(((2007 is the bicentenary of the birth of Italian nationalist, insurgent and liberal-democratic global culture hero Giuseppe Garibaldi.)))
(((And what better tribute could there be to this beloved and wildly famous 19th century armed zealot liberator than blowing the dust off a period dead-media tribute to his global fame, the Garibaldi Panorama? And then loading it onto the net!)))
http://blogs.brown.edu/project/cdi/2007/08/garibaldi_panorama_comes_to_li.html
Link: 07-038 (Garibaldi Panorama).
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The Brown University Library and the Department of Italian Studies are collaborating to digitize the Garibaldi Panorama, one of the finest surviving examples of panoramic art, and make it available online at the Library’s Center for Digital Initiatives (http://dl.lib.brown.edu).
Measuring 4½ feet high and 273 feet long, the Garibaldi Panorama is one of the longest paintings in the world. The work depicts the life story of Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi, who played a major role in the unification of Italy. The late Dr. James Walter Smith donated the relic to Brown in 2005.
Digitizing the entire double-sided watercolor was not an easy process for library staff and collaborators. In summer 2007, special funding enabled library staff and technicians from Boston Photo, a leading museum reprographics company, to fashion a makeshift photo studio in the central gallery of the Annmary Brown Memorial. They painstakingly unrolled the panorama — six feet at a time — in order to take digital photographs. The photographs will now be melded into a continuous image online.
(((Can't wait to see it!)))
Precursors to modern day motion pictures, panoramas were one of the 19th-century’s most exciting and visceral forms of popular entertainment. Boasting 360-degree views of historical events, exotic landscapes, and scenes from classical mythology, panoramas deftly altered the viewer’s perspective and exploited techniques commonly associated with set design to give audiences the impression that they were traveling to distant lands or participating in pitched battles.
The Garibaldi Panorama was once a “moving” panorama, meaning that audiences watched as illustrations of Garibaldi’s life were cranked out before them, including such seminal moments as his involvement in the Italian Risorgimento, escape to South America, and failed defense of the Roman Republic in 1849. A narration accompanied the bloody conflicts and scenes of political intrigue. In order to replicate this experience, Brown’s project will allow viewers to watch the panorama unfold while listening to a recording of the original manuscript narration in either English or Italian. Visitors to the site will also be able to stop the panorama at any point, focus in on a particular scene, jump forward and backward, and replay.
“The panorama is a unique artifact, both as a historical source on Garibaldi and his times and a fascinating specimen from the pre-history of cinema,” said Massimo Riva, professor of Italian studies. “It is, in fact, the equivalent of a mid-19th-century movie reel, painted by an English contemporary, documenting the myth in the making of this larger-than-life Italian icon. Digitization of the panorama is the first step in a project meant to restore access to these long-lost images and bring the panorama back to life in its entirety. In addition, an international team of scholars will collaborate with the Brown library to create an exciting digital resource site for the study of Garibaldi and the Italian Risorgimento.”
“This project is truly collaborative and exemplary of the relationships a digital library program can foster,” said Patrick Yott, head of the library’s Center for Digital Initiatives.(...)
"The launch of the Web site will coincide with the 200th-anniversary of Garibaldi’s birth (1807). It will be available in November 2007 at http://dl.lib.brown.edu. This October, the project will also be presented at an international symposium “Giuseppe Garibaldi: history, myth and the archeology of cinema" in Bologna, Italy.
