Seite - 41 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 1

41The Image—Or from Whom (Not?) to Buy a Second-Hand Car the chronological list of sources inserted at the end of this book, allow me to sketch a truthful, though incomplete map of his career, to define the location and the size of the remaining white spots on this map, and in some cases pro- vide at least an inkling of what may be found there. One of the white spots is, for instance, the commercial side of Strada’s workshop: as for almost all of his contemporaries, his private accounts have not been preserved, though it is clear that particularly in his case the information these would provide would have been invaluable. Another white spot is the role Strada played with re- gard to the artistic patronage at the court of Maximilian ii, his most important patron. It will be argued that the lack of conclusive evidence here is largely caused by the fact of Strada’s personal presence at court, where his influence was chiefly exerted through direct oral consultation with his patron and with other courtiers, as well as with the artists and scholars involved in the Em- peror’s projects. The next step is to fill in the white spots as far as possible, by means of a process of reasonable conjecture. It is, for instance, rather likely that Strada was paid a substantial salary as a court architect because he was expected to actually contribute to the building projects at court. We may reasonably as- sume that he did so, even though we do not exactly know what he did, when and for which project. Setting out from that assumption, a detailed examina- tion of what we do know factually about Strada as an architect and designer, about the building projects at court, and about possible competitors, will help us to define his general role more clearly, and possibly even allow us to assign specific tasks or commissions to him. Likewise, it is very unlikely that Wenzel Jamnitzer would have chosen Strada as a designer for the prestigious com- mission Archduke Ferdinand gave him, if he did not know Strada personally, and had not had previous experience of his competence. We may reasonably attempt to reconstruct their collaboration on the basis of further documen- tary and stylistic evidence. Though such reasonable conjectures are bound to remain hypotheses which for lack of explicit data may never be proved conclu- sively, they nonetheless carry us as far into the white spots in Strada’s life, and as close to the historical truth, as we will ever be able to get. By spinning such loose fibres, fragments of factual evidence, into threads, and weaving these uneven threads together, I hope to produce a fabric that— however loosely-knit and full of holes—will be strong enough to support some definite conclusion about Strada’s profession, his character, and his place in the cultural history of his time. The most important of these will be an esti- mate of his influence on the development of ideas and taste in the regions where he was active, in particular his role as an agent in the transmission of the ideas and artistic forms of the Italian Renaissance across the Alps.