| Panoramas
as Sublime Vistas
The idea of the natural sublime was a symbolic standard
for panorama reviewers, a way of evoking the awe-inspiring properties
of panoramas representing natural scenes in ways familiar to even
middle class audiences in the nineteenth-century. The panorama's
realistic design thus “transported” spectators in two
senses: to the location represented in the painting and to a level
of metaphysical contemplation. In the case of wraparound panoramas
the sensation of sublimity may have derived as much from the illusionism
of the panorama “effect” as from the specific content
of the painting.
Albert Smith’s “Ascent
of Mont Blanc”that appeared in the Illustrated
London News, December 25, 1851 was shown at the Egyptian
Hall, Picadilly.
Altick, p.476 |
The
panorama formed the background to a Swiss chalet before which
Smith had placed a pool with fish and alpine plants. Critics
did not approve when three dimensional props were added; more
ordinary subjects could be embellished, but not locations
associated with evocations of the sublime such as alpine scenes. |
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Battles were the subject of panoramas during the nineteenth-century
panorama “craze,” and the idea of the sublime within
this genre became an expression of nationalistic fervor. The viewer
experienced the humbling effect of being transported to the battlefield
not as a mere voyeur but as a witness to history.
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British
Battle by Sir Robert Ker Porter
Guildhall Library Collage Database.
The panoramas of Sir
Robert Ker Porter were responsible for developing the battle
panorama in England. British victories became the subject
of “instant” panoramas, which in their day were
the static equivalent of todays’s CNN.
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Broadside
for the Burning of the Houses of Parliament |
Courtesy
of NYPL |
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Poster
for Baun and Edmund Beringer’s panorama.
Battle of Champigny-Villiers
Historiches Museum, Frankfurt |
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Poster
for Philip Fleischer’s panorama “Battle
of Trafalgar” 1890.
Historiches Museum, Frankfurt |
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Broadside
for a panorama of the American Civil War. Library
of Congress American Memory Collection. |
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In the early Imax film To Fly—produced as part
of the 1976 Smithsonian Bicentenary celebrations—issues of national
identity are bound tightly to technological developments in aviation
through meta-narratives of American progress and domination in flight
technology. While panoramas did circulate across national borders
in the nineteenth century, their national specificity played a determining
role in their success in foreign markets. For example, it was precisely
the overtly nationalistic content of many European 360 degree panoramas
which limited their appeal within the U.S. panorama market, where
Americans were more interested in their own geography and western
frontier than in ancient ruins and European battles.
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Imax "To
Fly" video jacket
Courtesy of IMAX Corporation |
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Broadside
for Panorama to be exhibited North 11th, near Market St. The
painting of the celebrated Palace and garden of Versailles,
[Philadelphia] July 1821. Library of Congress American Memory
Collection. |
Arrowsmith’s
Panorama of Western Travel [Harper’s
New Monthly Magazine], Vol. 18, Issue 103, December
1858. Library of Congress American Memory Collection. |
Broadside
for “Original Panorama of the Gold Regions of
California!” painted by S.A. Hudson, Esq. Library
of Congress American Memory Collection. |
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