Gezicht op de Heilige Trap in Rome before 1898

Curator: Here we have a page from an anonymous sketchbook, dated to before 1898. It depicts the Scala Santa, the Holy Stairs, in Rome. Editor: It's a bit ghostly, isn't it? Those steps recede into a shadowed distance. Gives me a slight shiver, almost like looking into someone’s memory. Curator: What’s fascinating is the way it is bound in a personal sketchbook—materials bound together, experiences preserved in a unique handmade format. The paper itself has aged, which provides an additional depth to the impression of viewing the drawing. Editor: Absolutely. You can almost smell the musty paper. And the choice to depict it in a sketchbook… I wonder, were they thinking of the labor it took for pilgrims to ascend those steps on their knees? There’s a tension between devotional act and human cost. Curator: Or perhaps it was just a quick study, a capture of a moment while traveling, meant to capture an experience of visiting such a place as an artistic or devotional expression. I like that we only have a small part of that story. Editor: I'm struck by how the image contrasts a specific location like the Scala Santa with more abstracted human notions of memory, place, and work in this printed personal document. I wonder if the book contains other notes or travel observations... it changes the stakes and reception. Curator: That really reframes how I’m seeing the work now—almost a little melancholy, thinking about the journey behind creating this little sketchbook page and our distance from that traveler today. Editor: It reminds us that even the most venerated sites are built and experienced in deeply human, deeply material ways. Curator: It's really more than just a picture of some stairs. Editor: Definitely food for thought on how we see and value historical locations.