Page - 548 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

Chapter 11548 As described above, Strada’s house [above, figs. 7.9–7.13] consisted of two wings each of two principal storeys above a rustica ground floor, which were set at a right angle along the Vordere Schenkengasse and the small piazza in front of the Löwelbastei. It held twelve principal rooms heated by traditional tiled stoves, at least one of which was a reception room or hall sufficiently large for the informal banquet, masque and dance organized in 1579 for Maximil- ian’s youngest sons, the Archdukes Matthias and Wenzel. At that time its top floor was sufficiently ample and well-appointed both to lodge Juraj (György) Drašković, Archbishop of Kalocsa, Ban of Croatia and Chancellor of Hungary, and to house the offices of the Hungarian chancery. Even before that, the house had occasionally provided lodgings for impor- tant visitors to court, such as Hans Jakob Fugger—Strada’s patron and a per- sonal friend—and Count Palatine Georg Johann i of Veldenz-Lützelstein. To thank the Duke of Mantua for the benefice conferred on his son Paolo, Strada courteously offered him the use of his house ‘which, once it is finished, will be suitable to lodge a prince’. When Strada’s financial needs became pressing he more seriously offered it as a possible residence to Vilém z Rožmberk, princi- pal magnate of Bohemia—who knew it well because, like Fugger, he habitually lodged there when at court—and to the Duke of Bavaria for his son, Prince Ferdinand. This all leads one to expect that the house was suitably and stylish- ly furnished, and in fact Hubert Languet, who repeatedly visited it, could not name another house in Vienna ‘of similar elegance and provided with so many features conducive to commodious living’. According to Hans Jakob Fugger it was built and decorated ‘all’ Italiana’ which—in view of Strada’s interests— implies that its architecture and furnishing adhered to the strict classicism of the High Renaissance as developed in Rome, in Mantua and in Venice.1 11.2 High-ranking Visitors: Strada’s Guest Book and Ottavio’s Stammbuch Strada’s house and its contents were sufficiently interesting to draw illustrious visitors even at a quite early date: in August 1565, when large parts of the house must still have been under construction, it was visited several times by Alfonso ii d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, on a state visit to his prospective brother-in-law [Fig. 11.1]. Accompanied by his young kinsman, Francesco Gonzaga, Count of No- vellara, he came to see ‘le medaglie et l’altre anticaglie del Strada mantovano’, but also took note of the quality of its Italianate architecture. Strada proudly 1 Cf. above, Chapter 7.