Daguerréotype. Last existing diorama painted by Louis Daguerre. The canvas represents a Cathedral of Gothic style, which elements seem to repeat the ones already present in the church. A mise en abyme, which theatricality is enforced by the red velvet curtains that frame the painting twice, both physically hanging in the back of the apse, and in the painting. Effectively, the picture’s perspective directs one’s gaze to the centre of the scene, thus creating an illusion of profundity; and upwards, in a contemplative gaze.The furthest windows of the Cathedral are lit up first, followed up with the second row of openings. Progressively, the picture gets subtly brighter until the lights are - again - switched off.
scene #9
Three kneeling chairs
face the golden image
flooding into the eastern transept
the colour-stained light
