Lot 40: JACOPO STRADA

DESIGN FOR AN INKSTAND SURMOUNTED BY A WINGED ALLEGORICAL FIGURE WRITING IN A BOOK

11 by 16 1/4 in; 279 by 413 mm

Pen and brown ink and wash

San Francisco 2007, reproduced p.25

A drawing of the same inkstand, also in pen and ink and wash, is in the Metropolitan Museum (inv.66.618.8). It bears an attribution to the workshop of Ottavio Strada, Jacopo's son, but could easily be the work of Ottavio himself. (1) Two volumes of designs for metalwork attributed to Ottavio are known: one, the Dietrichstein Codex, is now at the University Library, Brno, the other is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Besides the fact that thirty-three designs are repeated in both volumes, they have in common an interesting title page which states quite clearly that the drawings are the work of Ottavio Strada: Libro di disegni per far Vasella da Argento e Oro per servitio della/Credenza e tavola per un gran Principe fatte tutte al modo antico, et/come anche hoggi usano in Roma. Dissegnati di ma (o) propria di Ottavio/Strada, Cittadino Romano e Gentilhuomo della Casa di Rodulpho II/Imp.1597. (2)

Although Ottavio did not have the same elaborate training as his father, either as a painter or as a goldsmith, he was a very competent draughtsman. His style is drier and less painterly compared with his father's more fluent and assured use of wash. Ottavio succeded his father as Court Antiquary to the Emperor Rudolf II in 1581.

1. See San Francisco 2007, p. 17, reproduced fig . 3
2. J. F. Hayward, 'Ottavio Strada and the Goldsmiths' Designs of Giulio Romano', in The Burlington Magazine, vol. 112, 1970, p.10