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Introduction The Image—Or from Whom (Not?) to Buy a Second-Hand Car 0.1 The Portraits of Jacopo and Ottavio Strada In the summer of 2008 the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam mounted a small exhibit showing Tintoretto’s portrait of Ottavio Strada da Rosberg, antiquary to the Emperor Rudolf ii, from its own collection [Fig. 0.2], next to Titian’s fa- mous portrait of Jacopo Strada, Ottavio’s father and predecessor as antiquary to the Emperors Ferdinand i, Maximilian ii and Rudolf ii, which had been sent on loan by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna for the occasion [Fig. 0.1]. An occasion of some moment because it was the first time for at least three hundred and fifty years that these two portraits, which had been painted simultaneously in Venice in 1567–1568, could be seen side by side. Titian’s portrait of Jacopo Strada has always been well known, having entered the Imperial collections already by the middle of the seventeenth Figure 0.1 Tiziano Vecellio, Portrait of Jacopo Strada, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum. Figure 0.2 Jacopo Tintoretto, Portrait of Ottavio Strada da Rosberg, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum. © Dirk Jacob Jansen, ��9 | doi:�0.��63/9789004359499_00� This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the prevailing cc-by-ncDirk-nd Jacob License. Jansen - 9789004359499 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 02:29:08PM via free access <UN> 2 Introduction Figure 0.3 David Teniers the Younger, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm Visiting his Picture Gallery in Brussels, ca 1651, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum. The portrait of Jacopo Strada can be seen top left near the window (detail), next to Titian’s portrait of Fabrizio Salvaresi of 1558, which is likewise still preserved in the Kunsthistorisch- es Museum. century, when it is listed in an inventory of the picture collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, governor of the Southern Netherlands. It is shown in David Teniers’ painting showing the Archduke paying a visit to his picture gallery in Brussels [Fig. 0.3 and detail]. Its attraction is attested by the inclu- sion of a reproduction engraved by Lucas Vorsterman the Younger in Teniers’ Theatrum artis pictoriae, basically an illustrated inventory of the Archduke’s collection printed in Brussels in 1660 [Fig. 0.5], and by a copy in oils from the late seventeenth century, which is attributed to Pietro della Vecchia [Fig. 0.4].1 The Jacopo Strada was probably Titian’s very last portrait and is, for its ico- nography, an exceptional work within his oeuvre: as such it has often been studied and discussed.2 Tintoretto’s portrait of Ottavio Strada, on the other hand, was virtually unknown until it entered the Rijksmuseum in 1956. It had earlier belonged to the Duke of Marlborough, who in turn had acquired it in the second half of the nineteenth century in France, perhaps directly from 1 By Federico Zeri; published in the catalogue of Armondi Antichità, Brescia: Antologia di Mae- stri Antichi 1990, cat. nr 14. 2 Most recently in the catalogue of the exhibition Rivalités à Venise, Paris, Louvre 2009–2010; cf. Bull 2009a; Crowe / Cavalcaselle 1877–1878, ii, pp. 352–359; Zimmermann 1901; Pope- Hennessy 1966, pp, 145–146; Panofsky 1969, pp. 79–81; Wethey 1969–1975, 2, p. 48–49 and cat. nr. 100, pp. 141–142; Mucchi 1977, pp. 302–304; Hope 1979, pp. 7–10; Freedman 1999; Gentili 2005, pp. 54–56; Ferino-Pagden 2008, cat. nr 1.13. Dirk Jacob Jansen - 9789004359499 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 02:29:08PM via free access <UN> The Image—Or from Whom (Not?) to Buy a Second-Hand Car 3 Figure 0.4 Attributed to Pietro della Vecchia, after Titian, Portrait of Jacopo Strada; present location unknown. Figure 0.5 Lucas Vorsterman the Younger, engraving after Titian, Portrait of Jacopo Strada, from Theatrum artis pictoriae, Brussels 1660. Robert, Marquis de Strada d’Arosberg, the lineal descendant of both sitters, who had an English wife. In the Marlborough collection the Tintoretto was accessible only to a restricted audience. In the Rijksmuseum, which concentrates primarily on Dutch painting, though more easily accessible, it has perhaps received less attention than it might have in the Louvre or the National Gallery, and certainly much less than it deserves. It is satisfying that this relative ne- glect has been splendidly redressed by the felicitous cleaning and restoration of the Tintoretto, and by the temporary reunion of the two portraits first in the Rijksmuseum, and then in the exhibition on Venetian Painting of the sixteenth century at the Louvre.3 Though the present study attempts to show that Jacopo Strada is a sufficiently interesting personality to warrant some attention in his own right, there is little doubt that his chief claim to fame remains the portrait—a fact of which he himself may have been very well aware. Certainly his later reputation has been coloured by the image projected by Titian’s masterpiece. A summary of its reception and of the image of Strada’s personality it helped foster is a 3 Rivalités à Venise, Paris, Louvre 2009–2010; cf. Bull 2009a; I am grateful to Duncan Bull and Willem de Ridder for allowing me to see Ottavio’s portrait during cleaning and for a stimulat- ing discussion of the two portraits and their relationship. Dirk Jacob Jansen - 9789004359499 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 02:29:08PM via free access <UN> 4 Introduction convenient point of departure for the fuller discussion of his career which is the subject of this book. 0.2 Why are These Portraits so Special? Certainly Titian’s and Tintoretto’s portraits of the two Stradas merit a discussion in themselves: they are both splendid paintings, the work of two of the greatest painters of the Italian Renaissance. They are painters, moreover, who count among the founders of the portrait genre, and who had a tremendous influence on its later development, especially on Rubens and Van Dyck. But though that makes these paintings valuable and worthwhile as works of art, their unique significance for the history of art derives from a number of as- pects that distinguish them from many other Renaissance portraits: – The first of these is that both paintings have an exceptional place within the oeuvres of their respective painters, especially the Titian. – At least equally important is the context in which the paintings were com- missioned, which is much better known than is usual: whereas so many of the portraits of private citizens of the period are anonymous, here the identity of the sitters is undisputed. In fact we know quite a lot about them, and in particular about their activities at the time the portraits were painted. – This context is also unusual in itself: except for portraits of married couples, it is quite exceptional to have two portraits painted in conjunction, as was the case here; that they were painted simultaneously by two more or less competing rivals is probably without parallel. Finally, for both art-historians and art dealers the portraits are of particular interest, because the two sitters are in some way early examples of their own profession. Both Stradas presented themselves formally as ‘antiquarius’. In English this can be translated either as ‘antiquary’—that is someone studying the material remains of Antiquity, whom we would call an archaeologist or historian—or as ‘antiquarian’, an expert and dealer in art and antiques. In this study I hope to show that both terms are appropriate for the Stradas. 0.3 Motions of the Mind The portrait of Jacopo Strada certainly occupies an exceptional place within Titian’s oeuvre: it is one of the last—probably the very last—portrait he ever painted, and he had really stopped accepting portrait commissions much earlier. Compared with his earlier portraits, its formal qualities are unusual: whereas in general Titian’s sitters maintain a quiet, dignified attitude against Dirk Jacob Jansen - 9789004359499 Downloaded from Brill.com09/24/2021 02:29:08PM via free access <UN> The Image—Or from Whom (Not?) to Buy a Second-Hand Car 5 the habitual neutral or landscape background, here the protagonist is placed in a localized inner space, in a diagonal movement across the plane of the painting, actively inviting the observer to participate. The painting is moreover atypically crowded with attributes. So it is not surprising that the portrait has been often discussed in detail, mostly within the context of Titian’s late style. A principal reason why Titian’s portrait of Jacopo Strada has received so much critical attention is that it is often considered as a prime example of Titian’s gift of psychological penetration. In his book Portraits of the Renais- sance John Pope-Hennessy discusses it as such in a chapter entitled ‘The Motions of the Mind’, a title he borrowed from one of Leonardo da Vinci’s note- books. He discusses the Strada portrait in prose sufficiently magnificent to be quoted in full: To judge from the paintings he produced, Titian was gifted with a godlike view of the potentials of character and mind against which the individual before him was sized up. On only one occasion is his private reaction to a sitter set down in print. The victim was Jacopo Strada, a dealer in antiques, who was born at Mantua, allied himself with the Fuggers of Augs- burg, joined the court of the Emperor Maximilian ii, and in 1567 visited Venice in search of antiques for Albert, Duke of Bavaria. Titian, who had known him for some years, viewed him with unfeigned dislike. A pretentious humbug, he called him, one of the most solemn ig- noramuses that you could find.

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