I was researching the Turin Exhibition of 1902 this morning, and ran across this image. I don’t think it’s from the Prima Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte Decorativa Moderna. I can’t figure out where it’s from, but a blog post (in French) has some plausible theories. It’s apparently the central square in Turin, where some years later about two hundred yards from the spot was an Egyptology museum.
The analysis I found suggests that it’s not from 1902, and I tend to agree simply because it looks like a wet plate or collodion photograph (from the degree of blur in the pedestrians). By 1902, dry plates were much faster, so this is either really bad technique or slow film. Further, though, the scholar locates a particular exhibition from 1870 that might explain things. The google translation is:
The pavilion “Bogorama” was erected in Piazza Castello in Turin, behind the Palazzo Madama, during the 1870 Carnival facade, high 10 meters is a sphinx head and bears the inscription ” Bardoneccio-Suez-Bogorama “. Inside is a vast panorama of landscape, 120 meters long and 3 meters high. represented It showed points views varied and delicious, from the Alps to Cairo, then the left bank of the Nile to the temple ruins of Thebes. it’s Casimiro Teja (Piedmontese cartoonist 1830-1897), which is the origin of this panorama project after the return to Egypt of painters and Francesco Enrico Gamba, Cerutti, Perotti, Barucco, pastoris and members of the “Circle of Artists” and “Knight of Bogo” Tommas Juglaris. This view seems to have been then taken to Paris to be exposed, but died in a fire during the Commune riots. for the moment, no clear indication as to the period when the pavilion was installed, or duration.
Bogorama is a catchy name, and it seems wild to think of people flocking to see a panorama inside this temporary building. All this has nothing to do with what I’m researching, but I really wanted to leave a note.
