Page - 835 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

835Agent of Change: Imperial Antiquary and Architect The tell-tall phrases in this letter are ‘quello ch’io farò fare’; ‘what I will have had made will be praised by every man of taste’, and ‘far fare’: ‘I can also serve in having made inventions for masques <…>’. Both passages imply that Stra- da offered his services not, or not exclusively, in his role as an artist, but that he proposed to direct specific projects on behalf of the patron, acting as an agent realizing the patron’s specific ambition. The documented instances sug- gest that in such projects, according to circumstance, Strada was able to act as the director or the producer of such entertainments. The staging of a court masque, joust or ceremony, the creation of sumptuous, complex decorative schemes or the realisation of ambitious works such as an Imperial tomb, or Jamnitzer’s silver fountains for Archduke Ferdinand ii of Tirol and Emperor Maximilian ii, involved a similar distribution of tasks, not all of which are nec- essarily mentioned in the financial records. Some such division of tasks is implied in a note in a manuscript programme for festivals organized in 1571 to celebrate the wedding of Archduke Charles and Maria of Bavaria, which indicates Giuseppe Arcimboldo as its ‘fabricator’ and Giovanni Battista Fonteo as its ‘coordinator’.4 Strada’s existing festival designs suggest that he sometimes acted as a ‘fabricator’ or a (co)director, contribut- ing to the iconography of a masque and designing its costumes; while at other times he may have acted as its ‘coordinator’ or producer: selecting and organiz- ing the artists and artisans who were to realise the actual objects needed, the designs of which were provided by some other ‘fabricator’, such as Giuseppe Arcimboldo. And occasionally he may have combined both functions: the phrasing of Emilio Stanghellino’s remark to the Duke of Mantua about the role of ‘nostro Strada Mantovano’ in the fabrication of the costumes for the jousts on the occasion of Rudolf ii’s coronation as king of Hungary strongly suggests that he both designed them and organized their manufacture. Stanghellino even appears to imply that that was a natural function of the ‘antiquario’.5 Altogether there is sufficient evidence to conclude that Strada at least oc- casionally was given the charge—as Stanghellino phrased it—to organize and supervise the realization of decorations and costumes for festivals at court, and that this was one of the tasks implied in his function as Imperial Anti- quary. However, even when this task may have come natural to the antiquary, given his expertise, it was not his formal or exclusive responsibility: other court 4 Cited by Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann in Arcimboldo 1526–1593, 2007 p. 265, cat. nr. vii.35; the precise significance of these terms as used in this instance remains to be clarified. 5 Doc. 1572-09-03: ‘Il Strada nostro mantovano, come antiquario, ha havuto carico di far fare gli habiti, girelli e sopraveste per le giostre delli serenissimi principi, quali vanno fatti all’uso dell’armatura antica, ma riusciranno vaghi et ricchi assai, essendo gli drappi d’oro et argento fini, con pocchissima seta, guarniti di bellissimi riccami et frangie d’oro riportate.’