Seite - 423 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 1

423The Munich Antiquarium Likewise the columns planned to articulate the interior walls were replaced by heavy masonry piers; their sculpted capitals appear to have been the only ornament planned at the time.56 [Fig. 8.43] Zwitzel’s drawing illustrates the Antiquarium basically as it was actually constructed, and his project is cer- tainly not identical to Strada’s plans. The most striking difference is the pre- dominance of the huge vault: whereas Strada’s segmental barrel vault took up exactly half of the height of the hall, Zwitzel’s almost complete half-circle takes up a much larger proportion, and the main vault intersected by the almost equally spacious lunettes becomes the dominating feature of the room.57 Given that Strada’s plan was not executed, the large share that he claimed in its creation is somewhat perplexing. In the dedication to Duke Albrecht of his edition of Caesar’s complete writings, published in Frankfurt in 1575, Strada praises the Duke for his enlightened and liberal patronage of learning and the arts, and refers to the ample acquisitions he himself had made of books and of antiquities first for Hans Jakob Fugger, and then for the Duke himself. Then he relates how, the Duke having decided … to bring all these treasures [library and antiquities] together in one convenient place, protected from the danger of fire, at your command a most elegant palace was built, a freestanding block, the interior organ- isation of which was designed by myself. In it are two spacious halls: in the lower of these, which is provided with a stucco ceiling, the aforesaid antiquities are arranged in a not unsuitable order; the upper hall is deco- rated by an elegant wainscoting of exquisite workmanship. This is the library which can never be praised sufficiently.58 Apart from this claim there are no indications, at least no documents, indi- cating that Strada was in any way involved in the actual construction of the Antiquarium after having handed over his designs to Fugger in Mach 1569. 56 bsb-hs, Cod. icon. 198c; these capitals were reworked and covered in stucco at a later date; Diemer/Diemer 1995, ill.4 illustrate a photograph of an original capital temporarily uncovered during work in the Antiquarium in 1924. The stucco ceiling later mentioned by Strada may have been an afterthought. 57 Well described and analysed in Hubala 1958–59, pp. 137–138. 58 Caesar 1575, f. *4v.: ‘Iam verò cùm constitutum esset haec omnia comportare in unum aliquem commodum locum, et à calamitatibus ignis immunem, fabricatum est iussu tuo elegantissimum palatium, ac in insulam, totius structurae ordine interiori à me delin- eato, redactum. In eo sunt cellae duae spaciosissimae, quarum inferior fornice incrustato munitur, collocatis hic illîc ordine non inconcinno, ipsis antiquitatibus: superior eleganti tabulato ornata est, ex opere sumptuosè secto. Hîc nunquam satis laudata Bibliotheca est’. Cf. Diemer/Diemer 1995, p. 59 and note 19, whith a German translation.