Page - 585 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

585The Musaeum: Its Contents Strada’s first trip in the Duke’s service, in 1566, was to Rome, the obvious source of Roman antiquities. Here he purchased a considerable quantity of antique sculpture, which arrived in Munich only in the summer of 1567. A list Strada had made when he was packing the crates, which in Munich was trans- lated by Fugger himself, lists no less than twenty-five full-length statues, about thirty portrait heads, and a number of fragments and miscellaneous objects.21 Doubtless incited by Fugger and by Strada himself, in the following year the Duke sent Strada to Venice to attempt the purchase of the huge and famous collection of antiques brought together by Andrea Loredan. After complicated negotiations, involving a lawsuit and the intervention of the Signoria on behalf of the Duke, Strada was able to conclude the transaction during a second trip to Venice in 1568.22 The purchase included ninety-one portrait heads, forty-three statues and torsos, thirty-three reliefs, forty-four miscellaneous fragments of statuary, about hundred and twenty small bronzes and a quantity of other objects of ar- chaeological interest, and finally a medal cabinet containing about 2500 gold, silver and bronze Greek and Roman coins.23 The original estimate of the col- lection amounted to about 8400 ducats, which the Duke was allowed to pay in yearly instalments. It can thus be regarded as the most important single trans- action of Strada’s career known to us.24 Apart from the Loredan collection Strada also vainly attempted to acquire part of the equally celebrated collection left by another Venetian nobleman, Gabriele Vendramin. He did, however, succeed in purchasing on behalf of the Duke a number of antiquities from the collection of Simone Zeno: twenty-two portrait heads, six small full-length statues or statuettes, seven torsos, fifteen 21 Von Busch 1973, pp. 116–17 and 139–141 ff.; BHStA-LA 4851, fols. 235, 248–249, 282–285; ex- cerpts printed in Weski/Frosien-Leinz 1987, Textband, Quellenanhang pp. 457–459, nrs. 38–47. The Roman sources on the exportation of antiques from Rome published in Jestaz 1963 do not refer to these acquisitions. 22 Strada is documented in Venice from February until the end of August 1567; from Febru- ary until July 1568 (part of which time he spent in Mantua) and again briefly in July 1569; cf. Von Busch 1973, pp. 203–207. 23 Von Busch 1973, pp. 119–122 (on Strada’s negotiations with Andrea Loredan) and pp. 142– 143 (on the contents of these collections). 24 Von Busch 1973, pp. 120–121. In financial terms, the transaction can only be compared in scope to the corpus of numismatic drawings Strada purveyed to Fugger and later to Duke Albrecht V: this included ca 8.000 drawings for which Strada was paid a ducat each (cf. above, Ch. 3.3). But this transaction stretched over at least two decades; cf. above, Ch. 3; and Von Busch 1973, pp. 194–195. The genesis of the collection of the Antiquarium has re- ceived ample attention in Von Busch 1973 and Weski/ Frosien-Leinz 1987, so need not be discussed here.