Victorian Glassworlds by Armstrong Isobel;

Author:Armstrong, Isobel;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA - OSO
Published: 2008-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 63 Clark’s Miniature Diorama with three ‘dissolving view’ skies and Tintern Abbey image

Figure 64 A Double Magic Lantern, Negretti & Zambra advertisement

One compulsive image crossed magic lantern and dioramic scenes, the eruption of Vesuvius, a deep, insistent obsession of the era and a persistent element of the culture’s image store. It fused the violence of the phantasmagoria with the transitional effects of the dissolve. Indeed, the volcano not only represents but is a dissolving view. It is the embodiment of peripeteia or reversal, moving from calm to violence, and its violent spasms of energy became a calorific sublime. This is the text of a poster of 1846 advertising the ‘Eruption’ of Vesuvius—the word is used repeatedly as a compulsive advertising ploy, but the repetition surely registers a deeper compulsion—at the Royal Surrey Gardens on 3, 4, 5, and 6 August.

View of Naples,

Eruption of Vesuvius!

and Destruction of Herculaneum and Pompei

In the year 79 (by Danson)

In reviving that magnificent Exhibition,

THE ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS!

The Proprietor has not confined himself to copy the previous Spectacle,

THIS PICTURE IS MORE THAN TWICE THE SIZE OF THE FORMER!

And represents as accurately as can possibly be done, the

GREAT ERUPTION IN THE YEAR 79, WHEN THE DESTRUCTION OF HERCULANEUM AND POMPEI TOOK PLACE

The practical observation and experience of Mr. Danson, assisted by Messrs.

ADAMS, TURNER, ROBERTS, T. DANSON, & c, has enabled

him to produce effects never before attempted.

Preceding Vesuvius is another light-associated display that was once intrinsically linked symbolically to Louis XIV in the pyrotechnical displays of the Ancien Régime.27 The king, as the ‘sun of the court and state, would performatively produce his power by dressing as Phoebus. Here, in this populist tableau for the 1840s, Signor Farinelli assumes the role of Phoebus. Whereas Louis XIV performed his sun role as the centre round which all revolved in the Galilean universe, this is a vertical descent, and implicit commentary on the volcanic upheaval to follow—an attempt to contain the power to be displayed in advance—here the sun cedes power to a feminine principle, quenched by ‘the Bosom of the lake’,

As a climax and preceding [sic] the Volcanic Display a most Novel and Astounding Exhibition will be introduced, representing

the

DESCENT OF PHOEBUS, IN THE CHARIOT OF THE SUN,

to effect which a

CHINESE PAGODA SEVENTY FEET IN HEIGHT

(The Design taken from the Emperor’s Garden in Pekin) has been Erected from which altitude

Signor Farinelli, REPRESENTING THE GOD OF DAY, IN THE CHARIOT OF LIGHT,

Will descend on to the Bosom of the Lake, where a Naiad’s Car will rise to receive him and bear him to his Crystal Home.

The entire ensemble is then re-described.

THE PYROTECHNIC DISPLAY BY MR SOUTHEY has seating especially favourable for ‘an unusually EXCELLENTVIEWOFTHE ERUPTION & DESCENTINTHECAR.

Then again.

Feeding of the carnivore at half - past 5 … Descent in the Car, at half - past 9, And, the Eruption follows immediately. ADMISSION…ONE SHILLING.

And again. On 10, 11, 12, and 13 August there was to be

A GRAND NEAPOLITAN CARNIVAL

And a constant round of Amusements will succeed each other—concluding

with

THE ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS!

The final

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