Arizona weekly enterprise., 1888-03-10
THE MODERN PANORAMA.
Invention of the Circular Form of Pict
 ure-A Mystery to the Spectator.

Invention of the Circular Form of Pict-
 ure-A Mystery to the Spectator.
 However far back in the dim past the panorama idea can be traced, the roller panorama is comparatively modern, and its career was destined to be brief for it's miles of canvas with crude color fur nished pictures that were devoid of en- during qualities. It gave rise or revived an infinitely better and more instructive and valuable exemplar in the present panorama that the eastern cousin calls the cyclorama. History credits Robert Barker, Scotch artist, with the inven- ton of the circular panorama, he having exhibited in Edinburgh that city's pan oramic reflections in 178S, it being followed in succession with a view of London, sea fights and the Ma poleonic wars. Between the old roller panorama and that of the present there is a deep gulf fixed. The former carried the spectator upon long voyage with the leather lunged lecturer as the vocal accompanist, and from the steamers deck on which the audience were SUD- posed to view a succession of scenes; something like a Stoddard lecture or a SuANS DOOh NA4cib cJCclhO III d Sld0G NONe from behind the friendly screen of dark ness. The present panorama or cylo- rama, without any such adventitious aids, provides the spectator with an ele- vated position in the center of a fixed landscape that has been made memorable by some great historical event. It pro- vides picture that bespeaks it's own art istic value, and bases its incidents upon recorded fact. It now successfully in- vades the field of historical paintings and challenges the severer canons of criti- cism, as well as the skill, truthfulness and accuracy of the artist.
 At the first view of the spectator the panorama seems to be mystery. It is apparently an absolute reproduction of the scenes represented, the objects seem- ing equal in size with the original ob- 1 jects, and the space covered equally great | circular building, less than 100 feet in | diameter, and not much more than fifty 1 feet in elevation, expands to the dimen- sions of the space that can be covered by the eye in an open landscape, and reaches upward to the clouds. A portion of the foreground, it is very well known, is composed of real figures and objects; but the illusion upon the painted canvas is so perfect that the painted figures seem hardly less objective than the real figures, and without the most careful scrutiny the dividing line cannot be distinguished. | Surely the spectator thinks there must be some wonderful secret known only tc the painter in this illusion. The largest life size figures are between three and four feet high.
 The most remarkable of recent realistic aids to the panorama is the foreground. A recent writer says: Shut out the real objects in the foreground from the eye, and the distances in the perspective will not be diminished, nor the figures on the canvas rendered less strong in their re- lief. The only service that seems to be rendered by the objective portions oi the foreground is to bring the en tire landscapet to the feet of the spectator and to shut out the intervening space ol bare floor that would otherwise destroy the illusion. One is surrounded by tht picture above, below, and upon all sides and is permitted to see no other object standing upon a platform that seems tC be erected in the very center of the fielC delineated. These are aids to render tn, scene more realistic. Any one who ha. observed a painting of this character without the foreground in position, vii readily recognize its immense advantage when it forms the link between the plat form and the canvas. Good drawing spirited color, and finely sustained per spective, are three requisites that mus figure on the plane of worthy pano rama.
 The linen canvas for panoramas, iron the Wehner studio, is specially woven a Brussels, in breadths thirty feet wide b, fifty long, that are neatly stitche, together, fourteen widths furnishing tn regulation size. The ground colors alon cost upward of $500 before there is
 tracery on the canvas. It requires nearl
 2,000 pounds of pure white and ultrama rine blue for atmospheric glazing. Whel a panorama is painted and rolled fo shipment it is coated with three tons O color, and weighs about five tons, and liable to consume another ton of color il the finishing touches. The panorama o the "Battle of Sedan, the heaviest in tn country, weighed eleven tons.-Chicag
 Inter Ocean.