Robert Barker's Paradoxical Spectatorship

The Paradoxical Spectatorship in Robert Barker’s Panorama the View of Edinburgh and the Surrounding Country from the Calton Hill (1789-1791)

Mass Audience: Scottish and English Publics as the Targeted Spectators

Not only does Barker’s panorama painting of Edinburgh strategically choose its subject matter and site of exhibition to demonstrate a contradictory victor’s narrative of defeat, but also it creates a paradoxical spectatorship between the two groups of audiences in London, the Londoners and the Scottish people.
For the Londoners, given the cost, risks and hardship of travelling in the late 18th century---it took fourteen days by coach from London to Edinburgh, thus most of Barker’s London spectators would never have visited the Scottish
By situating people of oppositional national sentiments within a single overwhelming display of the Union’s victory, Barker’s panorama painting intentionally blurs the boundary between nations, and forge a “collective memory” that can be shared among different cultural groups (Oleksijczuk 45). Furthermore, such shared imaginary helps define a culture, a culture that was born out of British national pride and Scotland’s incorporation within the
To introduce spectators to the painting, Robert and his son Henry Aston Barker provided keys and gave lectures to successive groups of spectators gathered on the observation platform, which is limit to a group of seven at one time (Oleksijczuk 3). The aim of only allowing a small group of spectators at an elevated view point in the center of the panorama painting is to ensure that every spectator could be immersed in the illusionistic scene, both physically and mentally, despite the constraints set by time and