Page - 588 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

Chapter ��588 full-length statues that is preserved in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek [Fig. 12.2].29 Another one is a relatively intact female statue restored in the mid- sixteenth century or earlier as a Cybele or—according to Strada—as an Asia [Fig. 12.3]. In Strada’s list it is described as ‘A small statue of Asia in full relief, slightly smaller than life size, with a lion under her feet’, and he likewise includ- ed it in his Statuarum antiquarum [Fig. 12.4].30 Probably its restoration—the missing head was replaced—predates Strada’s acquisition, though it remains possible that he had commissioned it himself, as he had done with the torso from the Zeno collection. Strada did employ some local sculptors to execute some small restorations, among whom the best sculptor active in Venice, Alessandro Vittoria, from whom he also commissioned a Cupido all’ antica.31 A year later he proposed the Duke to have some of the sculptures sent to Vienna, to have them restored under his direct supervision in his own house. As in his drawings of coins, such restorations doubtless would have included the replacement of missing parts, as was in any case the general practice in the sixteenth century.32 Though in his Statuarum antiquarum Strada does show statues with heads, hands or arms lacking, the general impression is that he preferred to represent his statues in a sufficiently intact—that is, restored—state, to convey their artistic intention. This is certainly the case in the set of drawings of Roman portrait busts likewise preserved in Vienna, which are probably in Strada’s own hand: it is unlikely that the originals still were all in the pristine condition in which Strada represents them [Fig. 12.5].33 In particular the portrait heads, often found severed from their bodies, were intended to be complemented by a suit- able bust made to measure by sculptors in Strada’s pay. It is just possible that a rather flattened bust among the spolia of the fake Roman ruin in the park of Schönbrunn—it was probably intended to present a portrait head destined for 29 Antiquarum statuarum tam deorum, quam dearum heroum et eorum coniugum, tum etiam imperatorum et eorundem uxorum formae et effigies ex antiquis marmoreis et ae- neis statuis, quae et Romae et aliis in locis inveniuntur ad vivum depictae atque fidelissime repraesentatae, Vienna, önb-hs, Cod. min. 21,1, fol. 139; it is not mentioned in Weski/ Frosien-Leinz 1987, who illustrate Du Pérac’s and Pighius’ drawings (Textband pp. 429; p. 112–113, Abb. 99 (Du Pérac) and 100 (Codex Pighianus). 30 BHStA-LA 4851, fol. 283 r/v (nr. 22): ‘Una statuetta di Asia di tutto tondo alquanto mi- nore dell naturale con un lione sotto agli piedi’; Weski/Frosien-Leinz 1987, Textband, pp. 313–314, cat. nr. 193 and pp. 442, cat. nr. 364. The present head is a nineteenth-century replacement of an earlier (Renaissance?) restoration. Strada’s drawing in his Antiquarum statuarum (cit.), fol. 34. 31 Cf. below, Ch. 12.5.3. 32 Von Busch 1973, p. 131 and 146, 148–149; cf. below, Ch. 12.4. 33 önb-hs, Cod. Min. 21,3, fols. 344/61r–362/70r.