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Subject: Dead Media Working Note 08.9

Dead medium: the Panorama

From: bruces_AT_well.com (Bruce Sterling)

Source: The 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 (Netherlands)

page 20

"Painting a panorama required a highly specialized technique. One has but to image the enormous size of the canvas to be painted to understand this. Surfaces of 1500 to 2000 square meters were not unusual. The canvas was of circular form, made the transfer of sketches executed on a plane surface very complicated indeed."

page 22

"The panorama painter took the requirement of meticulous rendering exceedingly seriously. When he wished to represent towns, landscapes or other spectacles from foreign countries, he travelled to the location with a group of assistants in order to prepare the sketchwork in detail on the spot. Such expeditions sometimes lasted many months. Topographical studies were undertaken, and for historical scenes, available archaeological research constituted the basis. Every detail was delineated exactly as it was, or must have been. In representing contemporary events, such as battles or sea fights, a well-nigh pathological precision manifested itself."

pages 23-25

"Scaffolding of greater height than the canvas (14 to 16 m.), and mobile in a circle, was needed (...) These were enormous structures on wheels, mostly consisting of many stories, on which several men were simultaneously engaged in their work, as arduous as it was singular. There they stood with their giant paintbrushes, at a distance of five feet from the canvas, practically helpless without central guidance. (...)

"After all preliminaries, it was on that scaffolding that the actual production of the panorama-painting began. (...) Usually it was done in teamwork, each member assuming responsibility for either a number of sections, or for the subject for which he had been recruited as a specialist (scenery, architecture, sea, animals, etc.). These artists were in turn assisted by various helpers, so that inside the rotunda was full of hustle and bustle. (...) Standing in the rotunda centre, the 'producer' continuously gave orders to his disciples on the scaffolding, who in fact scarcely saw what they were actually painting.

"Finally the 'faux-terrain' with its three dimensional '*attrapes*' was constructed by specially recruited experts (frequently theatre designers) who competed to make the foreground as deceptive as possible. Then the panorama was ready, after an enervating production that generally took approximately a whole year."

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