren Anwendungen zeugt von einem tieferen Verständnis der Lehre des Traktates, dessen Gebrauch zwar für eine praktische Benützung, aber nicht für ein geistloses Nachbauen der dort illustrierten Exempel gedacht war’. (Skrabanek 2008, p. 95). Figures 10.50–10.52 Schwarzenau: the entrance to the ground floor from the androne; a door surround on the first floor; remains of the stucco ceiling in one of the octagonal rooms in the north-west pavilion.