The moving panorama was an innovation on panoramic painting in the mid-nineteenth century. It was among the most popular forms of entertainment in the world, with hundreds of panoramas constantly on tour in the United Kingdom, the United States, and many European countries. Moving panoramas were often seen in melodramatic plays. It became a new visual element to theatre and helped incorporate a more realistic quality. Not only was it a special effect on stage, but it also served as an ancestor and platform to early cinema.
1848 illustration of a moving panorama designed by John Banvard.
1891 poster for Poole's Myriorama featuring the meeting between Stanley and Emin Pasha
Poster for Fuller's Myriorama show about Ireland
Scene 25 from the Garibaldi Panorama (Brown University)
Panoramic paintings are massive artworks that reveal a wide, all-encompassing view of a particular subject, often a landscape, military battle, or historical event. They became especially popular in the 19th century in Europe and the United States, inciting opposition from some writers of Romantic poetry. A few have survived into the 21st century and are on public display. Typically shown in rotundas for viewing, panoramas were meant to be so lifelike they confused the spectator between what was real and what was image.
Panorama of a half section of Night Revels of Han Xizai, 12th century Song Dynasty painting
Panorama Along the River during the Qingming Festival, 18th copy of an original from the 12th century by Zhang Zeduan
Robert Mitchell's diagram illustrating the Leicester Square Rotunda, in which was exhibited the Panorama, 1801 (annotated adaptation)
Cross-section of the Rotunda in Leicester Square in which the panorama of London was exhibited (1801)