dieser beitrag wurde verfasst in: englisch (eng/en)
titel: Panoramas and dioramas
jahr: 19th and 20th century
+: The word 'panorama' is common in modern language. But the term was originally created in 18th century for an extraordinary visual spectacle. A panorama (or a cyclorama it is called in some parts of the world) includes a huge painting and its foreground, the surrounding building, and its meaning in history and modern society.
In its original sense the panorama is a large cylindrical painting together with its 360 degree foreground, surrounding the spectator in virtual continuum. Thus a panorama creates the illusion of standing in the middle of a landscape and scene, while the depicted events were happening. Natural lighting from an invisible source (windows all around in the roof, hidden from the spectator) adds to the virtual reality of the experience.
The Diorama was a popular entertainment that originated in Paris in 1822. An alternative to the panorama, the Diorama was a theatrical experience viewed by an audience in a highly specialized theatre. As many as 350 patrons would file in to view a landscape painting that would change its appearance both subtly and dramatically. Most would stand, though limited seating was provided. The show lasted 10 to 15 minutes, after which time the entire audience (on a massive turntable) would rotate to view a second painting. Later models of the Diorama theater even held a third painting.
In 19th century a derivative of the panorama was established. Such large scale dioramas were not 360° panorama paintings but reduced versions with an angle of 90 to 150°. Typically, these displays use a tilted plane to represent what would otherwise be a level surface, incorporate a painted background of distant objects, and often employ false perspective, carefully modifying the scale of objects placed on the plane to reinforce the illusion through depth perception in which objects of identical real-world size placed farther from the observer appear smaller than those closer. Often the distant painted background or sky will be painted upon a continuous curved surface so that the viewer is not distracted by corners, seams, or edges.
(source: panoramapainting.org)