Page - 837 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

837Agent of Change: Imperial Antiquary and Architect Emperor was probably less interested in the extreme visual splendour aspired to by Francesco and Federico Gonzaga. But it was also due to Strada’s own pref- erences: Giulio’s antiquarian studies, however serious, were basically engaged in to serve his artistic ends; whereas Strada considered the artistic use that he could make of them as a spin-off, perhaps as a justification for his more purely antiquarian pursuits. He engaged in these for their own sake, as the big propor- tion of his time, energy and patrimony he invested in them make clear. When Strada represented his patron’s interest in supervising such projects in Vienna itself, his function did not fundamentally differ from that of any other court official charged with a particular task. But Strada also represented his patrons’ interests abroad, acting as an agent acquiring books, antiquities and works of art. Because this aspect of his services to his patrons involved travel, for which expenses were paid and which gave rise to consultative cor- respondence, it is much better documented than what he did for them when at home. Even so, this is only true for Strada’s trips to Venice in 1567–1569, when he was explicitly commissioned by Duke Albrecht v of Bavaria to buy antiquities and works of art: there can be little doubt that his acquisition of the Loredan collection for Munich was the most important transaction of his career.7 But it is only in the margin of this huge project that we are informed about the wide range of other activities—they are described in chapter 13—that Strada engaged in during these trips, acting both on behalf of his known patrons as well as for himself and perhaps for other, as yet anonymous patrons. We know that Strada was an indefatigable traveller, and in the 1560s he made at least two other trips to Italy before being sent to Venice by Duke Al- brecht; he also regularly travelled in Germany (to Munich, to Augsburg, to the Frankfurt book fair) and to Prague. During such travels he doubtless engaged in similar activities as those documented for his trips to Venice: picking up antiquities, works of art, books and other objects for which his patrons had expressed an interest, or which he thought might appeal to them. In addition, he may have scouted for talent: if he signalled a well-known troupe of Italian commedia dell’arte actors to Maximilian ii, it is quite likely that he would have done the same when meeting architects and artists whom he thought might be useful in Vienna or Munich. He certainly acted as an intermediary between Titian and Duke Albrecht v and Hans Jakob Fugger. He drew Maximilian ii’s 7 It is in this context that Strada described himself as an agent of the Duke, in his defence in the Senate of Venice against accusations borught against him by Andrea Loredan: ‘Io son gentilhuomo di S. M. e son al presente agente dl S.mo Ducha in questo negotio, come fanno le mie lettere testimonio’, ‘Risposta ala Callumnia’, Doc. 1568-00-00, fol. 36/134v.