The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum

The 19th century painter John Martin (1789–1854) is often called the “father of modern cinema”. The way visitors flocked to see his epic paintings of apocalyptic destruction was akin to a contemporary experience of blockbuster entertainment - he can be considered a proponent of proto-cinema. Indeed, when Tate held a solo show of John Martin’s called Apocalypse in 2011 they displayed the paintings in a specially designed theatre space and with accompanying audio narrative to recreate the dramatic way that they were originally exhibited in the 1850s and 1860s.

Curator Martin Myrone describes in the video below:

“Martin’s paintings were shown dramatically by dowsed light, and they were shown not only in gallery spaces, but also in music halls and in theatres, and in civic spaces; places which wouldn’t normally see art. There were occasionally descriptive lectures, so there would be a mustachioed gentleman who would point out the details of the paintings and dramatise their content.”