The Paradoxical Spectatorship in Robert Barker’s Panorama the View of Edinburgh and the Surrounding Country from the Calton Hill (1789-1791)
“This then, I thought, as I looked round me, is the representation of history.”
----Winfried Georg Sebald, commenting on his visit to the panorama of Waterloo in Belgium, in The Rings of Saturn
Introduction
In 1706, despite centuries of wars fighting for independence, the Scottish government was finally convinced by the English Parliament to sign the Treaty of Union, which would effectively unite the two countries “into one Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain” (Article I of the Treaty of Union). Upon this unification, the British Empire hoped to strengthen its political expansion by transforming England and Scotland into a superpower (Brown 2), while the Kingdom of Scotland hoped to obtain economic prosperity through the enhanced trade terms with England.
However, in the years that followed, since the English Parliament failed to keep its promises on economic policy and quality between the nations, and underestimated the Scottish people’s fear for losing their own sovereignty, numerous insurgencies among Scottish cities arose. For example, between 1688 and
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This paper will argue that, Barker’s panorama depicts a British narrative of a defeated Scottish city, which creates a paradoxical spectatorship that “blurs and idealizes circumstances of land ownership” for the defeated (Oettermann 7), and helps to reinforce Great Britain’s newly formed national identity for the victor. I will start with a formal analysis of the exhibited painting, from its subject matter to its targeted spectators, then I will discuss the spatial strategies that the panorama used to convey British nationalism to its
Bush, Michael. ‘Up for the Commonwealth’: the significance of tax grievances in the English rebellions of 1536, English Historical Review 106 (1991).
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Gull, John. The Oxford Illustrated History of Brittan. Great Brittan: Butler & Tanner Ltd, Frome, Somerset., 1984. Print.
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