Belgium - The Panorama of the Battle of Waterloo, a particularly significant example of "Panorama Phenomenon"

The Panorama of the Battle of Waterloo is one of the most important witnesses in the world of the panorama phenomenon. Staged at the same time pictorial, scenographic and architectural aiming to recreate the real and like the trompe l'oeil to play with the perception of the spectator, the phenomenon of the panorama which appears at the end of the XVIIIe century will impose itself as the first modern media. A panorama consists of a set of devices, including a large cylindrical table embracing the walls of a rotunda that the viewer discovers from a platform erected in the center of the building. The painted canvas presented here, about 15 meters high, is most often preceded by a false ground, so as to conceal its lower edge and enhance the illusion effect. Above the platform, a velum, a large piece of fabric, limits the vertical visual angle of the viewer and hides the top edge of the canvas and the structure of the roof and canopies that broadcast zenithal lighting. A particular access device cuts off the public from its familiar landmarks and allows the entrances and exits to be disassociated. The purpose of this device is to confuse the spectators who, dazzled by the painting that unfolds all around them on 360 and the light that emanates, have the feeling of being transported to the very heart of the action and the place represent.