L - What Are Landscapes? (Lesson)

What Are Landscapes?

The part of the surface of the Earth that can be viewed from a place at a particular time is a technical definition of a landscape. When focusing on art, you could say that when the subject of the artwork is nature, the land itself, that the artwork is a landscape.

History of Landscapes in Art

Landscapes were included in drawing and painting as backgrounds almost as far back as art has been created. Landscape paintings as a genre, where the landscape is the subject itself, date back to ancient Rome. But the land as a subject isn’t unique to European art. Chinese art in particular is rich with landscape painting.  

The first known pure landscape painting was found in an Akrotiri room, dated before 1630 BCE. The colors of pink, blue, and yellow were used to record the actual colors of Thera’s wet rocks in the sunshine. The stylization of forms, coloring, and repletion create an impression of celebration of the natural world. 

Please watch the following video to learn more about frescoes from Akrotiri, Thera. Be sure your volume is turned on!

Frescoes found in Pompeii date from 150 BCE until the end of Pompeii in 79 CE.

Landscapes as a subject in painting first appeared in Chinese art during the Six Dynasties, 265 -589 CE. Landscape later became a major theme in Chinese art. During the Six Dynasties, the intellectual elite turned from Confucianism to Daoism. Wandering the Chinese countryside was a source of spiritual refreshment for Daoists. Daoists also found that wandering in the mind’s eye through a painted landscape served the same purpose, thus a shift toward landscape painting. During the Song Dynasty (960 -1279 CE), philosophers restored and merged Confucian thought with Daoist and Buddhist ideas, called Neo-Confucianism. Neo-Confucianism says that the universe is made of two interacting forces: li – principle or idea and qi – matter. All of the li of the universe, including us, are aspects of the eternal first principle, the Great Ultimate, which is completely present in every object. As humans we are to rid our qui of impurities through education and self-cultivation so that our li may realize its oneness with the Great Ultimate. Landscape art became the most highly esteemed subject for painting. Northern Song artists studied nature closely to master its details and many appearances such as how each particular species of tree grew, the unique character of each rock formation, seasonal changes, birds, flowers, insects. Realistic details were part of mastering these forms and showed an understanding of the principles behind them. Despite all this detail, the goal was not to record a specific landscape.  Instead, it was to paint the eternal essence of a part of nature, like “mountain-ness” instead of a particular mountain. This was an expression of a spiritual communion with nature, which was the key to enlightenment.

The following video by the National Palace Museum in Taipei, China, discusses the painting in greater detail, and gives you an opportunity to see the actual landscape.  Consider how culture, philosophy, and artistic vision all influence the final artwork that the viewer sees.

Landscape painting became popular during the Renaissance in Northern Europe. Previously common subjects of people and scenes were ignored and instead the land itself became the subject for painters such as Jacob van Ruisdael and Vincent van Gogh. The urbanization of European society during the 1500s and 1600s meant that as much as 70 percent of the population in Holland lived in cities and towns rather than on the land. Patrons desired art that reflected their everyday lives and values. Landscape paintings were rarely symbolic but rich in associations from God and all nature, to national, regional, and local pride, agriculture, leisure time spent taking walks in the countryside, and pleasure in the physical sensations of fresh air, daylight, wind, moisture, temperature, colors, and textures. 

The Dutch landscapes were not slaves to representing nature as it was found. Scenery was rearranged, added to, or subtracted from to create a desired formal composition or mood. The concept of representing a scene exactly as it was seen by the naked eye was foreign at the time. Jacob van Ruisdael was skilled at both inventing dramatic compositions and projecting moods in his paintings. 

The painting depicts an actual cemetery called Beth Haim on the outskirts of Amsterdam that is still in use today. Though the burial ground is real, most of the other prominent landmarks were invented by the artist. The powers of God, time, and the natural world are intended to elicit fear and astonishment in the viewer. This is called the sublime. Silent tombs, crumbling ruins, and a stormy landscape are juxtaposed with a rainbow and clouds. The tree points branches at the tombs, implying the overall transience (short-lived) nature of life itself. The rainbow implies renewal and hope. 

Landscape as a subject in art continues to be a prominent subject in art throughout many cultures.

Landscape Photography

Photography was limited in its early years by the need for long exposures, so landscapes were the perfect subjects since they are relatively static.  What is often credited as the first photograph, taken by Nicephore Niepce, was of an urban landscape. In 1904 Edward Steichen created a photograph known as Moonlight: The Pond. This is when landscape photography began to gain recognition in the art world.

The next lesson will focus specifically on Landscape Photographers and their art.

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