Page - 610 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

Chapter ��6�0 12.6 Commissions in Mantua 12.6.1 Paintings When visiting Venice, Strada habitually also spent some weeks in his native town, Mantua. Apart from acquiring some antiques there, and having casts made of some busts from the collection of Cesare Gonzaga, Signore of Guastal- la, which he intended to use in the decoration of his own house in Vienna, he employed various young artists to execute copies of works of art in the Duke of Mantua’s collection, and to prepare detailed documentation of some of the chief artistic monuments of that town. In this again he apparently acted on commission from Fugger; if not, his patron was at least well aware of these activities, the results of which he was eager to acquire for the Duke’s Kunst- kammer. This is clear from the letter in which Fugger asked Stopio to gather detailed information on Strada’s affairs in Mantua, and in particular about the prices he paid for the various items he commissioned. Stopio was eager to oblige, and his reply, enclosing a report sent him by some acquaintance in Mantua, well supplements the evidence of Strada’s own letters.80 From these sources it appears that Strada employed a local painter, called il Molinarolo, to paint copies of a number of paintings kept in the Duke of Mantua’s own apartment in the Palazzo Ducale or found elsewhere in Mantua. These included a ‘Dea della Natura’—presumably the ‘Madre Natura’ by Giulio Romano that in 1627 was hung in the Camerino delle Muse—and two paintings 80 BHStA-LA 4852: Fugger to Stopio, 6 December 1567 (fols. 97–101); Stopio’s reply, 23 Jan- uary 1568 (fol. 126) enclosed a report (fol. 130) by his informer in Mantua, an otherwise unknown person called Il Cerragagno (fol. 138): ‘Strada è stato qui, et ha fatto far uno modello del Palazzo del T. dal architetto del Signor Cesare Gonzaga, et poi l’ha fatto anco dissegnar in foglij da un giovane qui nostro amico; il qual gli ha appresso dissegnato tutte le camere et sale di detto palazzo, et di più fa anco dissegnar da questo giovane le stanze del Castello dove sta il Signor Duca nostro; et fa ritrar in avolio duodeci Imperatori con le historie, che sono in una camera in Castello; fa anco rittrar due Venere, una in piedi, et l’altro distesa, et di più ha detto che vuol far dissegnar molte altre belle cose che sono qui. Quel giovane che dissegna si chiama Messer Hippolito de Andriasi, et gli dà poi, quanto ho inteso, dui scudi d’oro la settimana, et egli si è obbligato a dargli tanti foglij di dissegno la settimana. Quel altro che fa quei ritratti si chiama il Molinarolo, et gli da per quanto ho anco inteso quindeci scudi d’oro del pezzo’. Strada seems to have maintained regular contacts with Cesare Gonzaga, Lord of Guastalla and of Amalfi, a noted collector and con- noisseur of antiquities; cf. Brown/Lorenzoni 1984. In 1568 Strada recommended a sculp- tor, Giovanni Battista della Porta, to Cesare Gonzaga (Doc. 1568-06-16), probably also in order to have him execute copies and/or casts from items in Cesare’s collection, among which (part of) the busts Strada acquired for the decoration of his own house discussed above (Ch. 12.4.2); on the documentary drawings of Cesare Gonzaga’s ‘studiolo’, a sumptu- ous cabinet for collectibles, see below, Ch. 12.7.4.