08.8

//Source(s): he Panorama Phenomenon: Mesdag Panorama 1881- 1981 Published by the Foundation for the Preservation of the Centenarian Mesdag Panorama (September 1981) Den Haag, Holland editor Evelyn J. Fruitema written by Paul A. Zoetmulder Mesdag Panorama, Zeestraat 65b, 2518AA The Hague// pages 18-19 "Quite simply, the secret of the panorama lies in the elimination of the possibility to compare the work of art with the reality outside, by taking away *all* boundaries which remind the spectator that he is observing a separate object within his total visual field. Not without reason the panorama used to be called the 'all-view' or 'the picture without boundaries.' Barker's patent achieved this effect by incapsulating the spectator inside a *total view.* "The circular canvas envelops him like a cylinder. When he glances upward, the light source and the top edge of the picture remain hidden from view by an umbrella-like roof over the platform (the so-called *velum*), and at the bottom of the picture his view is blocked by a cloth or another kind of foreground, placed between the balustrade and the lower edge of the painting. "By means of these provisions the spectator is deprived of the possibility of comparison. He can no longer correctly judge size and distance. He only sees the objects on the painting surrounding him in their relative proportions (...) and all this lead the spectator to experience his fictitious surroundings as a reality. This technique, invented by Barker, was a complete novelty at the time, and its amazing effect was the cause of the enormous success scored by the panorama during more than a hundred years. "It goes without saying that in the course of time the optical effects have been further doctored. (...) The corridor leading from below to the platform was therefore darkened, so that the visitor, whose eye had been adapted to this darkness, gets caught unprepared by the fully lit panorama picture (...) A winding staircase was mostly chosen for entering the higher situated platform with the preconceived intention of making the visitor lose his bearings. "Numerous experiments were necessary to establish how the spectator should be fitted into the whole,. and the distance to be allowed between the platform and the canvas. The lighting of the canvas via the roof dome = an essential element of panorama technique = was no simple matter. (...) Experiments were made with smoked glass, with 'skirts' of cloth encircling the light dome, with transversely screened sheets, all this with the aim of making the light from above shine *from* the picture by reflection. (...) "It was a certain Colonely Langlois who broke new ground by using the horizontal space between the platform and canvas to perfect still further the optical illusion. He 'filled' this space with a setting of tri-dimensional objects which constituted integrating parts of the display. Without this '*faux-terrain*,' the foreground-setting, including the objects, the so-called '*attrapes*' (hoaxes), a panorama later on was no longer a real panorama. Gradually this technique was further refined to the extent that the tri-dimensional attrapes faded perfectly into the bi-dimensional canvas, thus creating a very realistic effect."
 * Dead medium: the Panorama**
 * From: bruces@well.com Bruce Sterling**