Page - 620 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

Chapter ��6�0 thought out in detail beforehand to fit into one of the rooms of Strada’s new house, since in that case the compositions, the backgrounds and the lighting would probably have been coordinated more carefully. Moreover the two allegories, though of the same size, are painted on a dif- ferent type of canvas, which suggests that they were not commissioned simul- taneously. Yet that does not exclude a connection with the two portraits, which most likely were also commissioned consecutively: once the first allegory had turned out well and Strada had persuaded Tintoretto to paint a portrait of Ottavio, he may have asked Veronese for a second allegory to accompany it, which would neatly explain the difference in canvas used for the two allegories. Whether intended as an ensemble or not, the presence of these four paintings in Strada’s house must have made quite an impression in Vienna, and it is likely that this was what Strada intended. Possibly he merely wished to underline his prestige as a cultured intellectual and noble courtier, but it seems more likely that he also hoped to stimulate his patrons to emulate his example, and to buy or commission similar works of art—preferably through his mediation—with the artists themselves or with collectors and dealers in Venice. In this Strada or his heirs must ultimately have been successful, because the two Veronese allegories and two other similar allegories by the same master eventually ended up in the collection of the Emperor Rudolf ii.96 The hypoth- esis that they were actually commissioned by Rudolf ii is contradicted by Stra- da’s offering them to Duke Albrecht in the late 1560s or, if my hypothesis of the intention and date of the document is correct, in the mid-1570s at the latest. This should, however, not mean that the allegories may not have been origi- nally intended for Rudolf ii. Duncan Bull links the themes of the two allegories to the persons of the two Strada’s, showing how it underlined the relationship between the father and the son and potential successor. But such a connection might just as easily be postulated in regard to Maximilian ii and his eldest son and heir. The complicated iconography of Wenzel Jamnitzer’s Schöner Brun- nen indicates that such allegorical references would have been understood at the Imperial court. It seems perfectly possible that Strada commissioned these paintings hoping that he could persuade Maximilian, or perhaps his consort, the Empress Maria, to acquire them, for instance as a gift for their son on the occasion of his coronation as King of Hungary (1572) or as King of Bohemia (1575). The education of Hercules is a perfectly fitting theme to remind a young prince of the duties and responsibilities of his position. The presence at the 96 They are included in the inventory of Rudolf ii’s collection of 1621, together with the Mars and Venus United by Love (New York, Metropolitan Museum) and Hermes, Herse and Aglauro (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum), cf. Zimmermann 1905, p. xlv.