Page - 638 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

Chapter 13638 The drawings soon arrived in Florence, and seem to have been eagerly ex- pected, since already on 11 February Vinta could communicate the reactions to Ottavio. Though this letter has not been preserved, from Ottavio’s reply it is clear that its contents rather upset him. And this is not surprising, since he was told that in Florence all the drawings he had sent were held to be mere copies. Ottavio was offended, and said so; though he admitted that there might well be one or two copies among them, ‘sia come si voglia’, he strongly asserted his good faith: I swear on my honour as a gentleman that my father valued them so highly that he would not have given them for 300 gold scudi, and he has lived at the time when these excellent masters were alive and he bought [the drawings] from them. Here [in Prague], before I sent them over there [to Florence] a Frenchman has offered me hundred Thaler, and I did not want to give them to him [for that price].21 Therefore in case his drawings did not please the Grand Duke, they should be sent back well wrapped: in Prague there were people eager to have them, and prepared to pay a good price. This suggestion was accepted in Florence, and less than a month later the secretary of the Tuscan envoy in Prague had handed over a sealed parcel of drawings to Ottavio.22 After this disappointing experience, Ottavio did not attempt to interest the Grand Duke in the remainder of his father’s drawings, that is, those that had remained in Vienna. By a curious coincidence, however, the Florentine State Archive contains one more letter of Ottavio’s that gives further information of what at that time was still left of Strada’s graphic collection. This letter, dated Prague, November 1st of the same year (1590), was addressed to Prospero Vis- conti, a Milanese nobleman whom we have already met in the last chapter. As an expert and agent in antiquities and works of art Visconti had been a col- league and acquaintance of the elder Strada and had visited his studio when in è altro, solum inventioni stravaganti per far una credenza di un gran Principe, cosa molto bella da vedere<…>’; Medici del Principato 814, f. 40, Ottavio Strada to Belisario Vinta, 15 January 1590. 21 asf, Medici del Principato 814, f. 343, Ottavio Strada to Belisario Vinta, Prague 10 April 1590, ‘gli giuro da gentilhuomo che mio padre non haveria dati per 300 [scudi] d’oro, in tanto reputatione le tenevi, et gli’è stato vivo nelli tempi di quei valenthuomini che gli hanno fatti, et da loro comprati. Qui, avanti che gli mandai costì, un francese me offerse cento tallerij, non gli volse dargli<…>’ 22 asf, Medici del Principato 817, fol. 72, Ottavio Strada to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Vienna 17 June 1590.