Nelson & His World

Thought readers might like to see this page from the Retronaut featuring Robert Barker's Nile and Trafalgar panoramas in Leicester Square.


Link here: http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2010/0 ... gian-imax/

I particularly like the first (colour) image illustrating the scale and scope of the entertainment. Any ideas what the scene might be in this one?

Jacqui,

I had no idea it was quite that large and would even be impressive today. It would be great if someone could recreate it, as I would think there would be quite a bit of interest.

The upper, smaller, of the two pictures looks like a view of London and the Thames from the South Bank near London Bridge. I'm not sure about the other one, the Bay of Naples or Mount Etna perhaps - although neither 'Vesuvius' or 'Etna' (if it is them) appear to be performing too well!

Another fascinating aspect of the Nelson era.

There was a smaller version in Birmingham at one end of New Street. But not much information about it has survived.

I have been to what may be the nearest modern equivalent. I was in Atlanta quite a few years ago and I saw an advert for something called the "Cyclorama" and I couldn't resist taking a look.

This website tells all about it i.e. it is a huge panorama painting of aspects of the American Civil War. You will see that it claims to be the largest painting in the world!

http://www.atlantacyclorama.org/

To view it you sat in an area of seating and either the painting moved round the seats or the seats moved round within the painting. I can't for the life of me remember which. That shows how long ago it was/how my memory is deteriorating!!

Enough of that . . . . . !!

MB

Thank you for posting that, Jacqui. I had long been hoping to find out more about Barker's panoramas. The arrangement of the upper and lower panoramas is most interesting.

The Trafalgar panorama is an example of the tensions that arose between the captains after the battle. When Captain Mansfield of the Minotaur arrived home a year after the battle, he was annoyed to discover that Barker's panorama stated publicly that the Neptuno had been captured by Laforey's Spartiate, when she had actually struck to the Minotaur, although both ships had been involved. Laforey, who returned home immediately after the battle, had apparently been quite happy to allow the error to stand, and indeed had probably originated it.