Seite - 219 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 1

219Tasks at the Imperial Court gist of the conclusions of the committee sent to Innsbruck to advise on the completion of Maximilian’s tomb has been preserved, not because of the im- portance of the enterprise, but because the Emperor happened to be absent from Vienna, and because it had to be communicated to the relevant authori- ties in loco. Otherwise their full report would have been made in a personal interview with the Emperor and perhaps both his elder sons; the discussion would then have been supported by a file of relevant material including ear- lier designs, sketches of alternative solutions, brouillons of the proposed iconography, and perhaps some comparative material. As similar package of documentation about the Innsbruck tomb was compiled by Schallautzer on an earlier occasion, which is documented only because it had had to be sent to Ferdinand, who happened to be absent.61 The same holds for Strada’s involvement in the conception of Ferdinand’s tomb in Prague: we know that he went there, but his conclusions again must have been communicated to Maximilian in person and—one must presume— were taken into consideration when further plans were made. A case can be made that he was paid his two annuities chiefly in order to provide such ad- vice: advice which, because of his education, his cosmopolitan erudition, his artistic expertise and—not least—his disposal of the treasures assembled in his Musaeum, he was perfectly qualified to give. In the following paragraphs two examples will be given where circumstantial evidence allows an interpre- tation of the scanty or even non-existent formal, administrative evidence of Strada’s role. 4.3.4 An Example: The Ceiling of the Goldener Saal at Innsbruck A document preserved in Innsbruck that has not yet been considered gives a perfect example of Strada being active in this consultative capacity without receiving any specific remuneration. This is a letter by Hermes Schallautzer to the Emperor, dated 16 July 1559.62 It responds to an instruction received from the Emperor dated 8 June 1559, from Augsburg, where Ferdinand was presid- ing the Imperial Diet. The Emperor had sent Schallautzer a drawing (‘Vysier- ung’) of the ‘Neue Sallpoden’, the ceiling of the great hall of the Hofburg in Innsbruck. This hall, known as the Goldener Saal, had been restructured in a moderate Renaissance idiom by the Italian architect Lucio Spazio, shortly af- ter a fire had destroyed part of this Imperial residence in 1534. It had been provided with windows by Paul Dax in 1538–1540, but its decoration had never been completed: perhaps just because Ferdinand was very fond of Innsbruck 61 Cf below, Ch. 6.2. 62 DOC. 1559-07-16.