Seite - 458 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 1

Chapter 9458 Whether Peruzzi was asked to contribute to the plans of the Neugebäude is not clear: in December 1568 Maximilian asked Veit von Dornberg, his envoy in Venice, if he knew about some outstanding architect that might be avail- able, and in the same letter he also asked for information about the sculptor Alessandro Vittoria and the architect Giacometto Tagliapietra. Since he can- not have intended to employ Vittoria in his fortifications, his letter must have been motivated by his plans for the Neugebäude, work at which was about to begin just at this time. So at least in this case it seems that his quest for an architect was related to this, rather than to any military project. But if so, his attempts to entice competent Italian architects to come to Vienna were rather half-hearted: when in his reply Dornberg reported extensively on Tagliapietra, gave some information about another, better known architect, Giovanni Anto- nio Rusconi, and proposed an attempt to persuade Andrea Palladio to come to Vienna for a month or two ‘to compose and draw the plan of some building’, the Emperor seems not have reacted to this: none of these three names crop up in the Vienna sources again.38 On the other hand it may be that Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, a theorist as important as Palladio, and architect of, among other masterpieces, the Gesù in Rome and the Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola, did contribute in some way to Maximilian’s project. That at least is suggested by a substantial payment to his son and heir, the architect Giacinto, ordered by Rudolf ii almost immediately after Maximilian’s death.39 But if so, we do not know what this contribution may have been; it may well have consisted of sets of drawings of one or more of the villa and garden projects for which he had been responsible. Besides Caprarola these included the Orti Farnesiani and the Villa Giulia in Rome and the Villa Lante in Bagnaia, all key monuments in the history of garden design. The fact that Maximilian collected such information and source material for his pet project in person, instead of leaving it all to a trusted underling, again suggests that he was himself closely involved in the development of his project. Evidence that has come to light during the excavations of parts of the Neugebäude in the late 1980s confirms that he must have critically followed what was done. Whereas the upper and lower gardens of the Neugebäude, 38 Podewils 1992, pp. 43–46. This does not mean that there may not have been further con- tact through other, more informal channels, but we have no indication for that. 39 JdKS 7, 1888, ii, p. cclxviii, Regest 5357, cited by Lietzmann 1987, pp. 190–191, who points out that the payment was not made to Giacomo (†573,) but to his son Giacinto. It was a substantial sum, 100 Kronentaler, paid ‘aus besonderer Gnaden’, without giving a concrete motivation.