Spotlight on newly identified drawings in albums: Piranesi and his studio at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

A collection of close to 300 drawings in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe were newly attributed to Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) and his immediate Roman workshop in 2014. Many of them record Roman antiquities or preparatory stages of Piranesi’s printed works. The discovery was followed by a still ongoing funded research project (started in January 2017) that addresses, among many other issues, the future preservation of the drawings. Their material situation is noteworthy because all of them are adhered in two albums dating from the early nineteenth century that were owned and likely also filled in this fashion by the well- known Karlsruhe architect Friedrich Weinbrenner (1766–1826). It appears that they were transferred in this state to the forerunner of today’s museum. One distinctive quality of the Karlsruhe find lies in its material intactness both as concerns the album assembly and the drawings themselves. The still undisturbed historical evidence must be factored into decisions concerning the preservation of the albums. This may conflict with demand for access to the drawings, which have become the focus of intensive scholarly interest. The key concern is whether the drawings can remain attached in the album.