DIORAMA

three-dimensional exhibit, frequently housed in a cubicle and viewed through an aperture. It usually consists of a flat or curved back cloth on which a scenic painting or photograph is mounted. Flat or solid objects are placed in front of the back cloth, and coloured transparent gauze or plastic drop curtains are used to heighten the three-dimensional effect. A considerable improvement in perspective is achieved by the addition of stage borders or wings. The rigorous application of the laws of perspective is essential to the success of the exhibit. The skillful use of lighting also heightens the effect. True dioramas, used for peep shows and the like, probably originated before the 19th century; but credit for the development of the diorama is usually given to Louis-Jacques-Mand Daguerre, a French scenic painter, physicist, and inventor of the daguerreotype, who, with his coworker Charles-Marie Bouton, in 1822 opened an exhibition in Paris that he called the Diorama. Daguerre's techniques survive in present-day dioramas, which are widely employed, especially in museums, and may depict any subject on any scale. The diorama is usually distinguished from the panorama, in which the background is considerably lengthened and usually viewed without restriction to an aperture, and the cyclorama, in which the background forms a complete circle around the viewer.