Page - 666 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

Chapter 13666 this frieze is recorded in the Codex Chlumczansky.63 A conspicuous number of Giulio’s designs for the frieze have remained together in the Cabinet des Dessins of the Louvre [Figs. 13.51 and 13.52], and it is likely that Strada would likewise have kept them in a separate album or file together with the modelli for the ceiling panels. The complete set of copies preserved in the Albertina may well be the set Strada prepared or commissioned for the engraver.64 Perhaps the most interesting of Strada’s copies of the decorations of the Camera degli Stucchi is his rendering of the baptism of converts, the only Christian theme represented in this very pagan room [fol. 6; Fig. 13.54]. Strada’s 63 Strada explicitly states that he had acquired Giulio’s original drawings of the frieze from Raffaele Pippi: Index sive catalogus (Appendix D), nr. 14. Many of these have been pre- served in the Cabinet des Dessins of the Louvre. The lost inscription—or perhaps its con- cept that was never executed—is transcribed on fol. 42v of the Codex Chlumczansky, again linking this volume with Strada’s collection. The codex Chlumczansky also includes a resume of Appianus’ description of the Triumph of Scipio, subject of a tapestry cycle commissioned by the Gonzaga that is among Giulio Romano’s most monumental com- positions. It is tempting to think that Strada also owned some of Giulio’s original design for these, but if so, he does not appear to have thought of publishing these—probably because they would already have been too familiar. 64 Albertina, inv. nrs. 15442 and 15445 (strip of 22 sections pasted together; cf. Birke/Kertész 1992–1997, iv). I have not seen the originals; a further investigation will show whether these drawings reproduce the frieze as executed—in that case they probably were com- missioned by Strada during his stay in Mantua in 1567, perhaps from Ippolito Andreasi— or from the autograph designs, as his entry in the Index sive catalogus suggests. Figure 13.53 Francesco Primaticcio, after Giulio Romano, The baptism of the Early Chris- tians, central panel of the coffered ceiling of the Camera degli Stucchi, Palazzo del Te, Mantua. Figure 13.54 Codex minatus 21,3, fol. 6v.: workshop of Jacopo Strada, copy of Giulio’s design for The baptism of the Early Christians.