Page - 591 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

59�The Musaeum: Its Contents had not come out according to his instructions.38 He also ordered several lit- tle chests, cabinets and cases on behalf of the Duke, which were intended to hold the coins and medals and perhaps also the cameos and intaglios. They were provided with very many drawers covered in red, green and blue morocco and lined with satin in the same colours—possibly so that the different types of objects could be easily distinguished, but more probably to systematically separate the gold, silver and bronze coins.39 Since Strada himself bought the materials and paid the craftsmen—two or three cabinet makers, a book binder and, probably, a woodcarver who prepared the ebony decoration of (most of) the drawers—it is likely that he not merely ordered these containers, but also provided the designs for them.40 Finally, as we have seen above, Strada was closely involved in the planning of the arrangement of the statues, first advising on the planned room for the antiquities in the Munich Kunstkammer, then being closely involved in the conception of the separate building that was planned to house both the Duke’s antiques and his library, the Antiquarium of the Munich Residenz, for which Strada furnished an attractive Italianate design. It is clear that he was also 38 The work on the marble tablets is listed in Strada’s final account, BHStA, Kurbayern, A.A. 4853 [= la 3], fols. 11r–21v, printed in Stockbauer 1874, p. 32–36: ‘Item zu Mantua um 28 Tafeln schwarze stein zu f 18 thut v 85 f 3 st 8. <…>Um die Schrift in einen schwarzen stein zu hauen v 3 f 1 st 8.<…>Die Buchstaben zu vergolden v 1 f 1 st 2’. Fugger’s notes for his meeting with Duke Albrecht after his consultation with Strada in Vienna in the summer of 1567 refers to the inscriptions: ‘Also begert er [= Strada] im auch die schwarzen Stain hinab zue ordnen, damit er die Schrifften recht darein laß machen, dabei mieß er selb sein, dan unangesechen er drinnen ein guetten Maister gehabt, und er im die sachen un- der hand selb geben, hab er ain Stain dreimal verkhern miessen, das erst mal hab er im die Außthailung übl gmacht und ain ganze Zail ausgelassen, unangesehen er es ims auf Papir fürgemalt, das hab er im 2 Buechstaben ausgelassen, also daß er im auff den Stain hab miessen alles fürreissen, und hett im dannocht schier umb ain ganzen Buechstaben gefhelet, da er nit dabei gwest und gleich darzue kommen wer; dann dise Leut haben kain Juditium noch Verstand, man mieß alle Stund bei inen sein<…>’, BHStA, Kurbayern, A.A. 4852 [= la 2], fols. 119r–121v, printed in Weski/Frosien Leinz 1987, Textband, p. 461, doc. 80. 39 This corresponds with the use of colours for different sections of a collection proposed by Quiccheberg, and practised for instance in Archduke Ferdinand’s Kunstkammer at Ambras. 40 Strada’s final account begins with an item ‘Unkosten so über die Trühelein zu den Meda- glien ergangen’(BHStA-LA 4853, fols. 11r; Stockbauer 1874, p. 32). The drawers of the medal chest were lined in green, red or blue silk or morocco, gilt, and in some cases decorated with ebony carved profiles; a small quantity of ivory mentioned may have been used for the small turned knobs to open the drawers. p. 32; cf. Von Busch 1973, pp.146–147. They are mentioned in Strada’s letter from Mantua to Duke Albrecht: ‘La casetta delle medaglie, l’una portaro con esso meco, le altre due si finiranno in mia absenza perchè e digià finito tutte le casettini dove vanno le medaglie dentro’. (Doc. 1567-07-12).