Diorama


A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional model either full-sized or miniature. Sometimes dioramas are enclosed in a glass showcase at a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies like military vehicle modeling, miniature figure modeling, or aircraft modeling.
In the United States around 1950 and onward, natural history dioramas in museums became less fashionable, leading to many being removed, dismantled, or destroyed.

Etymology

Artists Louis Daguerre and Charles Marie Bouton coined the name "diorama" for a theatrical system that used variable lighting to give a translucent painting the illusion of depth and movement. It derives from Greek δια- + ὅραμα = "see-through image." The first use in reference to museum displays is recorded in 1902, although such displays existed before.

Modern

The current, popular understanding of the term "diorama" denotes a partially three-dimensional, full-size replica or scale model of a landscape typically showing historical events, nature scenes, or cityscapes, for purposes of education or entertainment.
One of the first uses of dioramas in a museum was in Stockholm, Sweden where the Biological Museum opened in 1893. It had several dioramas which were on three floors. They were implemented by the Grigore Antipa National Museum of Natural History Bucharest, Romania and constituted a source of inspiration for many important museums in the world.

Miniature

Miniature dioramas are typically much smaller, and use scale models and landscaping to create historical or fictional scenes. Such a scale model-based diorama is used, for example, in Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry to display railroading. That diorama employs a common model railroading scale of 1:87. Hobbyist dioramas often use scales including 1:35 or 1:48.
An early, and exceptionally large example was created between 1830 and 1838 by a British Army officer. William Siborne, and represents the Battle of Waterloo at about 7.45 pm, on 18 June 1815. The diorama measures and used around 70,000 model soldiers in its construction. It is now part of the collection of the National Army Museum in London.
Sheperd Paine, a prominent hobbyist, popularized the modern miniature diorama beginning in the 1970s.

Full-size

Modern museum dioramas may be seen in most major natural-history museums. Typically, these displays simulate a tilted plane effect to represent what would otherwise be a level surface, incorporating a painted background of distant objects. The displays often use false perspective, carefully modifying the scale of objects placed on the plane to reinforce an illusion through depth perception, in which objects of identical real-world size placed farther from the observer appear smaller than those closer. Often the distant painted background or sky will be painted upon a continuous curved surface so that the viewer is not distracted by corners, seams, or edges. All of these techniques are means of presenting a realistic-appearing view of a large scene in a compact space. A photograph or single-eye view of such a diorama can be especially convincing, since in this case there is no distraction by the binocular perception of depth.

Uses

Miniature dioramas may be used to represent scenes from historic events. A typical example of this type are dioramas seen at Norway's Resistance Museum in Oslo, Norway.
Landscapes built around model railways can also be considered dioramas, even though they often have to compromise scale accuracy for better operating characteristics. Hobbyists also build dioramas of historical or quasi-historical events using a variety of materials, including plastic models of military vehicles, ships or other equipment, along with scale figures and landscaping.
In the 19th and beginning 20th century, building dioramas of sailing ships had been a popular handcraft of mariners. Building a diorama instead of a normal model had the advantage that in the diorama, the model was protected inside the framework and could easily be stowed below the bunk or behind the sea chest. Nowadays, such antique sailing ship dioramas are valuable collector's items.
Image:GenealogicalDiorama.jpg|thumb|A genealogical diorama for an elementary school class project; the featured subject is a maternal great-grandfather of the student
One of the largest dioramas ever created was a model of the entire state of California built for the Panama–Pacific International Exposition of 1915 and that for a long time was installed in San Francisco's Ferry Building. Dioramas are widely used in the American educational system, mostly in elementary and middle schools. They are often made to represent historical events, ecological biomes, cultural scenes, or to visually depict literature. They are usually made from a shoebox and contain a trompe-l'œil in the background contrasted with two or three-dimensional models in the foreground. In California elementary schools, a popular assignment has fourth graders making a Spanish mission diorama to learn about the California Spanish missions.
File:Monpa diorama.JPG|thumb|300px|right|Near life-size diorama of the Monpa people at the Jawaharlal Nehru Museum, Itanagar in Itanagar, IndiaBurmese-Chinese brothers Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par, the developers of Tiger Balm, opened Haw Par Villa in 1937 in Singapore, where statues and dioramas were commissioned to teach traditional Chinese values. Today, the site contains over 150 giant dioramas depicting scenes from Chinese Literature, folklore, legends, history, philosophy and statuary of key Chinese religions, Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The best-known attraction in Haw Par Villa is the Ten Courts of Hell, which features gruesome depictions of Hell in Chinese mythology and in Buddhism. Other major attractions include dioramas of scenes from Journey to the West, Fengshen Bang, The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars and the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. The park was a major local attraction during the 1970s and 1980s; it is estimated that the park then welcomed at least 1 million annual visitors, and is considered as part of Singapore's cultural heritage.

Historic

Daguerre and Bouton

The Diorama was popular entertainment which originated in Paris in 1822. An alternative to the also popular "Panorama", the Diorama was a theatrical experience viewed by an audience in a highly specialized theatre. As many as 350 patrons would file in to view a landscape painting that would change its appearance both subtly and dramatically. Most would stand, though limited seating was provided. The show lasted 10 to 15 minutes, after which time the entire audience would rotate to view a second painting. Later models of the Diorama theater even held a third painting.
The size of the proscenium was wide by high. Each scene was hand-painted on linen, which was made transparent in selected areas. A series of these multi-layered, linen panels were arranged in a deep, truncated tunnel, then illuminated by sunlight re-directed via skylights, screens, shutters, and colored blinds. Depending on the direction and intensity of the skillfully manipulated light, the scene would appear to change. The effect was so subtle and finely rendered that both critics and the public were astounded, believing they were looking at a natural scene.
The inventors and proprietors of the Diorama were Charles-Marie Bouton, a Troubador painter who also worked at the Panorama under Pierre Prévost, and Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, formerly a decorator, manufacturer of mirrors, painter of Panoramas, and designer and painter of theatrical stage illusions. Daguerre would later co-invent the daguerreotype, the first widely used method of photography. A second diorama in Regent's Park in London was opened by an association of British men in 1823, a year after the debut of Daguerre's Paris original. The building was designed by Augustus Charles Pugin. Bouton operated the Regent's Park diorama from 1830 to 1840, when it was taken over by his protégé, the painter Charles-Caïus Renoux.
The Regent's Park diorama was a popular sensation, and spawned immediate imitations. British artists including Clarkson Stanfield and David Roberts produced ever-more elaborate dioramas through the 1830s; sound effects and even living performers were added. Some "typical diorama effects included moonlit nights, winter snow turning into a summer meadow, rainbows after a storm, illuminated fountains," waterfalls, thunder and lightning, and ringing bells. A diorama painted by Daguerre is currently housed in the church of the French town Bry-sur-Marne, where he lived and died.
;Daguerre diorama exhibitions :
Exhibition venues : Paris : London : Liverpool : Manchester : Dublin : Edinburgh
  • The Valley of Sarnen :: : : : : :
  • The Harbour of Brest :: : : : :
  • The Holyrood Chapel :: : : : : :
  • The Roslin Chapel :: : : : :
  • The Ruins in a Fog :: : :
  • The Village of Unterseen :: : : :
  • The Village of Thiers :: : :
  • The Mont St. Godard :: : :

    Gottstein

Until 1968, Britain boasted a large number of dioramas. The collections were originally housed in the Royal United Services Institute Museum,, in Whitehall. When the museum closed, the various exhibits and their 15 known dioramas were distributed to smaller museums throughout England and elsewhere, some ending up in Canada. These dioramas were the brainchild of the wealthy furrier Otto Gottstein of Leipzig, a Jewish immigrant from Hitler's Germany, who was an avid collector and designer of flat model figures called flats. In 1930, Gottstein's influence is first seen at the Leipzig International Exhibition, along with the dioramas of Hahnemann of Kiel, Biebel of Berlin and Muller of Erfurt, all displaying their own figures, and those commissioned from such as Ludwig Frank in large diorama form.
In 1933, Gottstein left Germany and in 1935 founded the British Model Soldier Society. He persuaded designer and painter friends in both Germany and France to help in the construction of dioramas depicting notable events in English history. But due to the war, many of the figures arrived in England incomplete. The task of turning Gottstein's ideas into reality fell to his English friends and those friends who had managed to escape from the Continent. Dennis C. Stokes, a talented painter and diorama maker in his own right, was responsible for the painting of the backgrounds of all the dioramas, creating a unity seen throughout the whole series. Denny Stokes was given the overall supervision of the fifteen dioramas.
  1. The Landing of the Romans under Julius Caesar in 55 B.C.
  2. The Battle of Hastings
  3. The Storming of Acre
  4. The Battle of Crecy
  5. The Field of the Cloth of Gold
  6. Queen Elizabeth reviewing her troops at Tilbury in Essex
  7. The Battle of Marston Moor
  8. The Battle of Blenheim
  9. The Battle of Plessey
  10. The Battle of Quebec
  11. The Old Guard at Waterloo
  12. The Charge of the Light Brigade
  13. The Battle of Ulundi
  14. The Battle of Fleurs
  15. The D-Day landings
Krunert, Schirmer, Frank, Frauendorf, Maier, Franz Rieche, and Oesterrich were also involved in the manufacture and design of figures for the various dioramas. Krunert, like Gottstein an exile in London, was given the job of engraving for The Battle of Quebec. The Death of Wolfe was found to be inaccurate and had to be redesigned. The names of the vast majority of painters employed by Gottstein are mostly unknown, most lived and worked on the continent, among them Gustave Kenmow, Leopold Rieche, L. Dunekate, M. Alexandre, A. Ochel, Honey Ray, and, perhaps Gottstein's top painter, Vladimir Douchkine. Douchkine was responsible for painting two figures of the Duke of Marlborough on horseback for The Blenheim Diorama, one of which was used, the other, Gottstein being the true collector, was never released.
Denny Stokes painted all the backgrounds of all the dioramas, Herbert Norris, the Historical Costume Designer, whom J. F. Lovel-Barnes introduced to Gottstein, was responsible for the costume design of the Ancient Britons, the Normans and Saxons, some of the figures of The Field of the Cloth of Gold and the Elizabethan figures for Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury. J.F. Lovel-Barnes was responsible for The Battle of Blenheim, selecting the figures, and arrangement of the scene. Due to World War II, when flat figures became unavailable, Gottstein completed his ideas by using Greenwood and Ball's 20 mm figures. In time, a fifteenth diorama was added, using these 20 mm figures, this diorama representing the D-Day landings. When all the dioramas were completed, they were displayed along one wall in the Royal United Services Institute Museum. When the museum was closed the fifteen dioramas were distributed to various museums and institutions. The greatest number are at the Glenbow Museum, : RE: The Landing of the Romans under Julius Caesar in 55 BC, Battle Of Crecy, The Battle of Blenheim, The Old Guard at Waterloo and The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava.
The state of these dioramas is one of debate; John Garratt claimed in 1968, that the dioramas "appear to have been partially broken up and individual figures have been sold to collectors". According to the Glenbow Institute "the figures are still in reasonable condition, but the plaster groundwork has suffered considerable deterioration". There are no photographs available of the dioramas. The Battle of Hastings diorama was to be found in the Old Town Museum, Hastings, and is still in reasonable condition. It shows the Norman cavalry charging up Senlac Hill toward the Saxon lines.
The Storming of Acre is in the Museum of Artillery at the Rotunda, Woolwich. John Garratt, in Encyclopedia of Model Soldiers, states that The Field of the Cloth of Gold was in the possession of the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall; according to the curator, the diorama had not been in his possession since 1980, nor is it listed in their Accession Book, so the whereabouts of this diorama is unknown.
The Battle of Ulundi is housed in the Staffordshire Regiment Museum at Whittington near Lichfield in Staffordshire, UK