Jacopo Strada's Mantuan Drawings of 1567–1568

* While I was trying to find out the original location and purpose of Correggio's cycle of the Amori di Giove (“Correggio's Amori di Grove,” JWarb, 29, 1966, 160ff.) Dr. Konrad Oberhuber brought to my attention a portfolio of drawings, attributed to Pietro Santi Bartoli, in the Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf. A great number of these drawings are—as Dr. Oberhuber wrote to me—important for the reconstruction of the Gabinetto dei Cesari and the other rooms of the Appartamento Troia in the Palazzo Ducale at Mantua, and the others are of minor interest because they show decorations, which are still existing. In the following study I would like to clarify the provenance of these drawings in Düsseldorf, their attribution, the date of origin and, more important, their purpose.

My thanks are due to Dr. Oberhuber. Without his generous suggestion this paper never would have been written. I am also indebted to Dr. E. Schaar of the Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf for his constant assistance during my visits in Düsseldorf, and to Prof. E. Hubala, Munich, with whom I discussed in extenso the art historical problems connected with the construction of the Antiquarium of the Munich Residenz.

Abstract

Among the rich holdings of the Kupferstichkabinett of the Kunstmuseum in Düsseldorf¹ are some large cardboard-mounted architectural drawings in black, brown, or black and brown ink with grey wash occasionally reinforced by hatching.² These drawings are referred to in an entry in the handwritten inventory of the collection in Düsseldorf,³ written when Wilhelm Lambert Krahe (1712–1790)⁴ was the director of the gallery, which lists more than forty, attributing them to Pietro Santi Bartoli: “Oeuvres d'Architecture, Sculpture et Peinture du Palais nommé T. Maison de Plaisance du Duc de Mantoue le tout de Giulio Romano depinées à la plume e lavées à l'encre de la Chine par le fameux Pietro Santi Bartoli pour l'exécuter en Gravure.”