diorama

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A three-dimensional miniature or life-size scene in which figures, stuffed wildlife, or other objects are arranged in a naturalistic setting against a painted background.
2. n. A scene reproduced on cloth transparencies with various lights shining through the cloths to produce changes in effect, intended for viewing at a distance through an aperture.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A spectacular painting, or a connected series of paintings, intended for exhibition to spectators in a darkened room, in a manner to produce by optical illusions an appearance of reality. The paintings are so executed and arranged that a variety of effects may be induced by varying the direction, intensity, and color of the light; one of the most notable of these effects coming from light transmitted through the picture itself, which is painted in transparent coloring on a thin fabric. Different scences may be painted on the two faces of the fabric, and a change from one to the other may be made by altering the soucre of the illumination. A daylight scene may be thus changed with wonderful realism to one by moonlight, or a desert place may become all at once peopled by a busy crowd. The diorama was devised in 1822 by Daguerre (the chief inventor of photography) and Bouton.
2. n. A building in which dioramic paintings are exhibited.

Wiktionary

1. n. A three-dimensional display of a scenery, often having a painted background in front of which models are arranged, e.g. in a museum where stuffed animals are presented against a painted landscape.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A mode of scenic representation, invented by Daguerre and Bouton, in which a painting is seen from a distance through a large opening. By a combination of transparent and opaque painting, and of transmitted and reflected light, and by contrivances such as screens and shutters, much diversity of scenic effect is produced.
2. n. A building used for such an exhibition.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a picture (or series of pictures) representing a continuous scene