Dead
Media | 0.01-02.0 | 02.1-04.0
| 04.1-06.0 | 06.1-08.0 |
08.1-10.0 | 10.1-12.0 |
Subject: Dead Media Working Note 09.1
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 25
"In the initial period, panorama painters looked for
existing large premises in which their work of art could
be hung, but soon afterwards they began to construct
special small round wooden buildings, primitive sheds,
constructed = or so it appears = around the circular
canvases. These kinds of contraptions could be found in
many towns around 1800. The simple sheds in Hamburg,
Leipzig and Amsterdam which housed the first panoramas
were examples (...)"
page 26
"Barker's first rotunda was 11 m. high and had a
diameter of 26 m. In the big capitals of the time,
London, Paris and Vienna, where one could count on a
steady number of visitors, there arose, in due course,
more professional wooden or stone structures. The
exteriors of these rotundas were simple, undecorated,
cylindrical or polygonal in shape, like the twin panorama
buildings at Montmartre (Paris) or Barker's ingenious two-
storied rotunda on Leicester Square.
"Later again, a specific rotunda architecture
developed, narrowly linked to the construction of circuses
(...) By employing new materials (iron combined with
glass) the rotundas became even more spectacular towards
the middle of the 19th century. With the building on the
Champs Elysees designed by Hittorf (the creator of the
Place de la Concorde), Paris became the model for numerous
later buildings (...)
"Most rotundas bult later in the 19th century were
monumental, pompous buildings, often abundantly decorated,
on which the then fashionable neo-styles were appled with
great zest. (...) In the earlier days London had its
enormous Colosseum (1829), Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig,
Salzburg, Vienna, Brussels, Milan and Madrid all had their
own baroque panorama homes. They were also to be found in
the Netherlands. At one time Paris boasted at least 13 of
this kind of round art temples.
"When later on panorama companies were founded, a
certain uniformity in construction developed so as to
facilitate the exchange of the paintings. The dimensions
were also considerably larger than before. Standard
building norms were a diameter of 40 m. and a height of 15
m."
page 28
"Early in the 20th century, the age of the panorama
definitely came to an end. It was impossible to fight the
competition of the oncoming cinema. (...) Also the new
photoprinting technique, by means of which photographs
could appear in illustrated periodicals, was a nail in the
coffin of the panorama, which was not any longer
susceptible to innovation. The panorama buildings were
mostly pulled down. but sometimes adapted to other uses.
They were transformed into theatres, cinemas, riding-
schools, artificial ice-rinks, mosques and suchlike.
Untold numbers of rotundas burnt down, sometimes well
insured, for inexplicable reasons. With the buildings the
numerous Societes Anonymes disappeared as well. But the
panorama has not been entirely relegated to history. The
Mesdag Panorama and a number of other circular displays
have survived in spite of adversity."
Dead
Media | 0.01-02.0 | 02.1-04.0
| 04.1-06.0 | 06.1-08.0 |
08.1-10.0 | 10.1-12.0 |