Page - 644 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

Chapter 13644 forgery on such a large scale, involving hundreds of drawings, was practiced in the sixteenth century.27 It is equally improbable that Ottavio, whose dismay at the reaction from Florence sounds rather sincere, would have mistaken studio- copies from his father’s workshop, which were intended to be bound in the libri di disegni the Stradas purveyed to their patrons, for the real thing. Even had he not known that such copies of his father’s autographs had been made, he still would have easily recognized them, since they were never made to re- produce in detail the personal ‘handwriting’ of an individual artist, but merely served to record a given pictorial ‘invention’, for instance the copies of Giulio Romano’s drawings discussed and illustrated below [Ch. 13.6.4]. Fortunately an attentive reading of Armenini allows us to formulate a hy- pothesis that neatly solves this apparent paradox, and explains how Ottavio could rightly insist on the provenance of the drawings he sent to Florence, while at the same time Gaddi and his colleagues were not mistaken in con- sidering them to be copies. Discussing Perino del Vaga’s technique, Armenini described that when he lived in Strada’s house in Rome he was allowed to study the many copies, or rather reinterpretations, that Perino had produced of great part of the work of Raphael and of some of the ignudi of Michelan- gelo’s Last Judgment, together with a quantity of sketches ‘<…> adapted from many print designs which were inventions of Italian and of German [artists]’, and drawings after the Antique. In these chalk drawings Perino had his models ‘<…>with such art reduced to his own sweet manner<…>’ that it was difficult even for the expert to see where he had found his inspiration.28 A beautiful 27 Albertina, inv. nr 60r.; Wickhof 1892, sr 72; Birke/Kertész 1992–1997, p. 33. On the basis of an inscription on the back, this particular copy of a Leonardo original which presumably was in Rudolf ii’s collection is attributed to Jacob Hoefnagel: Th. Wilberg-Vignau: Jacob Hoefnagel: Ungleiches Paar in einer Landschaftsumrahmung, inv.nr. 60r. (Albertina On- Line,  http://sammlungenonline.albertina.at/#fa6fdee7-786f-4730-a7d3-9d7c57706b00, consulted 07-01-2013). 28 Armenini 1587, p. 64–65, speaking of Perino’s drawings Strada allowed him to study: ‘<…> dove che fra l’altre cose belle, io vidi di sua man propria una gran parte dell’opera ch’havea dipinte Raffaello, già suo maestro; le quali erano dissegnate di lapis nero et alcuni ignudi del giuditio, i quali dissegni si vedevano essere con tal’ arte ridotti alla sua dolce maniera, che si potea dir più tosto quelli esser da lui nati, e trovati, che ritratti da altrui; e non era solamente questi ch’io dico, ma vi erano ancora di molti schizzi cavati da più dissegni di stampe, ch’erano inventione d’Italiani, et di Tedeschi, sì come ci era ancora un numero infinito di pilli, di partimenti, di statue, di grottesche, pur cavate dalle antiche, con al- tre cose tali, che sono sparse, et occulte per Roma, et non ignote à noi, dove che esso nel ritrarle, le veniva tuttavia mutando quando una cosa, et quando un’altra, et a quelle ch’erano rotte, ò non molto gagliarde, gli aggiungeva, li levava, et le arrichiva, et in somma le riduceva in modo tale, con quella sua leggiadra maniera, ch’era cosa difficile da’ ben prattichi à conoscere di dove egli cavate le havesse …’.