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Panorama vom Rigi Berg,
Painted and edited by Heinrich Keller, Zurich, ca. 1845.

Case of a Panorama


Zurich Panorama


About Panorama

Robert Baker invented Panorama around 1785, though at that time the word Panorama was not coined. And the first Panorama was opened about some years ago, on 25 May, 1793 in London.
Since then so many Panoramas were inaugurated all over the world. Panorama was a mass medium in 19th century.

As you know, the word Panorama means "to see all". So when you climb up to a top of a high mountain, view you get there is open to all direction. You can see everything around you! But this usage of the word stems from the original meaning of a big circular painting showing all visual environment.

This is a Panorama guide of the view from the Rigi mountain near Zurich. A long painting depicts all that you can see from there.

There are many Panoramas still existing now around the world. You have some in Switzerland. I visited two, one in Luzern, the other Thun. The former is one of the biggest in the world and the subject matter is a battle scene. The latter is small but brilliant with its way of representing people in the town.

Now Panorama is becoming popular also in Japan, where there were many in Meiji era and no buildings for Panorama remain. We have only some paintings.
One of the reasons why Panorama is becoming so popular is that it was a forerunner of today's technology called "virtual reality". Yes, Panorama is interesting from the viewpoint of Media Art.

So if you please, you can have an experience of quasi-virtual trip caused by a Parnorama rotating before you.


From the collection of Akihiko Morishita.


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