Seite - 230 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 1

Chapter 4230 the commanders of the detachments of infantry, cavalry and ordnance who decided upon the ceremonial and military aspects of the entertainment.78 Doubtless not all of the thousands of soldiers that were to participate in the combat scheduled for the third day of the festivities will have been dressed in cloth of gold: yet they had to be provided with some sort of garment and arms to be able to defend or conquer the two temporary fortified towns—defended by three hundred cannon!—which Pietro Ferrabosco had had constructed on the banks of the Danube just outside of Pressburg—Ferrabosco told Stanghellino that the wood from which these were built alone had cost about six thousand gulden.79 Such elaborate settings were designed by professionals such as Fer- rabosco according to some general scenario for the entertainment, but the design of costumes and trappings cannot have been coordinated in minute detail, given that the participants themselves had some say in the matter, and had to pay for their costumes. Thus Pighius relates that his pupil Karl Friedrich spent four thousand ducats on his entry. He moreover implies that he him- self, with Hugo Blotius, had advised the prince on an allegorical theme derived from Roman Antiquity, ‘not without its use to inflame in a young prince the love of virtue’. Its link with Antiquity was strengthened by the ‘fictive name’, Julius Clivimontius, under which the prince entered the lists—a transparent pun on his family’s titles as Dukes of Jülich, Cleves and Berg.80 It is not inconceivable that Pighius, a humanist and antiquary who had some experience as a draughtsman, also provided some of the sketches for his pupil’s entry.81 On the other hand they may well have turned to Strada: Pighius mentioned him among the luminaries of Maximilian’s court, so it can be as- sumed that he and his pupil profited from Strada’s conversation and visited 78 That the various learned and artistic disciplines overlapped sometimes, and that Strada at least was aware of other artistic endeavours at court, is clear when in 1568 he successfully mediated for a famous Italian company of comic actors, the Compagnia dei Disiosi led by Zan (Giovanni) Ganassa (DOC. 1569-01-29; cf. Schindler 2004, p. 312; Schindler 2006, p. 336). 79 Venturini 2002, p. 220, nr. 99 (where Ferrabosco is called ‘Parabosco’). 80 Pighius 1585, p. 186–187: ‘Princeps autem Carulus non inter extremos censeri volens, arc- taq. sanguinis, atque amicitiae necessitudine sibi iuncti, Regis solemnem diem honorare haud mediocriter cupiens, non sumptibus pepercit ullis, et aureorum quatuor milia in ludos, ac pompam equestrem expenderen non detrectavit’. It remains to be decided in how far Pighius whispered suggestions into the ear of his seventeen-year old pupil. 81 Pighius 1585, p. 188: ‘Sed nolo diutius evagari in huius pompae descriptione, quandoqui- dem de Corona Pighius illam graphicè suis coloribus depinxerit, et symbola vestium, clypeorumque hieroglyphica diligenter explicavit Caruli principis iussu.’ This probably refers to some graphic documentation after the fact, but even then it suggests that Pighi- us, who was a draughtsman as well as a scholar, may have provided sketches for Duke Charles’ entry.