Panoptic refers to ‘showing or seeing the whole at one view’. Panoptic narrative art is often a bird’s eye view. The ‘camera’ is above. This is the art world’s equivalent of an all-seeing (omniscient) narrator.
The first to do is bring the ‘camera’ right up into the sky. The viewer now has a bird’s eye view of the setting.
But there’s more to it than that. It is an advanced compositional skill to incorporate mountains, deserts, forests and cities into a single scene.
Below is a collection of examples, with various ideas for composition.
Southwind, Johann Sadeler (I), after Maerten de Vos, 1560 – 1600. Anton Pieck design for the train Diorama at the Efteling theme parkTove Jansson (1914 – 2001) rarely seen late 1950s poster illustration for The MoominsBrian çonon (in Pra-Loup, a ski region) 1901 illustration by Louis Trinquier-TrianonSubsurface Lunar Colony, illustrated by Roy Scarfo for Beyond Tomorrow The Next 50 Years in Space, 1965 crosscutGerman Childs Book 1953 Vom lieben Gott und der schönen WeltNational Parks – detail from cover of 1958 AAA Travel brochurePromotional poster for Vence, Alpes Maritimes, by French illustrator Roger Broders (1883-1953)Harry Riley (1895 ~1966) 1955 British Railways travel poster illustration for Penzance, CornwallThe-West-End-London-Underground-Theatre-District-Advertisement-art-by-Ernest-Michael-Dinkel-1931lanka Karasz (1896-1981) Hungarian-AmericanLucien Boucher (1889-1971) Far East by Air France poster art 1950Music Round the Town edited by Max T. Krone, Irving Wolfe, Beatrice Perham Krone & Margaret Fullerton, illustrated by Val Samuelson (1963) trainCover by Saul Steinberg, 19761951 The Summer Noisy Book, illustrated by Leonard WeisgardFelix VallottonRussell Brockbank (1913–1979) The International Geophysical Year, 1957 (Punch, 1956)1926 Illustration by Maud and Miska Petersham from inside the back cover of Olive Beaupre Miller’s Tales Told in Holland‘Hot Springs at Shuzenji, Izu Province’ – Utagawa Hiroshige, 1853Robert Falcucci (1900-1989) 1931 Poster Art Rallye de Monte-Carlo‘Summer Nights’ by Vladimir Polunin, 1930J.R.R. Tolkein, illustration of Hobbiton for his book The Hobbit 1937from the Tenngren Tell It Again Book, Gustaf TenngrenStanislav Kovalev – Finist Yasny SokolBy Peter Kľúčik for unpublished edition of The HobbitHarry Clarke Cinderella illustration for The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, first published in this format in 1922 By Peter Kľúčik for unpublished edition of The HobbitBuzzati, Dino, The Bears’ famous Invasion of Sicily, 1947Jaro Hess Poster of The Land of Make Believe 1933Daily life in Egyptian communities by Mahrous AbdouWheat harvesting, 1984- by Ashour MeselhiTrouble for Trumpets by Peter Cross1940s illustrations by Helen Sewell for Books of Knowledge Thanksgiving Day‘Steinberg’s Panoramas’ 2.11.1938Gustaf Tenggren (1896 – 1970) Snow White and the Seven Dwarves poster 1937Things of Summer, Kathryn Jackson; illustration by Richard Scarry from The New Golden Almanac, 1952Ilonka Karasz (Hungarian-American, 1896-1981) New Yorker 1953F. Hugo D’Alesi, French (1849-1906), Zermatt railway opened in 1890. This is one of the first poster representations of the MatterhornMike Lemanski Illustration for Fortune MagazineRonald Lampitt (1906-1988) Village in Spring (1949)
Header illustration: Luis Helguera, Routes of the Flying Clipper Ships Pan Am, 1941
