Rejsedagbog 1845

Curator: Well, here's an interesting one. This is a page from "Rejsedagbog", a travel journal from 1845 by Johan Thomas Lundbye, rendered in ink on paper. It's held at the SMK, the Statens Museum for Kunst. What's your immediate take? Editor: Intimate. The handwriting, though difficult to fully decipher, suggests a real person, a witness. The small scale also gives it the sense of something deeply personal and immediately recorded. Curator: Absolutely. Lundbye was a prominent figure in Danish Romanticism, and this little excerpt provides a peek into his observations during his travels in Italy. Look closely at how he describes St. Peter’s Basilica here; the emphasis he gives to materials: the mosaics, tapestries, various stones that cover the interiors. You get a real sense of a working artist noticing how a thing is put together, all the hands involved. Editor: I’m drawn to his notation about the Madonna in the crypt. Note his emotional description "deilig bijgentinok Madonna". A beautiful, gigantic Madonna. His immediate feeling that an encounter with such powerful religious imagery must have impacted a Romantic like him is evident. He really felt something viewing this. Curator: Indeed. His romantic, even subjective, engagement with material culture. His writing implies some careful and detailed attention to material. The mention of colors and textures brings out the rich tapestry of sensory details he chose to emphasize. Editor: Beyond the artistic or even the historical significance, this journal page embodies a continuing human need to mark our journey, to bear witness, and in doing so, discover both the world and ourselves. Curator: I agree. A single page speaks volumes, reminding us that even small observations, recorded with ink and paper, become powerful cultural objects over time.