A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional model either full-sized or miniature. Sometimes it is enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle modeling , miniature figure modeling , or aircraft modeling .
111-567: The Iziko South African Museum , formerly the South African Museum ( Afrikaans : Suid-Afrikaanse Museum ), is a South African national museum located in Cape Town . The museum was founded in 1825, the first in the country. It has been on its present site in the Company's Garden since 1897. The museum houses important African zoology , palaeontology , and archaeology collections. In 2012,
222-530: A Jewish immigrant from Hitler's Germany , who was an avid collector and designer of flat model figures called flats. In 1930, Gottstein's influence is first seen at the Leipzig International Exhibition, along with the dioramas of Hahnemann of Kiel , Biebel of Berlin and Muller of Erfurt , all displaying their own figures, and those commissioned from such as Ludwig Frank in large diorama form. In 1933, Gottstein left Germany, and in 1935 founded
333-485: A common model railroading scale of 1:87 ( HO scale ). Hobbyist dioramas often use scales such as 1:35 or 1:48. An early, and exceptionally large example was created between 1830 and 1838 by a British Army officer. William Siborne , and represents the Battle of Waterloo at about 7.45 pm, on 18 June 1815. The diorama measures 8.33 by 6 metres (27.3 by 19.7 ft) and used around 70,000 model soldiers in its construction. It
444-517: A decorator, manufacturer of mirrors, painter of Panoramas, and designer and painter of theatrical stage illusions. Daguerre would later co-invent the daguerreotype , the first widely used method of photography . A second diorama in Regent's Park in London was opened by an association of British men (having bought Daguerre's tableaux) in 1823, a year after the debut of Daguerre's Paris original. The building
555-455: A decreasing number of first language Afrikaans speakers in South Africa from 13.5% in 2011 to 10.6% in 2022. The South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) projects that a growing majority of Afrikaans speakers will be Coloured . Afrikaans speakers experience higher employment rates than other South African language groups, though as of 2012 half a million were unemployed. Despite
666-492: A disparaging manner. The curator, Pippa Skotnes, used installation art as a medium, which focussed on the visual elements of the exhibition and the visitors' experiences. However, installation art, which allows a great degree of freedom for the artist, also allows for more varied interpretations (and misinterpretations) from the audience. The exhibition featured Bushman material culture, thirteen resin casts of Bushmen bodies and body parts, instruments used in physical anthropology and
777-647: A fifteenth diorama was added, using these 20 mm figures, this diorama representing the D-Day landings. When all the dioramas were completed, they were displayed along one wall in the Royal United Services Institute Museum. When the museum was closed the fifteen dioramas were distributed to various museums and institutions. The greatest number are to be found at the Glenbow Museum , (130-9th Avenue, S. E. Calgary, Alberta, Canada): RE: The Landing of
888-545: A general museum comprising natural history and material culture from local and other groups further afield. In time, it developed greater systematic organisation and classification similar to the evolutionary models that were prominent in European and American museums in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Frank Talbot was appointed as marine biologist at the museum in 1958, being promoted to assistant director in 1962. In 1964 he emigrated to Australia to take up
999-601: A large collection of dioramas. These collections were originally housed in the Royal United Services Institute Museum, (formerly the Banqueting House ), in Whitehall . When the museum closed, the various exhibits and their 15 known dioramas were distributed to smaller museums throughout England and elsewhere, some ending up in Canada . These dioramas were the brainchild of the wealthy furrier Otto Gottstein (1892–1951) of Leipzig ,
1110-572: A massive turntable) would rotate to view a second painting. Later models of the Diorama theater even held a third painting. The size of the proscenium was 24 feet (7.3 m) wide by 21 feet (6.4 m) high (7.3 meters x 6.4 meters). Each scene was hand-painted on linen, which was made transparent in selected areas. A series of these multi-layered, linen panels were arranged in a deep, truncated tunnel, then illuminated by sunlight re-directed via skylights, screens, shutters, and colored blinds. Depending on
1221-588: A museum was constructed by taxidermist Carl Akeley for the Milwaukee Public Museum in 1889, where it is still held. Akeley set taxidermy muskrats in a three-dimensional re-creation of their wetland habitat with a realistic painted background. With the support of curator Frank M. Chapman , Akeley designed the popular habitat dioramas featured at the American Museum of Natural History . Combining art with science, these exhibitions were intended to educate
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#17328439912291332-409: A narrative of an animal's life. Smaller animals are usually made with rubber moulds and painted. Larger animals are prepared by first making a clay sculpture of the animal. This sculpture is made over the actual, posed skeleton of the animal, with reference to moulds and measurements taken on the field. A papier-mâché mannequin is prepared from the clay sculpture, and the animal's tanned skin is sewn onto
1443-558: A national, but not official, language. There is a much smaller number of Afrikaans speakers among Zimbabwe's white minority, as most have left the country since 1980. Afrikaans was also a medium of instruction for schools in Bophuthatswana , an Apartheid-era Bantustan . Eldoret in Kenya was founded by Afrikaners. There are also around 30.000 South-Africans in the Netherlands , of which
1554-665: A partially three-dimensional, full-size replica or scale model of a landscape typically showing historical events, nature scenes or cityscapes, for purposes of education or entertainment. One of the first uses of dioramas in a museum was in Stockholm , Sweden , where the Biological Museum opened in 1893. It had several dioramas, over three floors. They were also implemented by the Grigore Antipa National Museum of Natural History from Bucharest Romania and constituted
1665-614: A position at the Australian Museum , where he was later director for 10 years. He was an eminent ichthyologist , who had two fish species named after him, one of which ( Stanulus talboti ) was collected during his time at the South African museum. This continued until the 1990s, with the reservation of cultural history museums for the display of settler histories and the relegation of material culture from other cultures to natural history and anthropology museums. In September 2012
1776-484: A process that was both humiliating and painful for the participants. The title of Drury's book, Bushman, whale and dinosaur , detailing his 40-year affiliation with the South African Museum, gives some indication of the status these specimens were given. Some of the casts made by museum modeller James Drury were displayed in the South African Museum from 1911 but without any contextualisation or acknowledgement of
1887-696: A realistic view of a large scene in a compact space. A photograph or single-eye view of such a diorama can be especially convincing, since in this case there is no distraction by the binocular perception of depth. Miniature dioramas may be used to represent scenes from historic events. A typical example of this type is the dioramas to be seen at Norway's Resistance Museum in Oslo , Norway . Landscapes built around model railways can also be considered dioramas, even though they often have to compromise scale accuracy for better operating characteristics. Hobbyists also build dioramas of historical or quasi-historical events using
1998-681: A replica cave with its interior coated by a giant photograph of a real cave to "allow the viewer to experience something approximating what the Bushmen might have felt originally" and as an answer to the deficiencies of past Bushmen displays. In April 2001, the Bushman Diorama was closed. 33°55′44″S 18°24′54″E / 33.92889°S 18.41500°E / -33.92889; 18.41500 Afrikaans Afrikaans ( / ˌ æ f r ɪ ˈ k ɑː n s / AF -rih- KAHNSS , / ˌ ɑː f -, - ˈ k ɑː n z / AHF -, - KAHNZ )
2109-552: A second language. It is widely taught in South African schools, with about 10.3 million second-language students. Afrikaans is offered at many universities outside South Africa, including in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Russia and the United States. In Afrikaans grammar, there is no distinction between the infinitive and present forms of verbs, with the exception of the verbs 'to be' and 'to have'. In addition, verbs do not conjugate differently depending on
2220-623: A shoebox and contain a trompe-l'œil in the background contrasted with two or three-dimensional models in the foreground. In California elementary schools, a popular assignment has fourth graders making a Spanish mission diorama to learn about the California Spanish missions . Burmese-Chinese brothers Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par , the developers of Tiger Balm , opened Haw Par Villa in 1937 in Singapore , where statues and dioramas were commissioned to teach traditional Chinese values. Today,
2331-702: A single negation. Certain words in Afrikaans would be contracted. For example, moet nie , which literally means 'must not', usually becomes moenie ; although one does not have to write or say it like this, virtually all Afrikaans speakers will change the two words to moenie in the same way as do not is contracted to don't in English. Diorama In the United States around 1950 and onward, natural history dioramas in museums became less fashionable, leading to many being removed, dismantled or destroyed. Artists Louis Daguerre and Charles Marie Bouton coined
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#17328439912292442-501: A sky. By having a curved wall, whatever the artist paints will be distorted by perspective; it is the artist's job to paint in such a way that minimises this distortion. The foreground is created to mimic the ground, plants and other accessories to scenery. The ground, hills, rocks, and large trees are created with wood, wire mesh, and plaster. Smaller trees are either used in their entirety or replicated using casts. Grasses and shrubs can be preserved in solution or dried to then be added to
2553-687: A source of inspiration for many important museums in the world (such as the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Great Oceanographic Museum in Berlin) [reference below]. Miniature dioramas are typically much smaller, and use scale models and landscaping to create historical or fictional scenes. Such a scale model-based diorama is used, for example, in Chicago 's Museum of Science and Industry to display railroading . This diorama employs
2664-516: A summer meadow, rainbows after a storm, illuminated fountains," waterfalls, thunder and lightning, and ringing bells. A diorama painted by Daguerre is currently housed in the church of the French town Bry-sur-Marne , where he lived and died. Exhibition venues : Paris (Pa.1822-28) : London (Lo.1823-32) : Liverpool (Li.1827-32) : Manchester (Ma.1825-27) : Dublin (Du.1826-28) : Edinburgh (Ed.1828-36) Until 1968, Britain boasted
2775-469: A talented painter and diorama maker in his own right, was responsible for the painting of the backgrounds of all the dioramas, creating a unity seen throughout the whole series. Denny Stokes was given the overall supervision of the fifteen dioramas. Krunert, Schirmer, Frank, Frauendorf, Maier, Franz Rieche, and Oesterrich were also involved in the manufacture and design of figures for the various dioramas. Krunert (a Viennese), like Gottstein an exile in London,
2886-421: A variety of materials, including plastic models of military vehicles, ships or other equipment, along with scale figures and landscaping. In the 19th and beginning 20th century, building dioramas of sailing ships had been a popular handcraft of mariners. Building a diorama instead of a normal model had the advantage that in the diorama, the model was protected inside the framework and could easily be stowed below
2997-402: A vinyl floor underlaid with generally derogatory newspaper articles, official documents and pictures of Bushmen from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These were contrasted with photographs on the walls of contemporary Bushman life taken between 1984 and 1995. The fact that visitors had to step on representations of Bushmen was seen as a literal "trampling of culture" and many of
3108-511: Is "a pure and proper language" for religious purposes, especially among the deeply Calvinist Afrikaans religious community that previously had been sceptical of a Bible translation that varied from the Dutch version that they were used to. In 1983 a fresh translation marked the 50th anniversary of the 1933 version. The final editing of this edition was done by E. P. Groenewald, A. H. van Zyl, P. A. Verhoef, J. L. Helberg and W. Kempen. This translation
3219-653: Is a West Germanic language , spoken in South Africa , Namibia and (to a lesser extent) Botswana , Zambia and Zimbabwe . It evolved from the Dutch vernacular of South Holland ( Hollandic dialect ) spoken by the predominantly Dutch settlers and enslaved population of the Dutch Cape Colony , where it gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics in the 17th and 18th centuries. Although Afrikaans has adopted words from other languages, including German and
3330-549: Is a groundswell movement within Afrikaans to be inclusive, and to promote itself along with the indigenous official languages. In Namibia, the percentage of Afrikaans speakers declined from 11.4% (2001 Census) to 10.4% (2011 Census). The major concentrations are in Hardap (41.0%), ǁKaras (36.1%), Erongo (20.5%), Khomas (18.5%), Omaheke (10.0%), Otjozondjupa (9.4%), Kunene (4.2%), and Oshikoto (2.3%). Some native speakers of Bantu languages and English also speak Afrikaans as
3441-512: Is absent from the other West Germanic standard languages. For example: Both French and San origins have been suggested for double negation in Afrikaans. While double negation is still found in Low Franconian dialects in West Flanders and in some "isolated" villages in the centre of the Netherlands (such as Garderen ), it takes a different form, which is not found in Afrikaans. The following
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3552-469: Is an example: Compare with Ek wil dit nie doen nie , which changes the meaning to 'I want not to do this'. Whereas Ek wil nie dit doen nie emphasizes a lack of desire to act, Ek wil dit nie doen nie emphasizes the act itself. The -ne was the Middle Dutch way to negate but it has been suggested that since -ne became highly non-voiced, nie or niet was needed to complement
3663-913: Is housed in the Staffordshire Regiment Museum at Whittington near Lichfield in Staffordshire, UK San Francisco, California artist Frank Wong (born 22 September 1932) created dioramas that depict the San Francisco Chinatown of his youth during the 1930s and 1940s. In 2004, Wong donated seven miniatures of scenes of Chinatown, titled "The Chinatown Miniatures Collection", to the Chinese Historical Society of America (CHSA). The dioramas are on permanent display in CHSA's Main Gallery: San Francisco filmmaker James Chan
3774-691: Is in the Museum of Artillery at the Rotunda, Woolwich . John Garratt, in Encyclopedia of Model Soldiers , states that The Field of the Cloth of Gold was in the possession of the Royal Military School of Music , Kneller Hall ; according to the curator, the diorama had not been in his possession since 1980, nor is it listed in their Accession Book, so the whereabouts of this diorama is unknown. The Battle of Ulundi
3885-555: Is neither a creole nor a direct descendant of Dutch, but a fusion of two transmission pathways. Most of the first settlers whose descendants today are the Afrikaners were from the United Provinces (now Netherlands), with up to one-sixth of the community of French Huguenot origin, and a seventh from Germany. African and Asian workers, Cape Coloured children of European settlers and Khoikhoi women, and slaves contributed to
3996-525: Is now part of the collection of the National Army Museum in London. Sheperd Paine , a prominent hobbyist, popularized the modern miniature diorama beginning in the 1970s. Modern museum dioramas may be seen in most major natural-history museums . Typically, these displays use a tilted plane to represent what would otherwise be a level surface, incorporate a painted background of distant objects, and often employ false perspective, carefully modifying
4107-645: Is producing and directing a documentary about Wong and the "changing landscape of Chinatown" in San Francisco. The documentary is tentatively titled, "Frank Wong's Chinatown". Painters of the Romantic era like John Martin and Francis Danby were influenced to create large and highly dramatic pictures by the sensational dioramas and panoramas of their day. In one case, the connection between life and diorama art became intensely circular. On 1 February 1829, John Martin's brother Jonathan, known as "Mad Martin," set fire to
4218-528: Is seen as the dawn of a new era in Afrikaans cinema. Several short films have been created and more feature-length movies, such as Poena Is Koning and Bakgat (both in 2008) have been produced, besides the 2011 Afrikaans-language film Skoonheid , which was the first Afrikaans film to screen at the Cannes Film Festival . The film Platteland was also released in 2011. The Afrikaans film industry started gaining international recognition via
4329-499: Is speculated that this display was the first of its kind [outside of a museum]. Maxwell's pioneering diorama work is said to have influenced major figures in taxidermy history who entered the field later, such as Akeley and William Temple Hornaday . Soon, the concern for accuracy came. Groups of scientists, taxidermists, and artists would go on expeditions to ensure accurate backgrounds and collect specimens, though some would be donated by game hunters. Natural history dioramas reached
4440-405: The -ne . With time the -ne disappeared in most Dutch dialects. The double negative construction has been fully grammaticalised in standard Afrikaans and its proper use follows a set of fairly complex rules as the examples below show: A notable exception to this is the use of the negating grammar form that coincides with negating the English present participle . In this case there is only
4551-588: The Evangelie volgens Markus ( Gospel of Mark , lit. 'Gospel according to Mark'); however, this translation was never published. The manuscript is to be found in the South African National Library, Cape Town. The first official translation of the entire Bible into Afrikaans was in 1933 by J. D. du Toit , E. E. van Rooyen, J. D. Kestell, H. C. M. Fourie, and BB Keet . This monumental work established Afrikaans as 'n suiwer en ordentlike taal , that
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4662-594: The Ancient Britons , the Normans and Saxons , some of the figures of The Field of the Cloth of Gold and the Elizabethan figures for Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury . J.F. Lovel-Barnes was responsible for The Battle of Blenheim , selecting the figures, and arrangement of the scene. Due to World War II, when flat figures became unavailable, Gottstein completed his ideas by using Greenwood and Ball's 20 mm figures. In time,
4773-678: The Arabic alphabet : see Arabic Afrikaans . Later, Afrikaans, now written with the Latin script , started to appear in newspapers and political and religious works in around 1850 (alongside the already established Dutch). In 1875 a group of Afrikaans-speakers from the Cape formed the Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaaners ('Society for Real Afrikaners'), and published a number of books in Afrikaans including grammars, dictionaries, religious materials and histories. Until
4884-530: The Khoisan languages , an estimated 90 to 95% of the vocabulary of Afrikaans is of Dutch origin. Differences between Afrikaans and Dutch often lie in the more analytic morphology and grammar of Afrikaans, and different spellings. There is a large degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, especially in written form . The name of the language comes directly from the Dutch word Afrikaansch (now spelled Afrikaans ) meaning 'African'. It
4995-716: The Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches, were involved. Afrikaans descended from Dutch dialects in the 17th century. It belongs to a West Germanic sub-group, the Low Franconian languages . Other West Germanic languages related to Afrikaans are German, English, the Frisian languages , Yiddish , and the unstandardised language Low German . Afrikaans is also widely spoken in Namibia. Before independence, Afrikaans had equal status with German as an official language. Since independence in 1990, Afrikaans has had constitutional recognition as
5106-576: The Senate , in which the Afrikaans language was declared a variety of Dutch. The Constitution of 1961 reversed the position of Afrikaans and Dutch, so that English and Afrikaans were the official languages, and Afrikaans was deemed to include Dutch. The Constitution of 1983 removed any mention of Dutch altogether. The Afrikaans Language Monument is on a hill overlooking Paarl in the Western Cape Province . Officially opened on 10 October 1975, it
5217-528: The Synod of Dordrecht of 1618 and was thus in an archaic form of Dutch. This was hard for Dutch speakers to understand, and increasingly unintelligible for Afrikaans speakers. C. P. Hoogehout, Arnoldus Pannevis [ af ] , and Stephanus Jacobus du Toit were the first Afrikaans Bible translators. Important landmarks in the translation of the Scriptures were in 1878 with C. P. Hoogehout's translation of
5328-553: The constitution of the Western Cape , which went into effect in 1998, declares Afrikaans to be an official language of the province alongside English and Xhosa . The Afrikaans-language general-interest family magazine Huisgenoot has the largest readership of any magazine in the country. When the British design magazine Wallpaper described Afrikaans as "one of the world's ugliest languages" in its September 2005 article about
5439-519: The monument , South African billionaire Johann Rupert (chairman of the Richemont Group ), responded by withdrawing advertising for brands such as Cartier , Van Cleef & Arpels , Montblanc and Alfred Dunhill from the magazine. The author of the article, Bronwyn Davies, was an English -speaking South African. An estimated 90 to 95 percent of the Afrikaans lexicon is ultimately of Dutch origin, and there are few lexical differences between
5550-452: The "language of the white oppressor" by some, pressure has been increased to remove Afrikaans as a teaching language in South African universities, resulting in bloody student protests in 2015. Under South Africa's Constitution of 1996, Afrikaans remains an official language , and has equal status to English and nine other languages. The new policy means that the use of Afrikaans is now often reduced in favour of English, or to accommodate
5661-578: The 19th century, lasting until 1880. A small scale version of the diorama called the Polyrama Panoptique could display images in the home and was marketed from the 1820s. Natural history dioramas seek to imitate nature and, since their conception in the late 19th century, aim to "nurture a reverence for nature [with its] beauty and grandeur". They have also been described as a means to visually preserve nature as different environments change due to human involvement. They were extremely popular during
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#17328439912295772-596: The 20th century, and contemporary printed T-shirts. The museum is organised over four levels and hosts a variety of exhibitions, from rock art to fossils , marine animals and meteorites . During the COVID-19 pandemic , Iziko launched a series of virtual exhibitions, including 'Ke Liha Pene' by Samuele Makoanyane, 'Looking A Head: Revisiting the Lydenburg Heads', 'Boonstra Diarama', 'Tata Madiba Virtual Exhibition', 'World of Wasps', 'Enduring Covid19' and 'The Journeys of
5883-661: The Arabic script. In 1861, L.H. Meurant published his Zamenspraak tusschen Klaas Waarzegger en Jan Twyfelaar ( Conversation between Nicholas Truthsayer and John Doubter ), which is considered to be the first book published in Afrikaans. The first grammar book was published in 1876; a bilingual dictionary was later published in 1902. The main modern Afrikaans dictionary in use is the Verklarende Handwoordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (HAT). A new authoritative dictionary, called Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT),
5994-730: The Boers and their servants." In 1925 Afrikaans was recognised by the South African government as a distinct language, rather than simply a vernacular of Dutch. On 8 May 1925, that is 23 years after the Second Boer War ended, the Official Languages of the Union Act, 1925 was passed—mostly due to the efforts of the Afrikaans-language movement —at a joint sitting of the House of Assembly and
6105-613: The British Model Soldier Society. Gottstein persuaded designer and painter friends in both Germany and France to help in the construction of dioramas depicting notable events in English history. But due to the war, many of the figures arrived in England incomplete. The task of turning Gottstein's ideas into reality fell to his English friends and those friends who had managed to escape from the Continent. Dennis (Denny) C. Stokes,
6216-509: The Bushmen's complex social and cultural networks. With accompanying museum labels in which they were continually referred to in the past tense, the Bushmen were consigned to history and extinction. It was only in the late 1950s that Drury's casts were given any contextualisation in the form of the Bushman Diorama when they were displayed in an invented cultural setting based on an early nineteenth-century painting by Samuel Daniell . However,
6327-399: The Dutch Cape Colony between 1652 and 1672 had a Dutch father. Sarah Grey Thomason and Terrence Kaufman argue that Afrikaans' development as a separate language was "heavily conditioned by nonwhites who learned Dutch imperfectly as a second language." Beginning in about 1815, Afrikaans started to replace Malay as the language of instruction in Muslim schools in South Africa, written with
6438-437: The Glenbow Institute (Barry Agnew, curator) "the figures are still in reasonable condition, but the plaster groundwork has suffered considerable deterioration". There are no photographs available of the dioramas. The Battle of Hastings diorama was to be found in the Old Town Museum, Hastings , and is still in reasonable condition. It shows the Norman cavalry charging up Senlac Hill toward the Saxon lines. The Storming of Acre
6549-403: The Romans under Julius Caesar in 55 BC , Battle Of Crecy , The Battle of Blenheim , The Old Guard at Waterloo and The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava . The state of these dioramas is one of debate; John Garratt ( The World of Model Soldiers ) claimed in 1968, that the dioramas "appear to have been partially broken up and individual figures have been sold to collectors". According to
6660-411: The Sao Jose'. "Bushmen", referring collectively to San and Khoi indigenous groups, were considered lowest on the evolutionary timescale and as living remnants of "civilised" man's prehistory, akin to the highest form of ape. As such, they became the subject of intensive research, particularly from 1906 onwards under the directorship of Louis Péringuey . Subsequent research on Bushmen was informed by
6771-448: The South African Museum was renamed Iziko South African Museum (See #Governance below), In 1998, five national museums in the Western Cape were amalgamated as the Southern Flagship Institution (SFI). In July 2001, the SFI was officially renamed Iziko Museums of Cape Town, and in September 2012, renamed Iziko Museums of South Africa. Iziko Museums of South Africa is an agency of the national Department of Arts and Culture , which governs
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#17328439912296882-426: The South African Museum was renamed to its present name. It is governed by the national museums' governing body, Iziko Museums of South Africa . Iziko is a Xhosa word meaning "hearth". The South African Museum was founded in 1825 by Lord Charles Somerset (1767-1831), who was Governor of the Cape Colony from 1814 to 1826. The museum has been on its present site in the Company's Garden since 1897. It began as
6993-413: The West , Fengshen Bang , The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars and the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac . The park was a major local attraction during the 1970s and 1980s; it is estimated that the park then welcomed at least 1 million annual visitors, and is considered as part of Singapore's cultural heritage. The Diorama was a popular entertainment that originated in Paris in 1822. An alternative to
7104-407: The also popular " Panorama " ( panoramic painting ), the Diorama was a theatrical experience viewed by an audience in a highly specialized theatre. As many as 350 patrons would file in to view a landscape painting that would change its appearance both subtly and dramatically. Most would stand, though limited seating was provided. The show lasted 10 to 15 minutes, after which time the entire audience (on
7215-420: The background begin in the field, where an artist takes photographs and sketches references pieces. Once back at the museum, the artist has to depict the scenery with as much realism as possible. The challenge lies in the fact that the wall used is curved: this allows the background to surround the display without seams joining different panels. At times the wall also curves upward to meet the light above and form
7326-601: The bunk or behind the sea chest. Nowadays, such antique sailing ship dioramas are valuable collectors' items. One of the largest dioramas ever created was a model of the entire State of California built for the Panama–Pacific International Exposition of 1915 and that for a long time was installed in San Francisco 's Ferry Building . Dioramas are widely used in the American educational system , mostly in elementary and middle schools. They are often made to represent historical events, ecological biomes , cultural scenes, or to visually depict literature. They are usually made from
7437-412: The centre of much contestation but also a popular tourist attraction for foreigners, locals and schools. The focus of tours was largely the physical appearance of the figures; teachers and tour guides would routinely use the display to emphasise racialised physical features such as skin, hair type, body shape and genital forms. In 1989, in recognition of the ethical and unequal power dimensions involved in
7548-401: The challenges of demotion and emigration that it faces in South Africa, the Afrikaans vernacular remains competitive, being popular in DSTV pay channels and several internet sites, while generating high newspaper and music CD sales. A resurgence in Afrikaans popular music since the late 1990s has invigorated the language, especially among a younger generation of South Africans. A recent trend is
7659-407: The constructed nature of the diorama. Continued revision occurred in 1993 with Out of Touch, an auto-critique that added "dilemma labels" and contrasting superimposed images to the display cases in the African cultures gallery (and the diorama) in order to destabilise the narrative and to "qualify previous notions of cultural stasis by acknowledging urbanisation and other changes". The exhibition that
7770-762: The course of the 18th century. As early as the mid-18th century and as recently as the mid-20th century, Afrikaans was known in standard Dutch as a 'kitchen language' (Dutch: kombuistaal ), lacking the prestige accorded, for example, even by the educational system in Africa, to languages spoken outside Africa. Other early epithets setting apart Kaaps Hollands (' Cape Dutch ', i.e. Afrikaans) as putatively beneath official Dutch standards included geradbraakt , gebroken and onbeschaafd Hollands ('mutilated, broken, or uncivilised Dutch'), as well as verkeerd Nederlands ('incorrect Dutch'). Historical linguist Hans den Besten theorises that modern Standard Afrikaans derives from two sources: So Afrikaans, in his view,
7881-445: The development of Afrikaans. The slave population was made up of people from East Africa, West Africa, Mughal India , Madagascar , and the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia). A number were also indigenous Khoisan people, who were valued as interpreters, domestic servants, and labourers. Many free and enslaved women married or cohabited with the male Dutch settlers. M. F. Valkhoff argued that 75% of children born to female slaves in
7992-508: The diorama. Ground debris, such as leaf litter , is collected on site and soaked in wallpaper paste for preservation and presentation in the diorama. Water is simulated using glass or plexiglass with ripples carved on the surface. For a diorama to be successful, the foreground and background must merge, so both artists have to work together. Taxidermy specimens are usually the centrepiece of dioramas. Since they must entertain, as well as educate, specimens are set in lifelike poses, so as to convey
8103-512: The direction and intensity of the skillfully manipulated light, the scene would appear to change. The effect was so subtle and finely rendered that both critics and the public were astounded, believing they were looking at a natural scene. The inventors and proprietors of the Diorama were Charles-Marie Bouton (1781– 1853), a Troubador painter who also worked at the Panorama under Pierre Prévost, and Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851), formerly
8214-429: The display, the South African Museum took the first steps to mediate the diorama. This came in the shape of an adjoining exhibition that investigated the rationale for the casting project and explored the backgrounds and identities of the people who had been cast. Photographs from the casting process were shown and one of the figures was dressed in early twentieth century (instead of hunter-gather) attire to alert viewers to
8325-455: The early 20th century Afrikaans was considered a Dutch dialect , alongside Standard Dutch , which it eventually replaced as an official language. Before the Boer wars , "and indeed for some time afterwards, Afrikaans was regarded as inappropriate for educated discourse. Rather, Afrikaans was described derogatorily as 'a kitchen language' or 'a bastard jargon', suitable for communication mainly between
8436-636: The first half of the 20th century, both in the US and UK, later on giving way to television, film, and new perspectives on science. Like historical dioramas, natural history dioramas are a mix of two- and three-dimensional elements. What sets natural history dioramas apart from other categories is the use of taxidermy in addition to the foreground replicas and painted background. The use of taxidermy means that natural history dioramas derive not only from Daguerre's work, but also from that of taxidermists, who were used to preparing specimens for either science or spectacle. It
8547-456: The general consensus was that these were inadequate. After Miscast there have been various exhibitions at the South African Museum and South African National Gallery with a general focus on Bushmen rock art and paintings. One of the exhibitions ended with a Bushman healing ceremony that included the lighting of a sacred peace pipe and traditional song and dance. These exhibitions also utilised strategies such as quotes from Bushmen individuals and
8658-473: The government for Afrikaans, in terms of education, social events, media (TV and radio), and general status throughout the country, given that it now shares its place as official language with ten other languages. Nevertheless, Afrikaans remains more prevalent in the media – radio, newspapers and television – than any of the other official languages, except English. More than 300 book titles in Afrikaans are published annually. South African census figures suggest
8769-406: The increased availability of pre-school educational CDs and DVDs. Such media also prove popular with the extensive Afrikaans-speaking emigrant communities who seek to retain language proficiency in a household context. Afrikaans-language cinema showed signs of new vigour in the early 21st century. The 2007 film Ouma se slim kind , the first full-length Afrikaans movie since Paljas in 1998,
8880-529: The language distance for Anglophones once remarked that the differences between (Standard) Dutch and Afrikaans are comparable to those between the Received Pronunciation and Southern American English . Afrikaans is an official language of the Republic of South Africa and a recognised national language of the Republic of Namibia. Post-apartheid South Africa has seen a loss of preferential treatment by
8991-576: The language of instruction for half the subjects taught in non-White schools (with English continuing for the other half). Although English is the mother tongue of only 8.2% of the population, it is the language most widely understood, and the second language of a majority of South Africans. Afrikaans is more widely spoken than English in the Northern and Western Cape provinces, several hundred kilometres from Soweto. The Black community's opposition to Afrikaans and preference for continuing English instruction
9102-513: The likes of big Afrikaans Hollywood film stars, like Charlize Theron ( Monster ) and Sharlto Copley ( District 9 ) promoting their mother tongue. SABC 3 announced early in 2009 that it would increase Afrikaans programming due to the "growing Afrikaans-language market and [their] need for working capital as Afrikaans advertising is the only advertising that sells in the current South African television market". In April 2009, SABC3 started screening several Afrikaans-language programmes. There
9213-530: The majority are of Afrikaans-speaking Afrikaner and Coloured South-African descent. A much smaller and unknown number of speakers also reside in the Dutch Caribbean . Contrary to popular belief, the majority of Afrikaans speakers today are not Afrikaners or Boers , but Coloureds . In 1976, secondary-school pupils in Soweto began a rebellion in response to the government's decision that Afrikaans be used as
9324-429: The mannequin. Glass eyes substitute the real ones. If an animal is large enough, the scaffolding that holds the specimen needs to be incorporated into the foreground design and construction. Lego dioramas are dioramas that are built from Lego pieces. These dioramas range from small vignettes to large, table-sized displays, and are sometimes constructed in a collaboration of two or more people. Some AFOL engage in
9435-417: The name "diorama" for a theatrical system that used variable lighting to give a translucent painting the illusion of depth and movement. It derives from Greek δια- (through) + ὅραμα (visible image) = "see-through image." The first use in reference to museum displays is recorded in 1902, although such displays existed before. The current, popular understanding of the term "diorama" denotes
9546-584: The national museums of the Western Cape , including Iziko South African Museum. Iziko is a Xhosa word meaning "hearth". The museum specialises in African zoology, palaeontology, and archaeology. It houses over a million and a half scientific specimens, ranging from fossils up to 700 million years old to insects and fish caught a few days earlier. The collection also includes artefacts such as stone tools made by people 120,000 years ago, traditional clothes from
9657-592: The newly revised label once again emphasised the narrative of extinction and lacked any historical contextualisation or information about the Bushmen's individual histories. The Bushman Diorama was not the only South African Museum display that historicised ethnic groups in this way. The African culture gallery also featured a series of displays of casts or models of "dark-skinned people" (in ethnically defined groups) who "live in rural areas and are located in timeless places such as 'tribes' or 'groups'". The Bushman Diorama deserves particular attention though, as it has been at
9768-514: The other official languages. In 1996, for example, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reduced the amount of television airtime in Afrikaans, while South African Airways dropped its Afrikaans name Suid-Afrikaanse Lugdiens from its livery . Similarly, South Africa's diplomatic missions overseas now display the name of the country only in English and their host country's language, and not in Afrikaans. Meanwhile,
9879-410: The other way round. Mutual intelligibility thus tends to be asymmetrical, as it is easier for Dutch speakers to understand Afrikaans than for Afrikaans speakers to understand Dutch. In general, mutual intelligibility between Dutch and Afrikaans is far better than between Dutch and Frisian or between Danish and Swedish . The South African poet writer Breyten Breytenbach , attempting to visualise
9990-411: The past tense is also often replaced with the perfect.) When telling a longer story, Afrikaans speakers usually avoid the perfect and simply use the present tense, or historical present tense instead (as is possible, but less common, in English as well). A particular feature of Afrikaans is its use of the double negative ; it is classified in Afrikaans as ontkennende vorm and is something that
10101-466: The peak of their grandeur with the opening of the Akeley Hall of African Mammals in 1936, which featured large animals, such as elephants, surrounded by even larger scenery. Nowadays, various institutions lay different claims to notable dioramas. The Milwaukee Public Museum still displays the world's first diorama, created by Akeley; the American Museum of Natural History , in New York, has what might be
10212-453: The public about the growing need for habitat conservation . The modern AMNH Exhibitions Lab is charged with the creation of all dioramas and otherwise immersive environments in the museum. A predecessor of Akeley, naturalist and taxidermist Martha Maxwell created a famous habitat diorama for the first World's Fair in 1876. The complex diorama featured taxidermied animals in realistic action poses, running water, and live prairie dogs. It
10323-436: The rise of physical anthropology , a discipline in the European scientific community that drew direct correlation between physical type and evolutionary status and therefore intellectual, cultural and social status, as discussed in a 1988 article by Annie Coombes. Between 1907 and 1924 Péringuey initiated a casting project, carried out by museum modeller James Drury, in which 68 body casts of "pure Bushmen specimens" were taken in
10434-481: The roof of York Minster . Clarkson Stanfield created a diorama re-enactment of the event, which premiered on 20 April of the same year; it employed a "safe fire" via chemical reaction as a special effect. On 27 May, the "safe" fire proved to be less safe than planned: it set a real fire in the painted cloths of the imitation fire, which burned down the theater and all of its dioramas. Nonetheless, dioramas remained popular in England, Scotland, and Ireland through most of
10545-415: The scale of objects placed on the plane to reinforce the illusion through depth perception in which objects of identical real-world size placed farther from the observer appear smaller than those closer. Often the distant painted background or sky will be painted upon a continuous curved surface so that the viewer is not distracted by corners, seams, or edges. All of these techniques are means of presenting
10656-637: The site contains over 150 giant dioramas depicting scenes from Chinese Literature, folklore, legends, history, philosophy and statuary of key Chinese religions, Taoism , Buddhism and Confucianism . The best-known attraction in Haw Par Villa is the Ten Courts of Hell , which features gruesome depictions of Hell in Chinese mythology and in Buddhism . Other major attractions include dioramas of scenes from Journey to
10767-442: The subject. For example, Only a handful of Afrikaans verbs have a preterite , namely the auxiliary wees ('to be'), the modal verbs , and the verb dink ('to think'). The preterite of mag ('may') is rare in contemporary Afrikaans. All other verbs use the perfect tense, het + past participle (ge-), for the past. Therefore, there is no distinction in Afrikaans between I drank and I have drunk . (In colloquial German,
10878-537: The two languages. Afrikaans has a considerably more regular morphology, grammar, and spelling. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, particularly in written form. Afrikaans acquired some lexical and syntactical borrowings from other languages such as Malay , Khoisan languages , Portuguese, and Bantu languages , and Afrikaans has also been significantly influenced by South African English . Dutch speakers are confronted with fewer non-cognates when listening to Afrikaans than
10989-408: The visitors felt that Skotnes had reiterated the ethnographic and museological practices that she was trying to challenge. The exhibition also brought to the fore politics of identity and representation. Bushmen representatives argued that Skotnes could not speak about or for people she "did not understand" and while some consultative protocols were followed with "official groups that were just forming",
11100-511: The world's largest diorama: a life-size replica of a blue whale; the Biological Museum in Stockholm , Sweden is known for its three dioramas, all created in 1893, and all in original condition; the Powell-Cotton Museum , in Kent, UK, is known for having the world's oldest, unchanged, room-sized diorama, built in 1896. Natural history dioramas typically consist of 3 parts: Preparations for
11211-526: Was designed by Augustus Charles Pugin . Bouton operated the Regent's Park diorama from 1830 to 1840, when it was taken over by his protégé, the painter Charles-Caïus Renoux . The Regent's Park diorama was a popular sensation, and spawned immediate imitations. British artists like Clarkson Stanfield and David Roberts produced ever-more elaborate (moving) dioramas through the 1830s; sound effects and even living performers were added. Some "typical diorama effects included moonlit nights, winter snow turning into
11322-574: Was erected on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Society of Real Afrikaners , and the 50th anniversary of Afrikaans being declared an official language of South Africa in distinction to Dutch. The earliest Afrikaans texts were some doggerel verse from 1795 and a dialogue transcribed by a Dutch traveller in 1825. Afrikaans used the Latin alphabet around this time, although the Cape Muslim community used
11433-502: Was given the job of engraving for The Battle of Quebec . The Death of Wolfe was found to be inaccurate and had to be redesigned. The names of the vast majority of painters employed by Gottstein are mostly unknown, most lived and worked on the continent, among them Gustave Kenmow, Leopold Rieche, L. Dunekate, M. Alexandre, A. Ochel, Honey Ray, and, perhaps Gottstein's top painter, Vladimir Douchkine (a Russian émigré who lived in Paris). Douchkine
11544-559: Was influenced by Eugene Nida 's theory of dynamic equivalence which focused on finding the nearest equivalent in the receptor language to the idea that the Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic wanted to convey. A new translation, Die Bybel: 'n Direkte Vertaling was released in November 2020. It is the first truly ecumenical translation of the Bible in Afrikaans as translators from various churches, including
11655-457: Was most seriously aimed at a revisionist history of the diorama was also the most controversial and publicly debated. In 1996 Miscast: Negotiating the Presence of Khoi and San History and Material Culture was exhibited, not at the South African Museum, but at the neighbouring South African National Gallery in order to counterpose the ethnographic discourse that had characterised the Bushmen in such
11766-574: Was only with the dioramas' precursors (and, later on, dioramas) that both these objectives merged. Popular diorama precursors were produced by Charles Willson Peale , an artist with an interest in taxidermy, during the early 19th century. To present his specimens, Peale "painted skies and landscapes on the back of cases displaying his taxidermy specimens". By the late 19th century, the British Museum held an exhibition featuring taxidermy birds set on models of plants. The first habitat diorama created for
11877-399: Was previously referred to as 'Cape Dutch' ( Kaap-Hollands or Kaap-Nederlands ), a term also used to refer to the early Cape settlers collectively, or the derogatory 'kitchen Dutch' ( kombuistaal ) from its use by slaves of colonial settlers "in the kitchen". The Afrikaans language arose in the Dutch Cape Colony , through a gradual divergence from European Dutch dialects , during
11988-534: Was responsible for painting two figures of the Duke of Marlborough on horseback for ' The Blenheim Diorama ' , one of which was used, the other, Gottstein being the true collector, was never released. Denny Stokes painted all the backgrounds of all the dioramas, Herbert Norris, the Historical Costume Designer, whom J. F. Lovel-Barnes introduced to Gottstein, was responsible for the costume design of
12099-649: Was the translation of the whole Bible into Afrikaans. While significant advances had been made in the textual criticism of the Bible, especially the Greek New Testament , the 1933 translation followed the Textus Receptus and was closely akin to the Statenbijbel . Before this, most Cape Dutch-Afrikaans speakers had to rely on the Dutch Statenbijbel . This Statenvertaling had its origins with
12210-531: Was under development As of 2018. The official orthography of Afrikaans is the Afrikaanse Woordelys en Spelreëls , compiled by Die Taalkommissie . The Afrikaners primarily were Protestants, of the Dutch Reformed Church of the 17th century. Their religious practices were later influenced in South Africa by British ministries during the 1800s. A landmark in the development of the language
12321-622: Was underlined when the government rescinded the policy one month after the uprising: 96% of Black schools chose English (over Afrikaans or native languages) as the language of instruction. Afrikaans-medium schools were also accused of using language policy to deter Black African parents. Some of these parents, in part supported by provincial departments of education, initiated litigation which enabled enrolment with English as language of instruction. By 2006 there were 300 single-medium Afrikaans schools, compared to 2,500 in 1994, after most converted to dual-medium education. Due to Afrikaans being viewed as
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