Teaser
The teaser is a brief and bright introduction to a work, inspired by observations of the team members and written by various authors. Some zoom images are tagged with hotspots, which complements this approach textually and visually.
Hotspots
The microscope button calls up brief information about details on the individual drawings. Featuring photographs of details, they also give non-specialist users access to the drawings which they can explore.
Zoom Images
A series of six multispectral photographs (MSI, see also essay on MSI) is assigned to each entry.[1] The incident light image (VIS) shows the work under the usual conditions of visible light; in some cases this is supplemented by a raking in light photograph. The other images (UVR, UVFC, UVF, IRR, IRFC) were created under different spectral radiation conditions. These high-resolution MSI images can be navigated by using the zoom function, so that sections of each individual drawing can be viewed in greater detail. Even when zoomed in, it is possible to switch between the images and thus flip between different MSI images, so that individual features of the drawings, such as transfer traces, oil, and marks of age can be focussed in detail. The MSI images are referenced in the texts in the corresponding places. A transmitted light image visualises structural features of the paper and any drawings and inscriptions on the verso side. In some cases, drawing media and work processes or marks of historic use of the drawings are mapped to highlight their features.
Core Data
Key data about each work are assembled here. This includes information on the artist, in which period the drawing was created, the drawing media used, and the paper, the inventory number, the contents on the verso side and inscriptions. The dimensions of each sheet is given in height and width (mm) at the points of largest dimension. All further explanations can be found in the descriptions that follow.
Art History
In the art historical part, the arrangement corresponds to the significance of the contents which characterized the course of the research. Selected pages of particular importance are analysed in greater detail, while groups of motifs (like the rosettes and a number of small format individual figures) are discussed in collective texts. Works that did not require an individual work description for the overall evaluation of the project are marked with a reference to the essay Stylistic Groups. Images for comparison within the texts were included on a case-by-case basis as magnifiable zoom images.
Subject Matter and Iconographic Significance
The identification of the image’s subject and its contextual meaning are placed at the beginning of the art historical explanations of each drawing. This refers both to the depicted motif (volute console, wave pattern tendril relief) and the place of origin of the drawn object, if it could be identified. In addition, this category provides a first, important classification of the depicted object and its reception in Piranesi’s studio and environment.
Description and Composition
A detailed description of each individual drawing is the basic requirement for the further elaboration of its representation and its individual drawing style. These precise observations and their subsequent verbal expression already provide important clues to its function, the respective studio process by which it was possibly created, and sometimes to its attribution.
Status within Piranesi’s Oeuvre as a Whole
Numerous drawings in the Karlsruhe Albums are closely related to Piranesi’s prints, sculptures, and architectural works. However, there are also sketches, on-site drawings of antiquities, impressions, and other types of drawings that previously were poorly researched in Piranesi’s known oeuvre. Most of these drawings can be attributed to different collaborators working with Piranesi in his studio; however, in several cases his handwriting can be identified. In combination with the question of type, drawing technique used, and function, an attempt was made to gain insights into the way in which Piranesi’s studio was organized and to situate each drawing within this context, often revealing the existence of multiple authors.
Derivation, Reception, and Dissemination
This section is devoted to the often international dissemination of the motifs depicted: on the one hand, many of the ancient ornaments and architectural motifs represented in the drawings of the Karlsruhe albums were already known to circles of artists before they were used in Piranesi’s studio, partly because they had been reproduced as prints. On the other hand, Piranesi’s own position as a key figure in an international network of often influential individuals who traded drawings (using them as a basis for their own works, or re-using them as models for prints), was of the utmost importance for the dissemination of his motifs and innovative artistic inventions. At this point, the evaluation of a number of other albums in European and American collections that contain a wide variety of drawings and impressions of architectural, ornamental, and figure drawings led to new and significant research findings.
Graphic Transfer and Media Realisation
The media transfer of Piranesi’s drawings is complex and intimately connected with other areas of his artistic and intellectual oeuvre. Several drawings in the Karlsruhe Albums feature references to his etchings (especially to motifs in the print series Vasi, candelabri, cippi sarcofagi, tripodi, lucerne ed ornamenti antichi disegnati ed incisi dal Cav. Gio. Batta. Piranesi, created in the 1770s). In addition, there are construction drawings and preparatory works for some of his sculptures, in which he combined antique objects with his own ornamental inventions. And some drawings are closely related to the only architectural work he ever executed, the church of Santa Maria del Priorato. The possible function of a drawing for realising a motif in another artistic medium was discussed in each case in close collaboration with colleagues studying the art technical aspects of the drawings.
Drawing Style
An exact analysis of the respective drawing styles is absolutely essential for the classification in stylistic groups and their respective position in the context of Piranesi’s studio. Alongside Giovanni Battista’s confident, energetic sketchy strokes, there are carefully pondered ones that obviously copy a model. Other strokes are probing, uncertain and without apparent destination while others follow of an already existing model that determines the construction or proportion of a design. Quite frequently, several hands can be presumed, which would indicate collective drawing activities within the studio.
Hypotheses regarding Attribution
The analysis of each drawing style leads to attribution hypotheses, which should be understood as a work-in-progress and are a first approach to understanding the working processes undertaken in Piranesi’s studio. An introductory text by Georg Kabierske and Bénédicte Maronnie in collaboration with Christoph Frank, elaborates the considerations and the formation of 15 groups distinguished thus far, as well as those that are special cases. With regard to this issue especially, digital publication in the form of a database is of great value, as it offers the possibility of collecting and integrating comments and alternative views, and thus of undertaking more far-reaching scholarly discussions.
Conservation
The art technical part lists the key material characteristics of the paper, the drawing media, and historical uses of the drawings, compiled by Maria Krämer in collaboration with Irene Brückle. Two text sections interpret the characteristics of media and paper and thereby elaborate the drawing process and the historical use of the drawing. The length of the entries varies according to the material complexity of the particular drawing.
Characteristics of the Paper
Watermarks:
The watermarks can be seen in transmitted light photographs in the zoom images and they can be retrieved also via the watermark information system. Published evidence and related works with comparable watermarks in other collections are also listed.
Manufacturing Characteristics:
First mentioned are the most general characteristics of the paper starting with its colour (almost all the papers are uncoloured, but some pages are blued); its strength is assessed on the basis of visual inspection; optionally, its pliability is noted as a property that was discernible when the album pages were turned. All other characteristics are sorted according to the paper manufacturing process. These include: conspicuous features of the pulp made from rags that occasionally contains fibre knots as well as metal or other inclusions; the fibre distribution during sheet formation determined by the wire structure of the mould, which is visible in transmitted light (a water bar also occasionally appear); flaws created by the couching process; the rope marks created by drying the paper; wire marks and felt marks visible on the paper surface; and lastly, evidence of gelatine sizing and subsequent glazing of the paper with a glazing stone, which was common practice at the time. These characteristics have an influence on the roughness of the paper surface, and therefore the manner in which colourants adhere to it.
In addition, the papers are evaluated and summarised in the essay on watermarks.
Characteristics of the Drawing Media
In general, the drawing media used are named in the sequence of their application and described in terms of characteristic morphological features. Black chalk, a closely related greasy black crayon, and red chalk are particularly common in the Karlsruhe Album drawings, which is why these crayon variants are a focus in the work descriptions. Graphite is relatively common, as are some black, brown-black, and brown-coloured drawing liquids. They include iron-gall ink, probably bistre, as well as a black, carbon-based ink, and possibly occasional mixtures of inks. The descriptions are accompanied by close-up photographs. They may include raking light and some can be enlarged via the zoom function. References are given to relevant MSI images with zoom function that provide additional, detail views of particular features.
Typical appearances of the drawing media are mentioned when these helped to identify them. In the case of graphite, for example, noting its slight sheen in reflected light is useful, because in an overall view, graphite often resembles a light application of black chalk in the drawings. Apart from this, basic appearances will be explored in greater depth in a forthcoming essay (2023) on drawing media, and will be supplemented by essays on the copying processes of tracing and impressions, as well as the related experiments on copying processes.
The individual entry usually begins with features that can already be distinguished at low magnification. In the case of chalks, a distinction is made between a light or heavy stroke, which can be narrow or wide, non-covering or covering. The chalk can also appear striated or furrowed as well as pressed into the paper. The chalk or graphite particles may be distributed differently on the elevations and in the depressions of the paper’s surface. Deviations from the naturally rather rough surface of chalk strokes occur mainly in the form of compression. Strokes can appear compact, occasionally impasto, and shiny in reflected light. Inks and India inks are present in concentrated or diluted form (in the latter case with a translucent appearance). Traces in the form of brownish discolorations around drawn lines are an identifying characteristic of both iron-gall ink and the greasy black pen (chalk), and can often also be identified in the zoom images under ultraviolet fluorescence photography (UVF). Furthermore, abrasion, smudging, and deposits of drawing media — especially the chalks — are noted. Whether features such as abrasion or smudging specifically represent a historically relevant reference or are merely the result of non-specific aging processes is evaluated within the context of the drawing.
Drawing Process
The drawing process is described chronologically; it often begins, in the case of geometrically sophisticated drawings, with complex construction lines that sometimes also include “blind” lines, colourless furrows created with the aid of a compass. Almost all of the drawings, but especially the complex representations, were drawn over a more or less detailed preliminary drawing; it was then elaborated, often in several media and in several stages. This may also include different techniques such as shading or applying a wash. Many of the drawings were reworked to accentuate details. The chalks occasionally show contact transfers that resulted from the drawing process, and occurred when a motif was copied. In the case of mixed media, previously applied chalk is occasionally dislodged, for example, when a wash was brushed across. Drawing aids include the use of pins that can be identified by corresponding, often paired, puncture holes. Colourants are removed by erasure and a stylus is occasionally used to transfer motifs.
Characteristics of Historical Use
Only features are mentioned here that may have arisen in connection with historical uses of the drawings before they entered the museum collection. Not included are signs of aging, such as a typical, usually only slight yellowing of the paper due to the passage of time. Cut or torn edges of the sheets, curling, and creases caused by folding the paper are noted. There are deposits such as chalk particles, spolvero, splashes of liquid, oil stains, prints of fingers and hands, plus black ink stains; the latter can be attributed to the use of the drawings in the Weinbrenner School. Further, there is the existence of additional features such as deposits of oil, colorants, and substances caused by contact transfer that have to do with the creation of the drawing or its use, such as transferring it to a printing plate. In each case, whether abrasion or smudging (see Characteristics of Drawing Media) are historically relevant or are a result of non-specific aging processes, was evaluated in the context of the overall findings.
Processes of Historical Use
Quite a lot of the drawings were used in the Piranesi studio for transferring to a printing plate, and some were used for impressions or oil tracings that served to make copies. And they were also used in the Karlsruhe Weinbrenner School, which left ink stains and also traces of adhesive on the drawings. This section contains the ever-growing history of the mounting of the drawings, important for many of them, which includes at least one earlier mounting before the Weinbrenner period, and glue dots frequently appear in this context. These features are summarized in an essay on historical mountings.
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