diorama
/ˌdʌɪəˈrɑːmə
/noun
1A model representing a scene with three-dimensional figures, either in miniature or as a large-scale museum exhibit.The real wild animals hunted by Roosevelt and others had to be killed before they could be reconstructed through taxidermy and exhibited in the dioramas of America's museums....
- The project has been so successful that Nigel now works full time creating more life size figures and more small figures to set in dioramas that extend the scope of the museum displays.
- The scene looks like a series of dioramas in an old-fashioned museum.
1.1chiefly historical A scenic painting, viewed through a peephole, in which changes in colour and direction of illumination simulate changes in the weather, time of day, etc.Panoramas were soon overtaken by even more spectacular inventions, such as dioramas and cosmoramas, which explicitly exploited illusionistic effects....
- In 1845, for example, crowds flocked to a Parisian diorama devoted to simulating the experience of seeing St. Mark's in Venice.
- Arguably illusionism was a taste diverted into the diorama, and thence ultimately into the cinema.
1.2A miniature film set used for special effects or animation.
Origin
Early 19th century: coined in French from dia- 'through', on the pattern of panorama.