When entering a museum or an exhibition, many visitors do not even think about what a diorama is that they see in the exposition. But this is a separate type of creativity. Dioramas are huge and tiny, famous and amateur. Museums rarely do without them, because there is little that can be compared with the visibility and emotional impact of this type of art.
What is a diorama?
Two Greek words are used in the mentioned name - διά and ὅραμα, “through” and “sight”. So what is a diorama? This is a picture curved in a semicircle at 180-270 °, this is the difference from the panorama - paintings with a circular view.
Prerequisite: the diorama is created either on a single canvas, or the edges are masked. Nothing should interfere with visual perception.
When exhibiting, the organization of space matters:
- an observation deck is reserved for the viewer;
- lighting is very important;
- the inspection may be accompanied by music or a guide story.
Reliability and volume of the picture gives the subject plan. In its creation, genuine or fake things, mannequins, equipment are used.
Large dioramas are located in specially constructed buildings for them in a semicircular or round shape.
Who invented
Having decided to find out what a diorama is, you must pay tribute to its creator.
This is Louis Jacques Daguerre - the one who invented the prototype of photography - daguerreotype. In France in 1822, along with C. Buton, he presented an unusual amusement to the public: with the help of the play of light, various landscapes were presented around the audience. The first diorama was 22 × 14 m in size.
In Russia, such a work was first presented in 1851. In St. Petersburg, viewers saw a panorama of Palermo. Decorations imitating an Italian monastery were created in the pavilion, while the day was replaced by night.
Today, dioramas are in demand as elements of a museum exhibition and a wonderful hobby.
How are created
Creating dioramas requires artistic taste and historical knowledge. The simplest consists of a base and a two-dimensional background, complex requires a voluminous foreground.
Dioramas are large-scale and miniature.
How does the author work on a large historical picture?
- Preparatory stage. The artist studies the place where the events took place, takes photographs, gets acquainted with the sources.
- The diorama is always bent, which creates certain difficulties - the artist must draw so as to take into account not only the perspective, but also the distortion from the bend.
- Lastly, a foreground is built that should merge with the background. Often use real objects and materials.
Part of the museum exposition
Museums actively use dioramas, because with their help the emotional impact of the exposure increases significantly!
Most often they can be seen in museums of natural history, technical, archaeological. Proper scaling of the foreground and background, lighting, a combination of landscape and background elements provide realism of perception.
The first volumetric images for museums appeared at the end of the XIX century. and illustrated the life of animals, now they are presented at the Biological Museum (Stockholm, Sweden). In such works, exhibits prepared by taxidermists are often used.
The world's largest natural diorama is the Grand Canyon and is located in Disneyland (California, USA).
In scientific, technical, architectural, automobile and maritime museums, voluminous paintings demonstrate technical achievements. For example, in the Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago, USA), the diorama shows the process of rail transportation of goods.
Miniature paintings depicting historical events are also used. This is exactly what is shown at the Museum of Resistance (Oslo, Norway).
Formats
There are no standards for dioramas created as museum exhibits. They are created based on the parameters of the building, the location of the observation deck, the dimensions of the canvas and, of course, the creative task.
Those who are interested in answering the question of what a diorama is often trying to do it on their own. For this, there are industrial blanks on sale, most often military-historical or fantasy. They are produced by specialized companies.
Lovers work on the desktop scales 1/35, 1/48 and 1/72.
In Russia: how it all began
The first diorama painting reflected the capture of Rostov during the Civil War and was painted in 1929 (artist M. Grekov). Soon in Moscow, an art studio was created, which specialized in the creation of such art paintings.
Another interesting fact: in 1977, the artist E. Deshalyt prepared a work depicting Moscow. She exhibited first abroad, and then at VDNH.
In Moscow museums
In the capital’s museums today you can see dioramas devoted to various events in Russian history:
- The Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War presents 6 works.
- Central Museum of the Armed Forces - work "Assault Perekop".
- Hall of the hotel "Ukraine" - the work "Moscow - the capital of the USSR."
- At the Presnya Museum, the painting depicts the December events of 1905.
- Museum of the Battle of Borodino.
Diorama in Belgorod
Museum-diorama "Battle of Kursk" was opened in 1987. It is dedicated to the famous battle at Prokhorovka station in July 1943. The Belgorod diorama is the largest in Russia, because the length of the canvas is 67 m at a height of 15 m.
The painting, covering an area of more than a thousand square meters, was created by a group of artists (V. Shcherbakov, G. Sevostyanov, N. Bout) for 2 years. They found an original solution: the viewer is as if observing the events of a tank battle from a height of more than 200 m.
Tanks, land units, aviation - the scale of the canvas impresses even the most sophisticated viewer. The subject plan of the diorama museum covers an area of more than 500 m².
The museum complex is surrounded by various techniques of the war years.
In Russian cities
The events of World War II are presented in diorama museums that are located throughout Russia. These include:
- Marshal Zhukov Museum (Zhukov, Kaluga Region);
- Museum-reserve “Breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad” (Kirovsky district, Leningrad region);
- a memorial complex dedicated to the T-34 tank (der. Sholokhovo, MO);
- in Crimea - local history museums of Yevpatoriya and Bakhchisarai.
There are also dioramas illustrating the ancient times of the history of Russia. So, in the Holy Tikhon Desert (Kaluga Region), the picture is devoted to the historical confrontation of two armies on the Ugra River. You can see how Batu Khan tried to capture Vladimir, in the Golden Gate Museum in the same city. The campaign of the commander A. Suvorov is illustrated in the museum named after him (Novgorod region).
In Orel, Tula, Samara, Azov, Perm, Simferopol and other cities, museum expositions are supplemented by interesting diorama works. But it is worth mentioning separately about the hero city of Sevastopol.
Sevastopol painting
The diorama “Storming the Sapun Mountains May 7, 1944” is located on top of the named mountain in a building that can be seen from afar (the work of V. Petropavlovsky).
The museum was built under the picture (performed by N. Priseykin, P. Maltsev, G. Marchenko) with an impressive scale: height 5.5 m and length 25.2 m.
The diorama “Assault on the Sapun Mountains” depicts how Soviet troops storm the outskirts of Sevastopol. All people are depicted in full size, some are drawn from real fighters. Infantry and tanks, artillery and a hospital, battles on land, in the sky and the sea - all this appears in the picture.
Over 80 m² is occupied by a realistic plan - dugouts and trenches, rows of barbed wire, genuine weapons.
The museum in Sevastopol was opened in 1959. The diorama is part of the memorial complex, which includes:
- commemorative steles - the names of soldiers and officers (there are 240) are written on them, who received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the battle of Sevastopol;
- Eternal flame;
- Monuments to participants in the battles;
- temple.
A variety of military equipment is installed on the mountain, including helicopters, boats, mortar installations, aircraft, armored personnel carriers and tanks. From the time of the war, dugouts and trenches have been preserved on the mountainside.
What else in Sevastopol?
It is worth seeing other diorama works, which are many in museums in Sevastopol.
- In the museum of defense, in addition to the famous panorama of F. Roubaud, dedicated to one day of defense of 1855, there is a diorama that illustrates how the mine war was fought at that time. Its authors are V. Grandi, B. Belyaev.
- Fleet Museum. In 1969, a work appeared here showing how paratroopers liberated Novorossiysk (artist I. Petrov).
- Historical and Archaeological Museum-Reserve "Tauric Chersonesos". Here is another painting by I. Petrov, dedicated to the siege of the city by the troops of Prince Vladimir in 989.