diorama

Entertainment invented by the photography pioneer Louis Daguerre, in which spectators in a dark, circular auditorium viewed huge transparent paintings through a large aperture in the wall. The pictures were seen to change as they watched. Daguerre's diorama shows opened in Paris in 1822 and in London in 1823.

The pictures showed changing effects of light. For example, in The Valley of Sarnen the opening scene is still and clear, then clouds pass across the lake, and at the end a storm gathers. By painting on fine cloth in transparent and opaque pigments, and by controlling the intensity, colour, and position of the source of light, features were made to appear or disappear gradually.

Technique Light was controlled by screens and shutters on windows behind, and skylights above, the picture. Coloured light was exploited so that features in that colour were rendered invisible, while those in a complementary colour were strengthened. When light changed colour, new effects emerged; both sides of the cloth were painted. This anticipated modern colour separation in the camera for colour printing.

Moving panoramas Diorama effects were incorporated with panoramas on rollers by theatre designers, as in Clarkson Stanfield's Moving Dioramas. C W Gropius in Berlin in 1832, in a building designed by Karl Schinkel, showed a moving panorama with lighting effects called a Pleorama. The diorama and panorama are today together regarded as the forerunners of the cinema.