Seite - 838 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 2

Chapter 16838 attention to Titian’s ‘poesie’ and perhaps to Jacopo and Marietta Tintoretto, as is suggested in Chapter 12.5.3. When Maximilian ii requested Veit von Dorn- berg, his envoy in Venice, to go and find out more about the sculptor Ales- sandro Vittoria and the architect or master mason Jacometto Tagliapietra, he told Dornberg their exact addresses. Doubtless the Emperor had this detailed information from Strada, who had just returned from Venice, where he had been employing Vittoria in some project of his own.8 In fact, to provide such information must have been one of Strada’s tasks at court, and he may have recommended certain artists, or even have been instrumental in their employ- ment, on other occasions. Therefore, the arrival of some of the artists at court may have been due to their earlier acquaintance with Strada, or a connection through one of his correspondents. A possible example is Giulio Licinio, who left Venice to try his luck among the Augsburg patricians shortly after Strada’s stay in Venice in 1556, and then soon followed in his footsteps to the Imperial court. The role and function—explicitly not the ‘profession’—of agents such as Strada have been the subjects of the research project, ‘Double Agents: Cul- tural and Political Brokerage in Early Modern Europe’.9 Both Strada’s activities and his personal characteristics largely conform to the profile of the arche- typal agent as formulated by Marika Keblusek: ‘To function successfully as an agent depended first and foremost on one’s ability to build and maintain two key relationships: with one’s employer—or patron—on the one hand, and with one’s network(s) on the other’. Such capacity was dependent on the agent’s background, his social standing, his education, his geographical roots, his religious persuasion and, not least, his character. Keblusek quotes David Howarth’s list of the ‘general talents’ an agent needed to have: ‘stamina, organisational and social skills, and a command of foreign languages. These, precisely, were qualities without which no agent could survive<…>’. Other qualifications were a favourable geographical position and/ or easy mobility: many of the agents of the type shared an immigrant background, or at least were accustomed to travel.10 These were all qualities that Strada possessed. Moreover, he succeeded in obtaining the fullest confidence of his patrons—a confidence expressed in the many favours they granted him—and, at least in the case of Hans Jakob Fugger, a considerable degree of intimacy and even friendship. 8 Maximilian ii to Veit von Dornberg, Linz 18 December 1568; JdKS 13, 1892, ii, pp. xlviii– xlxix, Regest nr. 8807. 9 It results published in Cools/ Keblusek/ Noldus 2006 and Keblusek/ Noldus 2011. 10 Keblusek 2006, p. 10–12.