Rejsedagbog. Firenze 1846

This is a page from Johan Thomas Lundbye's travel journal, likely from the 1840s, filled with handwritten notes and sketches. The act of journaling itself carries a symbolic weight, doesn't it? It mirrors the human desire to capture and preserve fleeting moments. We see lists of artists' names and artworks encountered in Florence, a personal index of sorts, each name acting as a cultural touchstone. Consider the recurrence of 'portraits.' What do portraits signify? The desire to immortalize an individual, to capture their essence, a practice stretching back to antiquity. Think of ancient Roman death masks, or Egyptian funerary portraits. Lundbye, by noting these portraits, participates in this long, cyclical tradition of memorializing the self. This impulse transcends time, reappearing in various forms, each reflecting the cultural values of its age, a continuous thread in the vast tapestry of human expression.