Seite - 214 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 1

Chapter 4214 In August of 1560 Strada obtained a passport for a trip to Venice: this trip, however, was undertaken in his private interest, to recover some debts due to him. While in Venice he did buy some antique sculptures, but these appear not to have been destined for Ferdinand (more likely Strada bought them on behalf of Hans Jakob Fugger or even merely for his own collection). The no- bleman Andrea Loredan, having heard of the high prices Strada had paid for these, offered Strada part of his own celebrated collection. Strada did indeed approach the Emperor, but this appears to have been his own initiative, and Ferdinand showed no interest.48 The next instance of a concrete service dates only from after Ferdinand’s death, and is merely documented because it entailed some travel expenses: Strada was sent to Prague in connection with the tomb of Ferdinand and his consort that was to be erected in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.49 The tomb, which is no masterwork [below, Figs. 9.02–9.03], would ultimately also receive the remains of Maximilian ii himself. It was executed in Innsbruck by Alexan- der Colin and his workshop between 1566 and 1589; again there are no concrete indications exactly what share Strada had in its conception. In November 1566 Strada again was given an advance for his travel ex- penses, when Maximilian sent him to Munich at the pressing request of Duke Albrecht v of Bavaria. Maximilian wrote to his brother-in-law that he assented to Strada’s departure ‘wiewol ich sainer in etzlichen sachen nit wol geraten khan’, ‘though in many things [?projects] I cannot really miss’, which indicates that, notwithstanding the dearth of concrete information, Strada was not in- active in Vienna itself. He would be lent in this manner to the Duke on two further occasions, in 1568 and in 1570. His activities for that patron will be discussed below.50 On the second of these occasions, in November 1568, when Albrecht sug- gested that Maximilian, because of his absence from Vienna, would for some while have no need of Strada, the Emperor again had noted that in fact he did have good uses for his erudite servant. It is very likely that the Emperor at the time was consulting Strada regularly in connection with the design of the large garden and its ample pleasure pavilion, the Neugebäude, which he was planning near his hunting lodge at Kaiserebersdorf, some miles east of Vienna. A letter from Hans Jakob Fugger to Strada of the 13th of the same month implies 48 DOC. 1560-08-20; Von Busch 1973, p. 202 and note 69. Strada would acquire the Loredan collection a decade later on behalf of Duke Albrecht v of Bavaria (cf. below, Ch. 12.3). 49 DOC. 1565-03-28. 50 DOC 1566-11-18; shortly before his departure the Emperor granted Strada a travel allow- ance (DOC 1566-12-18). Strada’s trips on behalf of Duke Albrecht discussed below, Ch. 12.3.