Page - 634 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

Chapter 13634 that relatively few of Raphael’s drawings from this period appear to have sur- vived suggests that they shared a common, probably cruel fate; and the sus- picion that this fate might be identical with that of other sections of Strada’s collection is only reinforced by the fact that of Giulio’s architectural drawings and of many other essential components of Strada’s Musaeum—including his own manuscripts—very little has come to light.13 Perhaps a detailed examination of the available sources might allow a par- tial reconstruction of Strada’s graphic collection, or at least a tentative charac- terization of its contents. Here I must limit myself to suggest the sources that could be used, and give a few examples of the sort of information these might yield. These sources include the graphic materials still preserved in a context which directly connects them to Strada’s collection; the few individual draw- ings that can be shown by internal evidence to have been in his possession; the libri di disegni prepared in his workshop, the sheets of which were based on original material in his own collection; and finally the archival sources relating to the fate of his Musaeum after his death. 13.3 ‘Owls to Athens’: Some Documents Relating to Strada’s Graphic Collection The latter sources do provide some concrete information which helps to vi- sualize fragments of Strada’s collection of drawings. After Strada’s death his Nachlass was left under seal until his two eldest sons had settled the dispute that had arisen. Once the estate had been divided both sons attempted to sell sections of the library and the Kunstkammer. Thus in 1594 Paolo Strada ap- proached Landgrave Moritz of Hessen-Kassel offering him a choice from ‘die bei ernanndten lieben Vatter nach Imo gelassen Antiquiteten und kunstlichen Abrissen’, including twenty-one gesso imperial portrait busts, a number of printed books, a ‘Model’ or set of plans for a palace drawn by Paolo himself, three albums of numismatic designs and one containing hundred and thirty designs for costumes for courtly entertainments. These festival drawings were treatises listed in the inventory of the Munich Kunstkammer by Johann Baptist Fick- ler (1598) and in another, even earlier list of architectural books in Munich; cf. above, Ch. 3.7, note 85. 13 One might for instance think of the storm in 1792 wrecking the ship that carried a large part of the collection of Duke Albert von Sachsen-Teschen, the founder of the Vienna Albertina.