Born Too Late (or why don’t we make this stuff anymore?)
Battle of Gettysburg Cyclorama
Discovered this gem a few weeks ago at the Gettysburg Battlefield National Park Visitor Center. The canvas depicts Pickette’s Charge, the crucial final offensive by the Confederate Army.
Paul Dominique Philippoteaux and his team of 2o artists worked for nearly a year to complete the epic battle. What a job, right? Apparently, one artist would go along and paint the sky; another would do uniforms; another, horses, and another, faces. Each had his or her specialty.
The grand scope of this work is amazing. Large canvases were stitched together to form a 360 degree canvas housed in a circular (cyclorama) house where the viewer could stand in the middle of the building and simply by turning could enjoy the view as if he was really on location. About 50 ft. high and 400 ft. in circumference; the canvas would be strung up from rafters and weighed down and primed. Sketches were transferred via grid system. The artists worked on tiered scaffolding.
The narration done by the Gettysburg Battlefield National Park is superb too. Much care was taken to hide edge of canvas with earthen works, props, plants etc. The image literally being in three dimensions at the viewer’s feet and then stretches out into an amazing panorama of the battlefield.
Does anyone know of any other cycloramas still in use?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Philippoteaux
http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/researchers-in-museums/tag/paul-dominique-philippoteaux/
http://www.gettysburgfoundation.org/13/see-the-cyclorama-and-film
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