Seite - 833 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 2

833Agent of Change: Imperial Antiquary and Architect he made for costumes for court festivals discussed in chapter 4.3.5, a number of which have been preserved, he certainly combined his iconographical ex- pertise and artistic prowess [Fig. 16.1 and above, Figs. 4.13–4.22]. This in turn strongly suggests that he provided similar combined services for the interior decoration of the Imperial residences, for instance the ceiling of the Goldene Saal in the Innsbruck Hofburg, where his participation is documented, but also on other locations. Perhaps the richly decorated spaces in the towers of the Neugebäude may have been among these, as is suggested by their connec- tion with the slightly later set of rooms in Bučovice, with which Strada can be linked [Fig. 16.2]. In all these cases it is impossible to say with any certainty what exactly his interventions may have been. These were probably wide-ranging: from a sim- ple comment on the proposal of a fellow artist or the estimate of his finished work, to a careful discussion of a planned commission and its iconography with the patron and members of his entourage, when he would illustrate his oral advice by showing relevant models from his Musaeum. Then they would include advice as to the selection of the artists to execute the commission, their coaching and/or the supervising of their work, as well as providing his own sketches or even worked out designs. This is the more probable in view of the fact that Strada basically thought in images, so would naturally have illustrated his points of view with quick sketches. He explicitly stressed the great value he attached to such visual means of communication in his letter to Adam von Dietrichstein discussed in Chapter 11.6. The immense collection of visual documentation he brought together demonstrates that he practised as he preached. The numerous drawings or ‘inventions’ from Strada’s studio that have been preserved confirm his lively visual imagination, and make clear that, though he was no great artist, he was a perfectly competent designer. Taken in all, the evidence linking Strada’s direct or indirect involvement in such projects at court is not abundant; but it is certainly amply sufficient not to exclude him without good grounds, when attributing work done at court or in its perifery. In contrast to the architectural projects, where Strada never was directly responsible for the execution of the projects to which he had contributed designs, at least on occasion he may have been given the responsibility both to organize and to supervise the execution of decorative schemes and of festival costumes and decorations. His own artistic training guaranteed his competence as to its artisanal aspects, whereas the big documentary proj- ects he had had in hand in Rome in the 1550s make clear that he knew how to handle complex projects involving many individual artists. His wide net- work allowed him quickly to find the right man for each aspect of a given project. This was particularly useful in the manufacture of costumes and