Page - 840 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

Chapter 16840 son Paolo—and as a loyal subject or ‘vasallo’ of his liege lord: as such Strada habitually indicated himself in his letters to Duke Guglielmo. So it must be concluded that, in contrast to most of the ‘double agents’ studied in the epony- mous project, Strada was employed primarily or even exclusively by virtue of his professional accomplishments and his specialist expertise. Such an appointment for specialized services is not unusual in itself. By its nature, the appointment is similar to that of a court chaplain, a court physi- cian, a musician, an architect or a court-painter: all functionaries expected to exert their particular specialism on behalf of their patron. It is just that Strada’s specialism is rather more unusual; but even then his position in Vienna can be compared to that of other scholars or scientists at court, such as Carolus Clusius, appointed for his specialist knowledge of botany, or Joannes Sambu- cus, appointed for his literary talent and historical knowledge. Just like Strada, Clusius travelled and used his network to collect rarities for his patron, in his case of a botanical nature. Such instances provide the perfect illustration of Samuel Quiccheberg’s advice to princes and great noblemen desirous to build up a universal collection: these should employ ‘ingenious men which they send to various countries to look for wonderful things [rerum miraculosarum]’. In fact, Strada’s activities on behalf of Hans Jakob Fugger, Quiccheberg and Strada’s common patron, may have provided the concrete example on which Quiccheberg based this ‘admonition’.14 Both in Munich and in Vienna Strada was employed for his expert knowledge of antiquities, for his competence in translating these into contemporary works of art, as well as for his experience and his network in these two fields, which covered half of Europe. 16.3 Strada as an Independent Agent 16.3.1 No Full-time Job In Munich, Strada’s situation was relatively well defined, and it is well docu- mented: he was engaged for a limited time, for a particular job, and with some- thing of a fixed budget. His position in Vienna is less clearly defined: formally, it consisted of two components. The first of these was his job as an architect: as we have seen, this was mostly of a consultative character. Except for the albums of numismatic drawings he provided, this was also the case for Stra- da’s second job as an antiquary. Because he gave such advice in person to his 14 ‘Optimates in his colligendes decebit habere homines ingeniosos quos ad diversas re- gionum mittant inquirendarum rerum miraculosarum gratia’ (Quiccheberg 1565, D ii, a; Quiccheberg/Roth 2000, p. 92).