Page - 685 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

685Visual Documentation and his assistants: at least such is implied in the preface of the first complete series of prints after the frieze, engraved under the supervision of the painter Girolamo Muziano and published in 1576 with a scholarly commentary com- posed by the Spanish priest and antiquary Alfonso Chacón [Ciacconius]; a se- ries which itself, however, was based on Ripanda’s survey.96 In view of Giulio’s strong affinity with classical art, and his use of elements from the Trajanic col- umn in his own works, this is not impossible, though it is equally likely that he too contented himself with reinterpretations of Ripanda’s drawings. In either case Strada may have possessed and used a set of copies immediately derived from Giulio’s version; it is unlikely that Strada would have thought it worth the trouble and expense of producing a new series drawn directly from the monument (the length of the frieze is about 200 meters!) when such drawings were readily available, as is indicated by the number of series dating from the sixteenth century that have survived.97 96 Historia utriusque belli Dacici, a Trajano Caesare gesti, ex simulachris quae in columna ei- usdem Romae visuntur collecta. Auctore F. Alfonso Ciaconio, Roma 1576; cf. Arasse 1984, pp. 15–16, n. 23: ‘Dans l’introduction de l’édition de 1576, Chacon fait une référence assez vague aux copies de la colonne faites par Raphaël et ses disciples, Giulio Romano et Poli- doro da Caravaggio. La réédition de 1616 est plus précise dans la mention de Giulio: ‘De- scripserat olim Julius Romanus, pictor egregius, quem Raphaelis aequalem fuisse scimus. Quam descriptione secutus Mutianus, Alfonso Ciaconio eruditissimo viro, viam aperit ad ea esponenda latine”. 97 The earliest extant version, by or after Ripanda, is preserved in Rome, Biblioteca dell’Istituto Nazionale di Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte, inv. nr 7459. It is significant that even Muziano’s edition was based not on new original drawings, but directly or indirectly derived from Ripanda’s series. In fact some of Ripanda’s inaccuracies still show up in Re- inach’s famous repertory of Greek and Roman reliefs (Reinach 1909–1912, cited in Agosti/ Farinelli 1985, p. 1117). Other sets of copies dating from the sixteenth century in Rome, ibid., inv. nr. 61283; and in Modena, Galleria Estense (all as rotuli). Figures 13.87–13.88 Strada purveyed this or a similar rotulus illustrating the entire frieze of Trajan’s Column to Vilém z Rožmberk; private collection.