Lo sguardo circolare. Il panorama di Londra di Robert Barker

Abstract

This study focuses on the virtual reconstruction of one of the earliest “Panorama”, painted in 1792 by the same inventor of this form of representation, the Scottish painter Robert Barker. It is well known that painted panoramas depicted a circular view of a city or a landscape from an elevated position. These paintings were always exhibited in circular buildings named “Rotunda”.Panorama was a successful form of entertainment in the 19th century; the diffusion of photography and then of cinema, quickly caused its decline.Panoramas’ canvases, used and then reused for several exhibition, suffered damages that finally cau-sed their disappearance. This is why, despite a large production of paintings, only a few examples have come down to us; the same goes for the rotundas, often built with light materials.The chosen case study is the Leicester Square Rotunda, designed by the architect Robert Mitchell and built by Robert Barker in 1793, probably the first building used for the permanent exhibition of panoramas. The building allowed the exhibition of two panoramic paintings of different sizes at diffe-rent elevations; this is a peculiar feature of Barker’s rotunda, that was not repeated in later rotundas.The digital reconstruction of Barker’s panorama of London shows the coexistence of measure and out of measure: the strictly controlled measure of the building and the oversized immersive scenario created by the panorama.