Phantasmagoria

Never heard of Phantasmagoria ? Don't worry, nor did I - until a few hours ago.

We had a stroll in the Cemetery of Père-Lachaise, the famous Parisian cemetery. Its size is enormous and it is a walk through history from 1804 until today. It even has an own website, allowing a virtual tour.

I detected a special tomb, with the inscription:
ROBERTSON Etienne-Gaspard
1763 - 2nd July 1837
----
Physique
Fantasmagorie
Aerostats

On top of the tomb the skulls with bat wings. So, who was Robertson, and what is Fantsmagorie: He was a prominent Belgian physicist and stage magician and he invented and/or perfected this form of theatre (called Phantasmagoria) to project frightening images, create illusions of resurrected deads and bring horror to the audience. Seems that he terrified Paris that much, that police had to stop the audiences for some time, as people having gone through the French revolution thought, that he could bring back the king.

There are some interesting links on the internet:
- Robertson's Fantastic Phantasmagoria, An 18th Century Spectacle of Horror
- Phantasmagoria: How Étienne-Gaspard Robert terrified Paris for science (--> longer version, including details of his magic lantern, called “Fantoscope”)