The ''Portrait of Jacopo Strada'' is a 1567-68 portrait of the court librarian

Jacopo Strada Jacopo Strada (Mantua, 1507 – Prague 1588) was an Italian polymath courtier, painter, architect, goldsmith, inventor of machines, numismatist, linguist, collector, and merchant of works of art. His portrait by Titian has kept his image fami ...

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

, now held in the

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal do ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Strada was not only an official book keeper, but also had many other qualities, and this portrait portrays him in his study surrounded by objects displaying his knowledge. He is shown wearing a gold chain, probably awarded him the previous year 1566 when he was appointed ''Antiquarius Caesareus'' by his employer

Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II (31 July 1527 – 12 October 1576) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1564 until his death in 1576. A member of the Austrian House of Habsburg, he was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague on 14 May 1562 and elected King of Germany (King ...

. The inscription upper right reads ''JACOBVUS DE STRADA CIVIS ROMANVS CAESS. ANTIQVARIVS ET COM. BELIC. AN: AETAT: LI: et C.M.D.L. XVI'' (Jacopo de Strada, citizen of Rome, imperial Antiquary and Minister, aged 51 in the year 1566). The painting is signed top left: "TITIANVS F (ECIT)". The letter on the table additionally contains the words ''Titian Vecellio Venezia''. A century later this painting was documented in

David Teniers the Younger David Teniers the Younger or David Teniers II (bapt. 15 December 1610 – 25 April 1690) was a Flemish Baroque painter, printmaker, draughtsman, miniaturist painter, staffage painter, copyist and art curator. He was an extremely versatile arti ...

's catalog ''

Theatrum Pictorium ''Theatrum Pictorium'', or ''Theatre of Painting'', is a short-hand name of a book published in the 1660s by David Teniers the Younger for his employer, the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria. It was a catalog of 243 Italian paintings in the Ar ...

'' of the art collection of

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (5 January 1614 – 20 November 1662), younger brother of Emperor Ferdinand III, was an Austrian soldier, administrator and patron of the arts. He held a number of military commands, with limited success, and ...

in 1659 and again in 1673,92
in

, 1673 but the portrait had already enjoyed notoriety in Teniers' portrayals of the Archduke's art collection: File:Arolsen Klebeband 13 115.jpg, 1673 engraving from Teniers' catalog, by

Lucas Vorsterman II Lucas Vorsterman II, Lucas Vorsterman the Younger or Lucas Vorsterman Junior (1624 – between 1666 and 1676) was a Flemish Baroque Engraving, engraver and draughtsman. He produced engravings after the work of the leading painters of the next gene ...

File:David Teniers (II) - The Gallery of Archduke Leopold in Brussels - WGA22066.jpg, 1640 File:David Teniers (II) - Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria in his Gallery - WGA22064.jpg, ''

Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm (Brussels) ''Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels'' is a 1651 painting of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's Italian art collection by the Flemish Baroque painter David Teniers the Younger, now in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. The painti ...

'', 1651 File:David Teniers d. J. 008.jpg, ''

Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels (Vienna) ''Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and the artist in the archducal picture gallery in Brussels'' is a 1651 painting of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's Italian art collection by the Flemish Baroque painter David Teniers the Younger, now held in the Kunsthist ...

'', 1651 File:David Teniers the Younger - Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Art Gallery in Brussels.jpg, 1651

References

Urbanissime Strada: Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court
by Jansen, Dirk Jacob, 2015 1568 paintings Strada, Jacopo Paintings in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Strada, Jacopo Paintings in the collection of the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria {{16C-painting-stub