The Picturesque World Stage

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

1 The Eidophusikon had three seasons: the first season opened on 26 February 1781 and the second on 31 January 1782, both in Loutherbourg's home. The third season, testifying to its popularity, was in the 200 seat Exhibition Rooms above Exeter ‘Change and opened on 31 January 1786 (Baugh 1990: 103–104).

2 According to Christopher Hussey, an early use of the term ‘picturesque’ appeared in Steele's play The Tender Husband (1723); however, it was not yet associated with landscape (1967: 32).

3 From Baker, Henry (1744) The Microscope Made Easy; or, The Nature, Uses, and Magnifying Powers of the Best Kinds of Microscopes Described, Calculated and Explained: For the Instruction of Such, Particularly, as Desire to Search into the Wonders of the Minute Creation, tho’ They Are Not Acquainted with Optics, 3rd edn, 2 vols, London: Dodsley.

4 Ernst Curtius argues that the Policraticus achieved wide circulation in the Middle Ages but was also much read during the Renaissance, being reprinted in 1476, 1513 (in Paris and in Lyon), 1595, 1622, 1639, 1664, 1677 (Curtius 1953: 140).

5 Claude Lorrain, Salvator Rosa and Gaspard Dughet (called Poussin) were the seventeenth century landscape artists who inspired the picturesque. Claude sought the ideal form within closely observed details of nature and then represented this in his paintings of the Compagna and St Alban hills. In time, people began to seek landscapes that actually resembled his paintings (Hussey 1967: 10).

6 The other important viewing apparatus used extensively in the eighteenth century was the camera obscura. In addition to the common room-sized devices there were also a variety of portable versions. One of these that was bound into a book and called Théâtre de l'universe was created in 1750 (Stafford et al. 2001: 307–14).

7 Again, another major departure from Renaissance uses of theatrum mundi where the background ‘reality’ was always the metaphysical world of heaven and hell. Interpreted by the Church Fathers the ‘foolish spectacle’ of life used by Roman satirists, such as Lucian, became contemptus mundi, as expressed by St John of Chrysostom:

So then, when we come to the moment of death, having quit the theatre of life, all masks of wealth and poverty will be stripped away—each man will be judged by his works alone: some will be found to be truly wealthy, others will be found poor; some will be honored, others will be scorned (quoted in Christian 1987: 35).

8 ‘Naturalism'here must be taken advisedly. Servandoni was a master of magical illusions as was Loutherbourg. The latter's work was more ‘life-like’ than conventional scenery of the time but not the same as the naturalism of the late nineteenth century.

9 Angelo's adjective ‘terrific’ was commonly used to describe mountains. The element of fear induced by mountains was a key aspect of the sublime. In a popular letter from John Brown, a friend of the Gilpin family, to George Lyttleton, probably written in 1753 and first published in full in 1767, he describes the lake at Keswick and surrounding countryside which combines the three aesthetic qualities of ‘Beauty, Horror, and Immensity’. It is only the painterly skill of Salvator Rosa who would be able to ‘dash out the horror of the rugged cliffs, the steeps, the hanging woods, and foaming waterfalls’ (quoted in Bicknell 1981: 1–2).

10 Christopher Baugh writes that Loutherbourg's ambition to have the audience ‘absorbed’ in his parade of wonders would have been embarrassed by ‘the illuminated auditorium’ which would have mitigated against this (Baugh 2007: 48).

11 Cook undertook three voyages to the South Pacific: 1768–1771; 1772–1775; and his final voyage 1776–1780

12 Hawkesworth, John (1773) An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by Order of His Present Majesty, for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and Successively Performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret, and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow, and the Endeavour: Drawn up from Journals Which were Kept by the Several Commanders and from the Papers of Joseph Banks, Esq., London: W. Strachan and T Cadell.

13 Webber also was credited as one of the scene painters for OMAI. The artists who accompanied Cook on his earlier voyages were: Sydney Parkinson, Alexander Buchan and Herman Spöring on the first voyage; William Hodges and George Forster on the second (some of Hodges’ paintings were also referenced for OMAI).