Fig. 258.
In ordinary cases only a small portion of a winding staircase is actually seen, as in this sketch.
Fig. 259. Sketch of Courtyard in Toledo.
[ CXLVI]
Of the Cylindrical Picture or Diorama
Although illusion is by no means the highest form of art, there is no picture painted on a flat surface that gives such a wonderful appearance of truth as that painted on a cylindrical canvas, such as those panoramas of ‘Paris during the Siege’, exhibited some years ago; ‘The Battle of Trafalgar’, only lately shown at Earl's Court; and many others. In these pictures the spectator is in the centre of a cylinder, and although he turns round to look at the scene the point of sight is always in front of him, or nearly so. I believe on the canvas these points are from 12 to 16 feet apart.