14/05/2010 17:32

Panoramic painting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Panoramic paintings are massive artworks that reveal a wide, all-encompassing view of a particular
subject, often a landscape, military battle, or historical event. They became especially popular in the 19th
Century in Europe and the United States, inciting opposition from writers of Romantic poetry. A few
have survived into the 21st Century and are on public display.

Contents
Scheveningen village, a small section of the
Panorama Mesdag (1880-1881), with false
terrain in the foreground.

1 History
2 Romantic criticism of panoramas
3 Surviving panoramas
4 See also
5 External links
6 Notes
7 References

History

Panorama of Along the River During Qing Ming Festival, 18th century remake of a 12th century original by Chinese artist Zhang Zeduan

The word "panorama", from Greek pan ("all") horama ("view") was coined by the Irish painter Robert Barker in 1792 to describe his paintings of Edinburgh,
Scotland shown on a cylindrical surface, which he soon was exhibiting in London, as "The Panorama". In 1793 Barker moved his panoramas to the first
purpose-built panorama building in the world, in Leicester Square, and made a fortune.
Viewers flocked to pay a
stiff 3 shillings to stand on
a central platform under a
skylight, which offered an
even lighting, and get an
experience that was
"panoramic" (an adjective
that didn't appear in print
until 1813). The extended
meaning of a
"comprehensive survey" of
a subject followed sooner,
in 1801. Visitors to
Barker's Panorama of
London, painted as if
Raevsky Battery at Borodino, a fragment of Roubaud's panoramic painting.
viewed from the roof of
Albion Mills on the South
Bank, could purchase a series of six prints that modestly recalled the experience; end-to-end the prints stretched 3.25 meters. In contrast, the actual
panorama spanned 250 square meters. [1]
Despite the success of Barker's first panorama in Leicester Square, it was neither his first attempt at the craft nor his first exhibition. In 1788 Barker
showcased his first panorama.[2] It was only a semi-circular view of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Barker's inability to bring the image to a full 360 degrees
disappointed him. [3] To realize his true vision, Barker and his son, Henry Aston Barker, took on the task of painting a scene of the Albion Mills. [4] The first
version of what was to be Barker's first successful panorama was displayed in the Barker home and measured only 137 square meters. [5]
Barker's accomplishment involved sophisticated manipulations of perspective not encountered in the panorama's predecessors, the wide-angle "prospect" of
a city familiar since the 16th century, or Wenceslas Hollar's "long view" of London, etched on several contiguous sheets. When Barker first patented his
technique in 1787, he had given it a French title: La ature Coup d Oeil ("Nature at a glance"). A sensibility to the "picturesque" was developing among
the educated class, and as they toured picturesque districts, like the Lake District, they might have in the carriage with them a large lens set in a picture
frame, a "landscape glass" that would contract a wide view into a "picture" when held at arm's length.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panoramic_painting

1 de 5

14/05/2010 17:32
Barker made many efforts to increase the realism of his scenes. To fully immerse the audience in the scene, all borders of the canvas were concealed. [6]
Props were also strategically positioned on the platform where the audience stood and two windows were laid into the roof to allow natural light to flood the
canvases. [7]
Two scenes could be exhibited in the rotunda simultaneously, however the rotunda at Leicester Square was the only one to do so. [8] Houses with single
scenes proved more popular to audiences as the fame of the panorama spread. [9] Because the Leicester Square rotunda housed two panoramas, Barker
needed a mechanism to clear the minds of the audience as they moved from one panorama to the other. To accomplish this, patrons walked down a dark
corridor where their minds were supposed to be refreshed for viewing the new scene.[10] Due to the immense size of the panorama, patrons were given
orientation plans to help them navigate the scene.[11] These glorified maps pinpointed key buildings, sites, or events exhibited on the canvas. [12]
To create a panorama, artists traveled to the sites and sketched the scenes multiple times.[13] Typically a team of artists worked on one project with each
team specializing in a certain aspect of the painting such as landscapes, people or skies. [14] After completing their sketches, the artists typically consulted
other paintings, of average size, to add further detail. [15] Martin Meisel described the panorama perfectly in his book Realizations: In its impact, the
Panorama was a comprehensive form, the representation not of the segment of a world, but of a world entire seen from a focal height.[16] Though the artists
painstakingly documented every detail of a scene, by doing so they created a world complete in and of itself. [17]
The first panoramas depicted urban settings, such as cities, while later panoramas depicted nature and famous military battles. [18] The necessity for military
scenes increased in part because so many were taking place. French battles commonly found their way to rotundas thanks to the feisty leadership of
Napoleon Bonaparte. [19] Henry Aston Barker's travels to France during the Peace of Amiens led him to court, where Bonaparte accepted him. [20] Henry
Aston created panoramas of Bonaparte's battles including The Battle of Waterloo, which saw so much success that he retired after finishing it. [21] Henry
Aston's relationship with Bonaparte continued following Bonaparte's exile to Elba, where Henry Aston visited the former emperor. [22]
Outside of England and France, the popularity of panoramas depended on the type of scene displayed. Typically, people wanted to see images from their
own countries or from England. This principle rang true in Switzerland, where views of the Alps dominated. [23] Likewise in America, New York City
panoramas found popularity, as well as imports from Barker's rotunda. [24] As painter John Vanderlyn soon found out, French politics did not interest
Americans. [25] In particular, his depiction of Louis XVIII's return to the throne did not live two months in the rotunda before a new panorama took its place.
[26]

Barker's Panorama was hugely successful and spawned a series of "immersive" panoramas: the Museum of London's curators found mention of 126
panoramas that were exhibited between 1793 and 1863. In Europe, panoramas were created of historical events and battles, notably by the Russian painter
Franz Roubaud. Most major European cities featured more than one purpose-built structure hosting panoramas. These large fixed-circle panoramas declined
in popularity in the latter third of the nineteenth century, though in the United States they experienced a partial revival; in this period, they were more
commonly referred to as cycloramas.
The panorama competed for audiences most frequently with the diorama, a slightly curved or flat canvas extending 22 by 14 meters.[27] The diorama was
invented in 1822 by Louis Daguerre and Charles-Marie Bouton, the latter a former student of the renowned French painter Jacques-Louis David.[28]
Unlike the panorama where spectators had to move to view the scene, the scenes on the diorama moved so the audience could remain seated. [29]
Accomplished with four screens on a roundabout, the illusion captivated 350 spectators at a time for a period of 15 minutes.[30] The images rotated in a 73
degree arc, focusing on two of the four scenes while the remaining two were prepared, which allowed the canvases to be refreshed throughout the course of
the show.[31][32] While topographical detail was crucial to panoramas, as evidenced by the teams of artists who worked on them, the effect of the illusion
took precedence with the diorama. [33] Painters of the diorama also added their own twist to the panoramas props, but instead of props to make the scenes
more real, they incorporated sounds.[34] Another similarity to the panorama was the effect the diorama had on its audience. Some patrons experienced a
stupor, while others were alienated by the spectacle. [35] The alienation of the diorama was caused by the connection the scene drew to art, nature and death.
[36]
After Daguerre and Boutons first exhibition in London, one reviewer noted a stillness like that of the grave.[37] To remedy this tomblike atmosphere
Daguerre painted both sides of the canvas, known as the double effect.[38] By lighting both painted sides of the canvas, light was transmitted and reflected
producing a type of transparency producing the effect of time passing.[39] This effect gave the crew operating the lights and turning the roundabout a new
type of control over the audience than the panorama ever had.[40]
In Britain and particularly in the US, the panoramic ideal was intensified by unrolling a canvas-backed scroll past the viewer in a Moving Panorama, an
alteration of an idea that was familiar in the hand-held landscape scrolls of Song China. First unveiled in 1809 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the moving panorama
required a large canvas and two vertical rollers to be set up on a stage.[41] Peter Marshall added the twist to Barkers original creation, which saw success
throughout the 19th and into the 20th century.[42] The scene or variation of scenes passed between the rollers, eliminating the need to showcase and view the
panorama in a rotunda.[43] A precursor to "moving" pictures (See motion picture.), the moving panorama incorporated music, sound effects and stand-alone
cut-outs to create their mobile effect.[44] Such a traveling motion allowed for new types of scenes, such as chase sequences, that could not be produced so
well in either the diorama or the panorama.[45] In contrast specifically to the diorama, where the audience seemed to be physically rotated, the moving
panorama gave patrons a new perspective, allowing them to (function) as a moving eye.[46]

Romantic criticism of panoramas

The panoramas rise in popularity was a result of its accessibility in that people did not need a certain level of education to enjoy the views it offered. [47]
Accordingly, patrons from across the social scale flocked to rotundas throughout Europe. [48]
While easy access was an attraction of the panorama, some people believed it was nothing more than a parlor trick bent on deceiving its public audience.
Designed to have a lingering effect upon the viewer, the panorama was placed in the same category as propaganda of the period, which was also seen as
deceitful.[49] The locality paradox also attributed to the arguments of panorama critics.[50] A phenomenon resulting from immersion in a panorama, the
locality paradox happened when people were unable to distinguish where they were: in the rotunda or at the scene they were seeing.[51]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panoramic_painting

2 de 5

14/05/2010 17:32
Writers feared the panorama for the simplicity of its illusion. Hester Piozzi was among those who rebelled against the growing popularity of the panorama for
precisely this reason.[52] She did not like seeing so many people elite and otherwise fooled by something so simple.[53]
Another problem with the panorama was what it came to be associated with, namely, by redefining the sublime to incorporate the material. [54] In their
earliest forms, panoramas depicted topographical scenes and in so doing, made the sublime accessible to every person with 3 shillings in his or her pocket.[55]
The sublime became an everyday thing and therefore, a material commodity. By associating the sublime with the material, the panorama was seen as a threat
to romanticism, which was obsessed with the sublime. [56] According to the romantics, the sublime was never supposed to include materiality and by linking
the two, panoramas tainted the sublime.
The poet William Wordsworth has long been characterized as an opponent of the panorama, most notably for his allusion to it in Book Seven of The
Prelude.[57] It has been argued that Wordsworths problem with the panorama was the deceit it used to gain popularity.[58] He felt, critics say, that the
panorama not only exhibited an immense scene of some kind, but also the weakness of human intelligence. [59] Wordsworth was offended by the fact that so
many people found panoramas irresistible and concluded that people were not smart enough to see through the charade.[60] Because of his argument in "The
Prelude," it is safe to assume Wordsworth saw a panorama at some point during his life, but it is unknown which one he saw.[61] Situation as it is, there is no
substantial proof he ever went, other than his description in the poem. [62]
However, Wordsworth's hatred of the panorama was not limited to its deceit. The panorama's association with the sublime was likewise offensive to the poet
as were other spectacles of the period that competed with reality.[63] As a poet, Wordsworth sought to separate his craft from the phantasmagoria enveloping
the population. [64] In this context, phantasmagoria refers to signs and other circulated propaganda, including billboards, illustrated newspapers and
panoramas themselves.[65] Wordsworth's biggest problem with panoramas was their pretense: the panorama lulled spectators into stupors, inhibiting their
ability to imagine things for themselves.[66] Wordsworth wanted people to see the representation depicted in the panorama and appreciate it for what it was
art.[67]
Conversely, some critics argue Wordsworth was not opposed to the panorama, but was rather hesitant about it. [68] A main argument is that other episodes in
The Prelude have just as much sensory depth as panoramas had. [69] Such depth could only be accomplished through imitation of the human senses,
something both the panorama and The Prelude succeed at.[70] Therefore, since both the panorama and The Prelude imitate the senses, they are equal and
suggest Wordsworth was not entirely opposed to panoramas.
A modern take on the panorama believes the enormous paintings filled a hole in the lives of those who lived during the nineteenth century. [71] Bernard
Comment said in his book The Painted Panorama, that the masses needed absolute dominance and the illusion offered by the panorama gave them a sense
of organization and control.[72] Despite the power it wielded, the panorama detached audiences from the scene they viewed, replacing reality and
encouraging them to watch the world rather than experience it. [73]

Surviving panoramas
Relatively few of these unwieldy ephemera survive; a rare surviving great-circle panorama is the Panorama
Mesdag in a purpose-built museum in The Hague, showing the dunes of nearby Scheveningen. There is a
panorama located at the battlefield of Waterloo, depicting the battle.
An exhibition "Panoramania" was held at the Barbican in the 1980s, with a catalog by Ralph Hyde. The
Racawice Panorama, currently located in Wrocaw, Poland, is a monumental (15 120 metre) panoramic
painting depicting the Battle of Racawice, during the Kociuszko Uprising. A panorama of the Battle of
Stalingrad is on display at Mamayev Kurgan. Among Franz Roubaud's great panoramas, those depicting the Siege
of Sevastopol (1905) and Battle of Borodino (1911) survive, although the former was damaged during the Siege
of Sevastopol (1942) and the latter was transferred to Poklonnaya Gora. The Pleven Panorama in Pleven,
Bulgaria, depicts the events of the Siege of Pleven in 1877 on a 11515-metre canvas with a 12-meter
foreground.

Building in Pleven where the Pleven

Panorama is on exhibit.

Five large panoramas survive in North America: Jerusalem at the Moment of Christ's Death, at St. Anne , outside
of Quebec City, the Gettysburg Cyclorama depicting Pickett's Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, John Vanderlyn's
Panorama of the Garden and Palace of Versailes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and the Cyclorama of the Battle of Atlanta in
Atlanta, Georgia. A fifth panorama, also depicting the Battle of Gettysburg, was willed in 1996 to Wake Forest University in North Carolina; it is in poor
condition and not on public display. It was purchased in 2007 by a group of North Carolina investors who hope to resell it to someone willing to restore it.
Only pieces survive of a massive cyclorama depicting the Battle of Shiloh.
In the area of the Moving Panorama, there are somewhat more extant, though many are in poor repair and the conservation of such enormous paintings poses
very expensive problems. The most notable rediscovered panorama in the United States was the Great Moving Panorama of Pilgrim's Progress, which was
found in storage at the York Institute now the Saco Museum in Saco, Maine, by its former curator Tom Hardiman. It was found to incorporate designs by
many of the leading painters of its day, including Jasper Francis Cropsey, Frederic Edwin Church, and Henry Courtney Selous (Selous was the in-house
painter for the original Barker panorama in London for many years.)
Another moving panorama was donated to the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection at Brown University Library in 2005. Painted in Nottingham, England
around 1860 by John James Story (d. 1900), it depicts the life and career of the great Italian patriot, Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882). The panorama stands
about 4 1/2 feet high and approximately 273 feet long, painted on both sides in watercolor. Numerous battles and other dramatic events in his life are
depicted in 42 scenes, and the original narration written in ink survives.
The Arrival of the Hungarians, a vast cyclorama by rpd Feszty et al., completed in 1894, is displayed at the pusztaszer National Historical Memorial
Park in Hungary. It was made to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of the the 895 conquest of the Carpathian Basin by the Hungarians.
The Cyclorama of Early Melbourne, by artist John Hennings in 1892, still survives albeit having suffered water damage during a fire. Painted from a
panoramic sketch of Early Melbourne in 1842 by Samuel Jackson. It places the viewer on top of the partially constructed Scott's Church on Collins Street in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panoramic_painting

3 de 5

14/05/2010 17:32
the Melbourne CBD. Commissioned to celebrate 50 years of the city of Melbourne, it was displayed in the Melbourne Exhibition Building for nearly 30
years before being taken into storage. Relatively small for a Cyclorama, it measured just 100 feet long and 13 feet high.

See also
Panorama
International Panorama Council
Moving panorama
Myriorama
Mareorama
Cinorama
Trans-Siberian Railway Panorama

External links
Online Etymology Dictionary: (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=panorama) Panorama
Michael Quinion, "World Wide Words"; (http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-pan3.htm) Panorama
"The 'Panorama'" (http://www.edvec.ed.ac.uk/html/projects/panorama/) : Edinburgh's panorama
Panorama of London from Albion Mills (http://www.ex.ac.uk/bill.douglas/collection/panorama/barker.html) : a semi-circular view in hand
watercolored prints
Museum of London website (http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/MOLsite/learning/features_facts/world_city_3.html) Panoramania!
Website of the International Panorama Council IPC listing all existing panoramas and cycloramas worldwide (http://www.panoramapainting.com)
Garibaldi & the Risorgimento (http://dl.lib.brown.edu/garibaldi)
Racawice Panorama in Wrocaw (http://www.wroclaw-life.com/culture/culture_details/87-Raclawice_Panorama)
[1] (http://romantic.arhu.umd.edu/praxis/gothic/thomas/thomas.html)

otes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.

^ Comment 1999, p. 23
^ Comment 1999, p. 23
^ Comment 1999, p. 23
^ Comment 1999, p. 23
^ Comment 1999, p. 23
^ Ellis 2008, p. 144
^ Comment 1999, p. 7-8
^ Comment 1999, p. 24
^ Comment 1999, p. 24
^ Thomas 2005, p. 10
^ Comment 1999, p. 161
^ Comment 1999, p. 161
^ Comment 1999, p. 182
^ Comment 1999, p. 182
^ Comment 1999, p. 182
^ Meisel 1983, p. 62
^ Thomas 2005, p. 14
^ Comment 1999, pp. 23-25
^ Comment 1999, p. 24
^ Comment 1999, p. 24
^ Comment 1999, p. 25
^ Comment 1999, p. 24
^ Comment 1999, p. 53
^ Comment 1999, p. 55-56
^ Comment 1999, p. 56
^ Comment 1999, p. 56
^ Comment 1999, p. 57
^ Comment 1999, p. 57
^ Comment 1999, p. 58
^ Comment 1999, p. 58
^ Comment 1999, p. 58
^ Meisel 1983, p. 62
^ Thomas 2005, p. 11
^ Thomas 2005, p. 11
^ Thomas 2005, p. 12-13
^ Thomas 2005, p. 13-14
^ Thomas 2005, p. 13-14

38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.

^ Thomas 2005, p. 13-14

^ Meisel 1983, p. 62
^ Meisel 1983, p. 62
^ Wilcox 2007, p. 2
^ Wilcox 2007, p. 2
^ Wilcox 2007, p. 2
^ Meisel 1983, p. 62
^ Meisel, 1983, p. 62
^ Meisel 1983, p. 62
^ Ellis 2008, p. 142
^ Ellis 2008, p. 142
^ Thomas 2005, p. 20
^ Ellis 2008, p. 144
^ Ellis 2008, p. 144
^ Ellis 2008, p. 142
^ Ellis 2008, p. 142
^ Jones 2006, p. 360
^ Wilcox 2007, p. 1
^ Jones 2006, p.360
^ Ellis 2008, p. 145
^ Haut 2009, p. 314
^ Ellis 2008, p. 145
^ Ellis 2008, p. 145
^ Jones 2006, p. 364
^ Jones 2006, p. 364
^ Miles 2005, p. 14
^ Miles 2005, p. 18
^ Miles 2005, pp. 14-15
^ Haut 2009, p. 314
^ Ellis 2008, p. 145
^ Jones 2006, p. 364
^ Jones 2006, p. 366-367
^ Jones 2006, p. 366-367
^ Comment 1999, p. 19
^ Comment 1999, p. 19
^ Comment 1999, p. 19

References
Ralph Hyde, Panoramania, 1988 (exhibition catalog)
Stephan Oettermann, The Panorama: History of a Mass Medium (MIT Press)
Gabriele Koller, (ed.), Die Welt der Panoramen. Zehn Jahre Internationale Panorama Konferenzen / The World of Panoramas. Ten Years of
International Panorama Conferences, Amberg 2003
Sehsucht. Das Panorama als Massenunterhaltung des 19. Jahrhunderts, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Bonn,
Basel und Frankfurt am Main 1993
Gebhard Streicher (ed.), Panorama: Virtualitt und Realitten. 11. Internationale Panoramakonferenz in Alttting 2003 / Panorama: Virtuality and
Realities. 11th International Panorama Conference in Alttting 2003, Alttting 2005

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panoramic_painting

4 de 5

14/05/2010 17:32
Oliver Grau, Virtual Art. From Illusion to Immersion, London 2003
Bernard Comment, The Painted Panorama. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1999.
Markman Ellis. Spectacles within doors: Panoramas of London in the 1790s. Romanticism 2008, Vol. 14 Issue 2. Modern Language Association
International Bibliography Database.
J. Jennifer Jones. Absorbing Hesitation: Wordsworth and the Theory of the Panorama. Studies in Romanticism. 45:3, 2006. Modern Language
Association International Bibliography Database.
Robert Miles. "Introduction: Gothic Romance as Visual Technology." Gothic Technologies: Visuality in the Romantic Era. Ed. Robert Miles. 2005.
Praxis Series. 31 Jan. 2010. http://romantic.arhu.umd.edu/praxis/gothic/thomas/thomas.html
Scott Wilcox. "Panorama." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, 2007. 9 Feb. 2010. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove
/art/T065087>
Sophie Thomas. "Making Visible: The Diorama, the Double and the (Gothic) subject." Gothic Technologies: Visuality in the Romantic Era. Ed.
Robert Miles. 2005. Praxis Series. 31 Jan. 2010. http://romantic.arhu.umd.edu/praxis/gothic/thomas/thomas.html
Asia Haut. "Reading the Visual." Oxford Art Journal: 32, 2, 2009.
Martin Meisel. Realizations. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 1983.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panoramic_painting"
Categories: Panorama | Landscape art | Art genres
This page was last modified on 11 April 2010 at 18:31.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panoramic_painting

5 de 5