Page - 573 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

573Strada’s Circle From this passage it can be deduced that Dietrichstein had had drawing les- sons from Strada, and that the Archdukes also had been having drawing les- sons. It is not impossible that these lessons were likewise given by Strada, who may have received the two princes with their preceptor in his own studio. It moreover explains that these lessons consisted of the careful copying of two- dimensional examples. These drawings were provided by Strada himself, and the link with the ‘delettatio dele medaglie’ suggests that Strada’s numismatic drawings often were used to this purpose. This supposition is strengthened by the presence in the library of the Es- corial of a sixteenth-century numismatic album, consisting of about hundred and forty rather primitive drawings of numismatic images sketched in pencil or chalk and finished in pen and ink on large-size sheets of good quality paper [Figs. 11.36–11.39]. In its lay-out and its topic it is vaguely similar to Strada’s numismatic albums, one of which Dietrichstein had presented to Philip ii in his name. This volume includes not only Roman emperors, but also some Popes, some men of letters, and a number of contemporary Italian princes. Notwithstanding their less than adequate quality, the drawings deserve a spe- cial investigation: it is tempting to see them as the results of a didactic practice similar to that suggested in Strada’s letter to Dietrichstein. Since the title page is taken up by a coat of arms—drawn equally awkwardly—that is neither that of Dietrichstein nor that of one of the Archdukes, it is unlikely that the volume is connected with them. But the moustache drawn onto the face of the angel Figures 11.33–11.34 Alonso Sanchéz-Coello, Portraits of Archdukes Rudolf and Ernest, ca 1568; British Royal Collections. Figure 11.35 Adam von Dietrichstein, preceptor of the two Archdukes and Imperial ambassador at the Spanish court; anonymous eighteenth-century engraving from F.C. Khevenhüller, Annales Ferdinandei, Leipzig 1721–1726.