The ''Eidophusikon'' ( el, Ειδωφυσικον) was a piece of

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

, no longer extant, thought up by the English actor

David Garrick David Garrick (19 February 1717 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Sa ...

and created by 18th-century French painter

Philip James de Loutherbourg Philip James de Loutherbourg RA (31 October 174011 March 1812), whose name is sometimes given in the French form of Philippe-Jacques, the German form of Philipp Jakob, or with the English-language epithet of the Younger, was a French-born Brit ...

. It opened in

Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leicester House, itself named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester ...

in London in February 1781. Described by the media of his day as "Moving Pictures, representing Phenomena of Nature", the ''Eidophusikon'' can be considered an early form of

movie making Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...

. The effect was achieved by mirrors and pulleys. The Eidophusikon consisted of a large-scale miniature theatre that tried to recreate the perfect illusion of living nature: sunrise scenes, sunsets, moonlight images, storms, and volcanoes from all over the world, with sound and music effects. The sound and light effects of the Eidophusikon, compared with the shows seen until that time, were especially inventive by virtue of their realism.

Reconstructions

The first reconstruction was in the year 2004 by Wolkenbilder at the Altonaer Museum Exhibition (cloud images) at Jenisch Has,

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. It was a full-sized theatre with two scenes on the basis of Loutherbourg: from dawn to sunset over the Royal Naval College in

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

, and a Mediterranean scene with a lighthouse, moonlight, storms and wrecks. The second Eidophusikon was created in 2005 by the

Yale Center for British Art Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...

, New Connecticut and California's

Huntington Library The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and Arabella Huntington (c.1851–1924) in San Mar ...

, to recreate a display for the English painter

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of ...

of his collection 'Sensation and sensibility'. Gainsborough was a great admirer of the Eidophusikon. This full-size version was built in conjunction with Kevin Derkin and the Yale technical department under Rick Johnson. The scene, this time, was 'Satan and the Creation of the Pandemonium Palace in Hell', by the poet

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...

from his ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...

''. A small exhibition on the Eidophusikon and the work of

was held at the

San Marino, California San Marino is a residential city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It was incorporated on April 25, 1913. At the 2010 census the population was 13,147. The city is one of the wealthiest places in the nation in terms of househol ...

in 2006. The exhibit featured a working example of an Eidophusikon with docents working the levers. In 2006, an Eidophusikon was created by Robert Poulter for the Nouveau

Musée National de Monaco The New National Museum of Monaco (french: Nouveau Musée National de Monaco) often abbreviated to NMNM, is a museum of contemporary visual art in Monaco. The museum is situated in two locations, the Villa Sauber and the Villa Paloma. The venues di ...

. Another Mediterranean scene was created with a volcano, moonlight, a storm and a shipwreck. This Eidophusikon is part of the permanent collection of the museum. A full Eidophusikon, described also as a "small, mechanical theatre", was on display from June to November 2014 at the exhibition "Underworlds" (Unterwelten) in

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

References

External links

Sensibility and the Cult of Special Effects

* An Eighteenth-Century Movie Show. Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, Australian National University, Canberra, 2006. 3D digital recreation of an eidophusikon demonstratio

an

Active German Eidophusikon in Dortmund, Germany (June--October 2014)
(German text)
Video of German active Eidophusikon in Dortmund, Germany

{{Authority control Lost works of art 1781 works History of film Audiovisual ephemera

Reconstructions

See also

References

External links