Afskrift på tysk efter Richard Engelmann "Bilder antiken Lebens Pompei" 1864 - 1941

This is a page from a notebook by Niels Larsen Stevns, created at an unknown date. The page features handwritten notes in German, transcribed from Richard Engelmann’s "Bilder antiken Lebens Pompeji" or "Pictures of Ancient Life, Pompeii". Stevns, deeply engaged with classical antiquity, here copies notes referencing death, commemoration, and customs around dining in ancient Pompeii. The act of copying itself can be seen as a way of engaging and preserving cultural heritage. He references customs such as the decoration of dining tables with skull imagery, a reminder of mortality amidst life's pleasures. What resonates is the intimate connection between the artist's personal study and the broader historical narrative. This points to how we remember and engage with past lives and practices to illuminate our present. Stevns’s notes, a personal record of historical insights, invite us to consider our own relationship with the past and how we negotiate themes of life and death.