(Translated from Italian)
Ancient drawings for sale at Sotheby's: the notebook of the Mantuan goldsmith Jacopo Strada (1515-1588) stands out with projects for very sumptuous table silverware.
It's the ancient drawings of the Renaissance and Italian Mannerism that are arousing, these days, the approval of critics and the market. After the surprising record of 32.3 million dollars totaled by a sheet of Raphael, auctioned by Christie's from the heirs of Norman Colville and purchased by an anonymous bidder (according to rumors is the American financier Leon Black), now the Metropolitan of New York is inaugurating a great exhibition of 60 drawings by Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572), the Florentine artist who had among his patrons the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo I de' Medici. There is time until April 18 to see it (www.metmuseum.org), but time is running out for those who want to invest in this sector of exchanges, solid and constantly growing, albeit niche. Still in New York, in fact, on Wednesday, January 27 at 10 am, Sotheby's (1334 York Avenue; www.sothebys.com) is auctioning in the "Old Master Drawings" sale, a rare core of 20 drawings from the second Sixteenth century; these are sheets no larger than 30 x 40 cm, priced from 15,000 to 35,000 dollars each (about 12,000-25,000 euros). Once attributed to Benvenuto Cellini, the famous Florentine goldsmith and sculptor, the drawings are now traced back to the hand of the Mantuan goldsmith Jacopo Strada (1515-1588) and illustrate extravagant table services worthy of an emperor.
Already exhibited by Serge Sorokko Gallery in San Francisco in 2007, they constitute important documentation of the taste in vogue in the courts of Northern Europe and reveal how Strada was much more than an "ante litteram" designer. A pupil of Giulio Romano, from whom he learns about classical antiquity (and upon whose death he buys the entire collection of drawings from his son), skilled in chiseling precious metals, he manages his workshop and career becoming soon a shrewd dealer in ancient art and the manager of the most established artists of the moment like Tiziano Vecellio. And it is precisely the painter from Cadore who leaves us his most vivid portrait, painted between 1567 and 1568 and today preserved at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna: an eager and sharp look, the elegance of an ambassador, quick to distinguish a Roman bronze from an imitation, collector of coins and ancient books (he owns about three thousand). Titian portrays him in exchange for a favor: he wants to be introduced by Strada into the circle of Emperor Maximilian II of Habsburg, who had recently succeeded his father Ferdinand I. The excellent relations with the King of Spain, nor the familiarity with Pope Pius V and Alessandro Farnese are not enough for him. The meeting with Veit von Dornberg, the emperor's envoy, takes place in 1567 in the artist's studio, in Venice, where Strada is negotiating, on behalf of Albert V of Bavaria, the purchase of the collection of Gabriele Vendramin.
The painter and the goldsmith are made of the same metal, half artists, half businessmen. Strada, in particular, is a man of the world; coming from a family of Dutch origins, born in Mantua he will die in Vienna. In 1540 he is in Habsburg, in contact with the Fuggers, the most powerful bankers of the time; for them, he works long as a consultant, but often returns to Italy in search of works of art and antiques, which he purchases for himself and for the kunstkabinet (chambers of wonders) of his clients like the Grollier and Duchoul. In 1546 he moves to Nuremberg with his young wife Ottilie Schenk von Rasberg and works for Wenzel Jamnitzer, the most famous goldsmith of Northern Europe. Documented in Vienna from 1558, under the empire of Rudolf II he becomes Court Antiquarian (a role that in 1581 passes to his son Ottavio Strada). Trend hunter, mediator between the culture developed in the palaces of the Italian peninsula and the kingdoms of the north where painters, architects, tailors, goldsmiths, alchemists, musicians, mostly Italians, bring the latest news in the field of art and fashion, Jacopo Strada draws everything he buys before reselling it, obtaining illustrative material for his antiquarian publications and for his paper museum. The sheets auctioned in New York are a precious testimony; drawn with a pen and shaded with touches of sepia ink they depict the silverware to adorn the king's table: risers with allegorical figures embossed in the round on the Metamorphoses of Ovid, cups, spoons, flasks, and candle holders with Bacchus and cherubs; salt cellars with Poseidon holding the trident; a gravy boat with the lid shaped like a lion; an elaborate parade dish with Zeus and Cronus at the center; the frame of a mirror with the allegory of Prudence and a fork for noble mouths.