In the late 18th and 19th centuries, panoramic vision was preferred to framed views. Panoramas were circular rooms with a landscape or townscape painted all around the inner walls so that the visitors had the impression of being in the centre of the landscape, as in reality. |
This mode of vision influenced even paintings which are not panoramas in the literal sense, where the vastness of the vista and the sense of atmospheric immersion prevail. Originally the panorama was linked to the emerging image of the metropolis as a diverse and enveloping urban environment |