Audiences in the 18th and early 19th centuries were delighted and terrified by these ghostly inspirations conjured in dark rooms.

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts displays magic lanterns and related mayfly in its current exhibition Phantasmagoria. The exhibition is based on the collection of Richard Balzer, who died last year. It includes a complete magic lantern narrative, such as a woman opening a box to release a series of demons, and a single slide that deforms when illuminated, such as the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and lava, or a woman staring through a microscope to reveal Many curved life forms. These fantastic performances are the forerunners of modern horror. In the pre-movie era, they used magic lanterns projected on screens and smoke.

At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, European and American audiences were both happy and scared by the ghostly inspiration that these dark rooms conjured. The gullible audience was afraid of what they thought was a display of mysterious power; Étienne-Gaspard Robertson had to stop his performance in Paris because the authorities thought he could revive the recently guillotined Louis XVI .

Historian X. Theodore Barber recounted the experience of Robertson's performance in film history. Visitors entered an abandoned chapel with dim lights and cruel images hung on the walls. People spoke in low voices, and after Robertson’s brief introduction, the space fell into total darkness: “The audience then heard the sound of rain, thunder, and death knells calling for ghosts from the grave, and Franklin’s harmonica, a kind of music full of music. , The water-filled form of glasses provides an unforgettable sound, which can cover up the noise of what is happening behind the scenes here and throughout the show."

Scholar Terry Castle described the design of the slide installation used in the illusion in this way:

An opening on the side of the lantern contains a tube with a convex lens at each end, and the groove in the middle of the tube contains a small image painted on the glass. When the candlelight is reflected by the concave mirror onto the first lens, the lens concentrates the light on the image on the glass slide. The second lens in turn magnifies the illuminated image and projects it onto the wall or gauze screen.

Robertson did not invent the magic lamp, even though he is considered a pioneer of illusionary wonders; in the grave of Father Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, a skeleton and demonic apparition even surfaced, approaching the shrinking crowd. In the British Journal of the History of Science, historian Koen Vermeir traced its invention back to the 1660s, most likely Christiaan Huygens (other researchers attributed it to Athanasius Kircher). Almost from the beginning, demons and monsters often appeared in visual effects, and the European courts of the 17th century were passionate about curiosity and invention and became the audience of these optical illusions.

The Gothic sentiment of the 18th century, combined with the restlessness and lingering violence after the American and French Revolutions, made the Phantom a popular form of entertainment. This is not just a slide show; it is a mysterious and terrifying immersive event (safe to know that all this is a scam). The arrival of the movie effectively ended the illusion. However, the film’s embrace of the technology that conveys the audience continues the spirit of illusion.

JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers and students. Readers of JSTOR Daily can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR.

Get the best stories from JSTOR Daily in your inbox every Thursday.

Privacy Policy Contact Us You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the link provided on any marketing message.

JSTOR Daily uses scholarships in JSTOR (a digital library of academic journals, books and other materials) to provide background information on current events. We publish articles based on peer-reviewed research and provide all readers with free access to the research.

JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a non-profit organization that helps academia use digital technology to preserve academic records and advance research and teaching in a sustainable manner.

© Ithaca. all rights reserved. JSTOR®, the JSTOR logo and ITHAKA® are registered trademarks of ITHAKA.

Get the best stories from JSTOR Daily in your inbox every Thursday.

Privacy Policy Contact Us You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the link provided on any marketing message.