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provide models (‘padroni’) for the busts still to be made for the portrait heads
acquired for the Munich Antiquarium.46
It is possible that a set of careful drawings of intact Roman portraits busts
preserved among Strada’s materials in the Austrian National Library at Vienna
documents these gesso sculptures—or rather the originals from which they had
been cast [Fig. 12.15 and 12.16–12.17; and below, Figs. 13.74–13.77]. Recent research
has revealed that several of them reproduce statues in the collection of Don
Cesare Gonzaga at Mantua, which have been preserved in various locations.47
It is not clear how large the set of casts was: Strada’s elder son Paolo still could
offer twenty of them for sale after his father’s death.48 They provided part
of the models for a book containing a series of designs of imperial portraits
based on antique sculpture, two manuscript versions of which of are preserved
in the Kupferstich-Kabinett in Dresden [Fig. 12.18 and below, Figs. 13.78 and
13.79–13.81]. Ottavio Strada’s codex depicting imperial portrait busts presented
46 Stopio to Fugger, 5 October 1567 (BHStA-LA 4852, fol. 75/69): ‘Ho inteso che il Strada ha
fatto gettare di gesso alcune teste in Mantua che ha il S[ign]or don Cesare Gonzaga, non
so se quelle havera mandato a Vienna, o Monacho’; Stopio used this as an excuse for him-
self having sent plaster casts instead of the real thing to the Duke, to which Fugger indig-
nantly repplied (23 December 1567, ibid., fol. 111/104): ‘<…> et vi ingannate di larga che’l
Strada habbi fatto gettare q[ue]lle cose di Mantua p[e]r l’Imperato[re] o il Duca, anzi l’ha
fatto far p[er] se med[esim]o per adornamento di casa sua p[er] le porte et nichi di q[ue]
lla essendo fabrichata alla italiana<…>’; Strada to Fugger, 1 March 1574 (Doc. 1574-03-01):
‘Già Vostra Signoria mi disse che sua Excellenza averia voluntieri auto le mie teste delli
Imperadori et Imperatrice di gesso, le quali sonno le più belle che siano in tutto Italia, et le
ò fatte formare con grande mia spesa; le quali sarianno buone per padroni per far li busti
a quella di marmoro di Sua Excellenza. Se Vostra Signoria ce ne vole dire una parola sta
a Lei; Gli darò ancora le pitture et medaglie, et se non vorrà li libri li terrò per me. Anche
le dette teste si potranno far ancora gittar di bronzo con il tempo. Mi è stato a trovar un
cittadino di Augusta, et quelle teste me ne a dimandato un inventario, con le pitture, et
mi disse volerle mandare in Augusta a donare a un gentilhuomo; ma non mi volse dire
il nome. O poi saputo sottomane che le voria per il Signor Giovan Fochero, et le voriano
far gettar di bronzo per metter in un sala che fa fare molto suntuosissima. Io non ne farò
altro insino alla rissolutione di Vostra Signoria, aspetandone però la risposta dala ordata
di questa un mese’. Some of the copies were possibly made by the sculptor Giovanni Bat-
tista della Porta, who was sent to Cesare Gonzaga with a letter of introduction by Strada
in June 1568 (Doc. 1568-06-16).
47 Vienna, önb-hs, Cod.min. 21,3, fols. 61r–70r.; at least five of these busts have been identi-
fied among the relics of Cesare Gonzaga’s collection now in Turin Racconigi and Casale
Monferrato; cf. Riccomini 2014 <a> and Riccomini 2014<b>. Dr. Riccomini kindly in-
formed me that further busts can be identified among the relics of Cesare Gonzaga’s col-
lection preserved in Parma.
48 Doc. 1592-03-18: Hugo Blotius to Wolfgang Rumpff, Vienna, 18 March 1592: ‘Habet idem
Paulus venalia viginta Caesarum antiquorum capita pectoribus ex gypso affabre factis
imposita’.
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book Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2"
Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court
The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2
- Title
- Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court
- Subtitle
- The Antique as Innovation
- Volume
- 2
- Author
- Dirk Jacob Jansen
- Publisher
- Brill
- Location
- Leiden
- Date
- 2019
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-90-04-35949-9
- Size
- 15.8 x 24.1 cm
- Pages
- 542
- Categories
- Biographien
- Kunst und Kultur
Table of contents
- 11 The Musaeum: Strada’s Circle 547
- 11.1 Strada’s House 547
- 11.2 High-ranking Visitors: Strada’s Guest Book and Ottavio’s Stammbuch 548
- 11.3 ‘Urbanissime Strada’: Accessibility of and Hospitality in the Musaeum 554
- 11.4 Intellectual Associates 556
- 11.5 Strada’s Confessional Position 566
- 11.6 Contacts with Members of the Dynasty 570
- 12 The Musaeum: its Contents 576
- 12.1 Introduction 576
- 12.2 Strada’s own Descriptions of his Musaeum 577
- 12.3 Strada’s Acquisitions for Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria 580
- 12.4 Strada’s own Cabinet of Antiquities 592
- 12.5 Acquisitions of Other Materials in Venice 599
- 12.6 Commissions in Mantua 610
- 12.7 ‘Gemalte Lustigen Tiecher’: Contemporary Painting in Strada’s Musaeum 615
- 12.8 Conclusion 628
- 13 Books, Prints and Drawings: The Musaeum as a centre of visualdocumentation 629
- 13.1 Introduction 629
- 13.2 Strada’s Acquisition of Drawings 630
- 13.3 ‘Owls to Athens’: Some Documents Relating to Strada’s GraphicCollection 634
- 13.4 The Contents of Strada’s Collection of Prints and Drawings 641
- 13.5 Later Fate of Strada’s Prints and Drawings 647
- 13.6 Drawings Preserved in a Context Linking Them withStrada 649
- 13.7 Strada’s Commissions of Visual Documentation: Antiquity 673
- 13.8 Strada’s Commissions of Visual Documentation: Contemporary Architecture and Decoration 692
- 13.9 Images as a Source of Knowledge 711
- 13.10 Conclusion 717
- 14 ‘Ex Musaeo et Impensis Jacobi Stradae, S.C.M. Antiquarius, CivisRomani’: Strada’s Frustrated Ambitions as a Publisher 719
- 14.1 Is There Life beyond the Court? 719
- 14.2 Strada’s Family 719
- 14.3 Ottavio Strada’s Role 725
- 14.4 The Publishing Project: Strada Ambitions as a Publisher 728
- 14.5 The Musaeum as an Editorial Office? 739
- 14.6 Financing the Programme 752
- 14.7 The Index Sive Catalogus 760
- 14.8 Strada’s Approach of Christophe Plantin 775
- 14.9 The Rupture with Ottavio 781
- 14.10 Strada’s Testamentary Disposition 783
- 14.11 Conclusion: The Aftermath 786
- 15 Le Cose dell’antichità : Strada as a Student of Antiquity 799
- 16 Strada & Co.: By Appointment to His Majesty the Emperor 830
- 16.1 Strada as an Imperial Antiquary and Architect 830
- 16.2 Strada’s Role as an Agent 836
- 16.3 Strada as an Independent Agent 840
- 16.4 ‘Ex Musaeo Iacobi de Strada’: Study, Studio, Workshop, Office, Showroom 843
- 16.5 Strada’s Influence: An Agent of Change 849
- 16.6 Conclusion: Strada’s Personality 863
- 16.7 Epilogue: Back to the Portrait 868
- Appendices 877
- Chronological List of Sources 915
- Bibliography 932
- List of Illustrations 986
- Index 1038