View source for Landscape

{{short description|Visible features of a land area}}
{{other uses}}
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A '''landscape''' is the visible features of an area of [[Terrestrial ecoregion|land]], its [[landform]]s, and how they integrate with [[Nature|natural]] or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.<ref name="New Oxford American Dictionary">''New Oxford American Dictionary''.</ref> A landscape includes the physical elements of [[geophysical]]ly defined [[landform]]s such as [[mountains]], [[hills]], [[water bodies]] such as [[river]]s, [[lake]]s, [[pond]]s and the [[sea]], living elements of [[land cover]] including indigenous [[vegetation]], human elements including different forms of [[land use]], buildings, and [[structure]]s, and transitory elements such as [[lighting]] and [[weather]] conditions. Combining both their physical origins and the [[Culture|cultural]] overlay of human presence, often created over millennia, landscapes reflect a living synthesis of people and place that is vital to local and [[national identity]].
 
The character of a landscape helps define the self-image of the people who inhabit it and a sense of place that differentiates one region from other regions. It is the dynamic backdrop to people's lives. Landscape can be as varied as farmland, a [[English landscape park|landscape park]] or [[wilderness]]. The [[Earth]] has a vast range of landscapes including the icy landscapes of [[polar region]]s, [[mountain]]ous landscapes, vast arid [[desert]] landscapes, [[island]]s, and [[coast]]al landscapes, densely [[forest]]ed or [[wooded]] landscapes including past [[boreal forests]] and [[tropical rainforests]] and [[agricultural]] landscapes of [[temperate]] and [[tropical]] regions. The activity of modifying the visible features of an area of land is referred to as [[landscaping]].

==Definition and etymology==
[[File:Stanisław Masłowski (1853-1926), Autumn landscape in Rybiniszki, 1902.jpeg|left|thumb|Autumn landscape in [[Riebini|Rybiniszki]], [[Latvia]], [[watercolor]] by [[Stanisław Masłowski]], 1902 ([[National Museum in Warsaw]], Poland)]]
[[File:Lisse, Netherlands - panoramio (44).jpg|thumb|left|A typical Dutch landscape in [[South Holland]]]]
There are several definitions of what constitutes a landscape, depending on context.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2018-06-01|title=Methods for landscape characterisation and mapping: A systematic review|journal=Land Use Policy|language=en|volume=75|pages=557–569|doi=10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.04.022|issn=0264-8377|doi-access=free|last1=Simensen|first1=Trond|last2=Halvorsen|first2=Rune|last3=Erikstad|first3=Lars|hdl=10852/64958|hdl-access=free}}</ref> In common usage however, a landscape refers either to all the visible features of an area of land (usually rural), often considered in terms of [[aesthetic]] appeal, or to a pictorial representation of an area of countryside, specifically within the genre of [[landscape painting]]. When people deliberately improve the aesthetic appearance of a piece of land—by changing contours and vegetation, etc.—it is said to have been [[Landscaping|landscaped]],<ref name="New Oxford American Dictionary"/> though the result may not constitute a landscape according to some definitions.

Color landscapes blend artificial elements like buildings, roads, and pavements with natural features such as mountains, forests, plants, sky, and rivers. These compositions of distant and near views can significantly impact people's emotions. As urbanization rapidly advances, urban color landscape design has become essential for cities to differentiate and symbolize their unique character and atmosphere. However, this transformation has created challenges. First, the traditional color landscapes in some cities have been heavily influenced by natural geography, climate, local materials, ethnic culture, religion, and socioeconomic factors. Second, the growing problem of "color pollution" - through bright, solid-colored buildings, billboards, and lighting clusters - adversely affects people physically and psychologically. Third, homogenization of colors between cities is causing a loss of cultural identity, as many modern buildings share similar palettes, diluting local characteristics. Researchers have proposed more unified cityscape approaches to address these color landscape issues and help cities preserve their distinctive identities and create vibrant, emotionally engaging urban environments.<ref>Zeng, et al. Chromaticity Analysis on Ethnic Minority Color Landscape Culture in Tibetan Area: A Semantic Differential Approach. Appl. Sci. 2024, 14, 4672. https://doi.org/10.3390/app14114672</ref>

The word ''landscape'' (''landscipe'' or ''landscaef'') arrived in [[England]]—and therefore into the [[English language]]—after the fifth century, following the arrival of the [[Anglo-Saxons]]; these terms referred to a system of human-made spaces on the land. The term ''landscape'' emerged around the turn of the sixteenth century to denote a painting whose primary subject matter was natural scenery.<ref name="olw1">[[Kenneth Olwig|Olwig K.R.]], Recovering the Substantive Nature of Landscape, ''Annals of the A.A.G''(1996), 86, 4, 630-653</ref> ''Land'' (a word from Germanic origin) may be taken in its sense of something to which people belong (as in England being the land of the English).<ref name= "olwig3" /> The suffix ''-scape'' is equivalent to the more common English suffix ''-ship.''<ref name="olwig3">Olwig K.R., Representation and Alienation in the Political Landscape, ''cultural geographies'' (2005) 12, 19-40</ref> The roots of ''-ship'' are etymologically akin to Old English ''sceppan'' or ''scyppan'', meaning ''to shape''. The suffix ''-schaft'' is related to the verb ''schaffen'', so that ''-ship'' and ''shape'' are also etymologically linked. The modern form of the word, with its connotations of scenery, appeared in the late sixteenth century when the term ''landschap'' was introduced by Dutch painters who used it to refer to paintings of inland natural or rural scenery. The word ''landscape'', first recorded in 1598, was borrowed from a Dutch painters' term.<ref>Makhzoumi J. and Pungetti G., Ecological Landscape Design and Planning, Spon Routledge,(1999)</ref> The popular conception of the ''landscape'' that is reflected in dictionaries conveys both a particular and a general meaning, the particular referring to an area of the Earth's surface and the general being that which can be seen by an observer. An example of this second usage can be found as early as 1662 in the [[Book of Common Prayer]]:
::Could we but climb where Moses stood,
::And view the landscape over.
::: (General Hymns, verse 536).<ref>Found via Google Ngram</ref> 
[[File:El Turbó (Baixa Ribagorça).jpg|thumb|[[Pre-Pyrenees]] and [[Pyrenees]]]]
There are several words that are frequently associated with the word landscape:
* Scenery: The natural features of a landscape considered in terms of their appearance, esp. when picturesque: spectacular views of mountain scenery.<ref name="New Oxford American Dictionary"/>
* [[Setting (narrative)|Setting]]: In works of narrative (especially [[fiction]]al), it includes the [[time|historical moment in time]] and [[location (geography)|geographic location]] in which a [[storytelling|story]] takes place, and helps initiate the main [[Theatrical scenery|backdrop]] and [[Mood (psychology)|mood]] for a story.<ref>[[#Obstfeld|Obstfeld]], 2002, p. 1, 65, 115, 171.</ref>
* [[Picturesque]]: The word literally means "in the manner of a picture; fit to be made into a picture", and used as early as 1703 (''Oxford English Dictionary''), and derived from an Italian term ''pittoresco'', "in the manner of a painter". [[William Gilpin (priest)|Gilpin]]'s ''Essay on Prints'' (1768) defined ''picturesque'' as "a term expressive of that peculiar kind of beauty, which is agreeable in a picture" (p. xii).
* A view: "A sight or prospect of some landscape or extended scene; an extent or area covered by the eye from one point" (OED).
* [[Wilderness]]: An uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region.<ref name="New Oxford American Dictionary"/> See also [[Natural landscape]].
* [[Cityscape]] (also townscape): The urban equivalent of a landscape. In the [[visual arts]] a cityscape (urban landscape) is an artistic representation, such as a [[painting]], [[drawing]], [[Publishing|print]] or [[photograph]], of the physical aspects of a [[city]] or urban area.
* [[Seascape]]: A [[photograph]], [[painting]], or other [[work of art]] which depicts the [[sea]], in other words an example of [[marine art]].

==Physical landscape==

===Geomorphology: The physical evolution of landscape===
[[Geomorphology]] is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of [[topographic]] and [[bathymetric]] features  created by physical or chemical processes operating at or near Earth's surface. Geomorphologists seek to understand why landscapes look the way they do, to understand landform history and dynamics and to predict changes through a combination of field observations, physical experiments and [[landscape evolution model|numerical modeling]]. Geomorphology is practiced within [[physical geography]], [[geology]], [[geodesy]], [[engineering geology]], [[archaeology]] and [[geotechnical engineering]]. This broad base of interests contributes to many research styles and interests within the field.<ref>Summerfield, M.A., 1991, ''Global Geomorphology'', Pearson Education Ltd,  {{ISBN|0-582-30156-4}}.</ref>

The surface of [[Earth]] is modified by a combination of surface processes that sculpt landscapes, and geologic processes that cause [[tectonic uplift]] and [[subsidence]], and shape the [[coastal geography]]. Surface processes comprise the action of [[water]], [[wind]], [[ice]], [[wildfire|fire]], and living things on the surface of the Earth, along with chemical reactions that form [[soil]]s and alter material properties, the stability and rate of change of [[topography]] under the force of [[gravity]], and other factors, such as (in the very recent past) human alteration of the landscape. Many of these factors are strongly mediated by [[climate]]. Geologic processes include the uplift of [[mountain range]]s, the growth of [[volcano]]es, [[isostasy|isostatic]] changes in land surface elevation (sometimes in response to surface processes), and the formation of deep [[sedimentary basins]] where the surface of Earth drops and is filled with material [[erosion|eroded]] from other parts of the landscape.  The Earth surface and its topography therefore are an intersection of climatic, [[hydrology|hydrologic]], and [[biology|biologic]] action with geologic processes.

====List of different types of landscape====
{{see also|List of landforms}}
[[Desert]], [[Plain]], [[Taiga]], [[Tundra]], [[Wetland]], [[Mountain]], [[Mountain range]], [[Cliff]], [[Coast]], [[Littoral zone]], [[Glacier]], [[Polar regions of Earth]], [[Shrubland]], [[Forest]], [[Rainforest]], [[Woodland]], [[Jungle]], [[Moorland|Moors]], [[Steppe]], [[Valley]].

{{Wide image|Panorama puy de dome sud.jpg|1200px| Panorama of the [[Chaîne des Puys]] from [[Puy de Dôme]] in winter. [[Massif Central]], [[France]]. An example of how past volcanic activity shaped a landscape}}

{{Wide image|AaravDey.jpg|1200px| A photograph of the [[White Mountains (New England)|White Mountains]]}}

===Landscape ecology===
{{main|Landscape ecology}}

[[Landscape ecology]] is the science of studying and improving relationships between ecological processes in the environment and particular ecosystems. This is done within a variety of landscape scales, development spatial patterns, and organizational levels of research and policy.<ref>Wu, J. 2006. Cross-disciplinarity, landscape ecology, and sustainability science. Landscape Ecology 21:1-4.</ref><ref name="wu-2007">Wu, J. and R. Hobbs (Eds). 2007. Key Topics in Landscape Ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.</ref><ref>Wu, J. 2008. Landscape ecology. In: S. E. Jorgensen (ed), Encyclopedia of Ecology. Elsevier, Oxford.</ref>

Landscape is a central concept in landscape ecology. It is, however, defined in quite different ways. For example:<ref>Kirchhoff, T., Trepl, L. and V. Vicenzotti, V. 2012: What is landscape ecology? An analysis and evaluation of six different conceptions. Landscape Research online first.</ref>  [[Carl Troll]] conceives of landscape not as a mental construct but as an objectively given 'organic entity', a ''harmonic individuum of space''.<ref>Troll, C. 2007: The geographic landscape and its investigation. In: Wiens, J.A., Moss, M.R., Turner, M.G. & Mladenoff, D.J. (eds): Foundation papers in landscape ecology. New York, Columbia University Press:71–101 [First published as: Troll, C. 1950: Die geographische Landschaft und ihre Erforschung. Studium Generale 3(4/5):163–181].</ref> 
[[Ernst Neef]]<ref>Neef, E. 1967: Die theoretischen Grundlagen der Landschaftslehre. Haack, Gotha; cf. Haase, G. and H. Richter 1983: Current trends in landscape research. GeoJournal 7(2):107–119.</ref> defines landscapes as sections within the uninterrupted earth-wide interconnection of geofactors which are defined as such on the basis of their uniformity in terms of a specific land use, and are thus defined in an anthropocentric and relativistic way.

According to [[Richard Forman]] and [[Michael Godron]],<ref>Forman, R.T.T. and M. Godron, M. 1981: Patches and structural components for a landscape ecology. BioScience 31(10):733–740; Forman, R.T.T. and M. Godron 1986: Landscape ecology. Wiley, New York.</ref> a landscape is a heterogeneous land area composed of a cluster of interacting ecosystems that is repeated in similar form throughout, whereby they list woods, meadows, marshes and villages as examples of a landscape's ecosystems, and state that a landscape is an area at least a few kilometres wide. 
[[John A. Wiens]]<ref>Wiens, J.A. and B.T. Milne, B.T. 1989: Scaling of 'landscapes' in landscape ecology, or, landscape ecology from the beetle's perspective. Landscape Ecology 3(2):87–96; Wiens, J.A.: The science and practice of landscape ecology. In: Klopatek, J.M. and R.H. Gardner (eds) 1999: Landscape ecological analyses: issues and applications. Springer, New York:371–383.</ref> opposes the traditional view expounded by [[Carl Troll]], Isaak S. Zonneveld, Zev Naveh, Richard T. T. Forman/Michel Godron and others that landscapes are arenas in which humans interact with their environments on a kilometre-wide scale; instead, he defines 'landscape'—regardless of scale—as "the template on which spatial patterns influence ecological processes".<ref>Wiens, J.A. 1999: The science and practice of landscape ecology. In: Klopatek, J.M. and R.H. Gardner (eds): Landscape ecological analyses: issues and applications. Springer, New York:371–383; cf. Wiens, J.A. 2005: ''Toward a unified landscape ecology''. In: Wiens, J.A. and M.R. Moss (eds): Issues and perspectives in landscape ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge:365–373.</ref>
Some define 'landscape' as an area containing two or more [[ecosystem]]s in close proximity.<ref name="Sanderson-2000">Sanderson, J. and L. D. Harris (eds.).  2000.  Landscape Ecology: A Top-Down Approach.  Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, Florida, USA.</ref>

===Landscape science===
The discipline of landscape science has been described as "bring[ing] landscape ecology and urban ecology together with other disciplines and cross-disciplinary fields to identify patterns and understand social-ecological processes influencing landscape change".<ref name="elsevier">{{cite web |title=Landscape and Urban Planning: An International Journal of Landscape Science, Planning and Design |url=https://www.journals.elsevier.com/landscape-and-urban-planning |publisher=Elsevier |access-date=12 January 2019}}</ref> A 2000 paper entitled "Geography and landscape science" states that "The whole of the disciplines involved in landscape research will be referred to as landscape science, although this term was used first in 1885 by the geographers Oppel and Troll".<ref name="antrop">{{cite journal |last1=Antrop |first1=Marc |title=Geography and landscape science |journal= Belgeo|date=2000 |volume=Special issue: 29th International Geographical Congress |issue=1-2-3-4 |pages=9–36 |doi=10.4000/belgeo.13975 |doi-access=free }}</ref> A 2013 guest editorial defines landscape science as "research that seeks to understand the relationship between people and their environment, with a focus on [[land use change]] and data pertaining to land resources at the landscape scale".<ref name="robinson">{{cite journal |last1=Robinson |first1=Guy M. |last2=Carson |first2=Doris A. |title=Applying Landscape Science to Natural Resource Management |journal=Ecology and Society |volume=18 |issue=1 |page=32 |doi=10.5751/ES-05639-180132 |year=2013 |doi-access=free |hdl=10535/8798 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> The ''[[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]]'' of 1979 defines landscape science as "the branch of physical geography that deals with natural territorial complexes (or geographic complexes, geosystems) as structural parts of the earth's geographic mantle" and states that "The basis of landscape science is the theory that the geographic landscape is the primary element in the physicogeo-graphical differentiation of the earth. Landscape science deals with the origin, structure, and dynamics of landscapes, the laws of the development and arrangement of landscapes, and the transformation of landscapes by the economic activity of man.", and asserts that it was founded in Russia in the early 20th century by L. S. Berg and others, and outside Russia by the German S. Passarge.<ref name="soviet">{{cite book |title=The Great Soviet Encyclopedia |date=1979 |chapter-url=https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Landscape+Science |access-date=12 January 2019 |chapter=Landscape Science}}</ref> The conception of landscape as the relationship between various  components  of  natural  environments and geochemistry was devoted by soviet scientist Viktor Sochava, based on the ideas of American geographer [[George Van Dyne]].<ref>Valerian A. Snytko, Alexey V. Sobisevich [https://revistaig.emnuvens.com.br/rig/article/view/723 Scientific path of Viktor Borisovich Sochava and his contributions for landscape analysis] // Revista do Instituto Geológico, São Paulo, 41 (3), 1-7, 2020. P. 1-7.</ref>

===Integrated landscape management===
[[Integrated landscape management]] is a way of managing a landscape that brings together multiple stakeholders, who collaborate to integrate policy and practice for their different land use objectives, with the purpose of achieving sustainable landscapes.<ref name="Reed">{{cite journal|last1=Reed|first1=J|last2=Deakin|first2=E|last3=Sunderland|first3=T|title=What are 'Integrated Landscape Approaches' and how effectively have they been implemented in the tropics: a systematic map protocol|journal=Environmental Evidence|date=2015|volume=4|issue=2|page=2|doi=10.1186/2047-2382-4-2|doi-access=free|bibcode=2015EnvEv...4....2R|url=http://www.cifor.org/library/5422/what-are-integrated-landscape-approaches-and-how-effectively-have-they-been-implemented-in-the-tropics-a-systematic-map-protocol/|issn=2047-2382}}</ref><ref name="LSLB">{{cite book|last1=Denier|first1=L|last2=Scherr|first2=S|last3=Shames|first3=S|last4=Chatterton|first4=P|last5=Hovani|first5=L|last6=Stam|first6=N|title=The Little Sustainable Landscapes Book|date=2015|publisher=Global Canopy Programme|location=Oxford|url=http://globalcanopy.org/sustainablelandscapes}}</ref> It recognises that, for example, one river basin can supply water for towns and agriculture, timber and food crops for smallholders and industry, and habitat for biodiversity; the way in which each one of these sectors pursues its goals can have impacts on the others. The intention is to minimise conflict between these different land use objectives and [[ecosystem services]].<ref name="LSLB" /> This approach draws on landscape ecology, as well as many related fields that also seek to integrate different land uses and users, such as [[watershed management]].<ref name="Reed"/>

Proponents of integrated landscape management argue that it is well-suited to address complex global challenges, such as those that are the focus of the [[Sustainable Development Goals]].<ref name="SDG briefing">{{cite journal|last1=Landscapes for People Food and Nature|title=Integrated Landscape Management: The Means of Implementation for the Sustainable Development Goals|journal=Landscapes for People Food and Nature Briefing|date=2015|url=http://peoplefoodandnature.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ILM-for-the-SDGs-Two-Page-Statement-Sept-21-2015-FINAL-FINAL.pdf}}</ref> Integrated landscape management is increasingly taken up at the national,<ref>{{cite web|title=GMS Workshop on Landscape Approaches|url=http://www.gms-eoc.org/events/gms-workshop-on-landscape-approaches|website=Greater Mekong Subregion - Core Environment Program}}</ref><ref name="IINDC">{{cite web|last1=Republic of Indonesia|title=Intended Nationally Determined Contribution|url=http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions/INDC/Published%20Documents/Indonesia/1/INDC_REPUBLIC%20OF%20INDONESIA.pdf|website=UNFCCC submissions}}</ref> local<ref>Landscapes for People Food and nature case studies http://peoplefoodandnature.org/analysis/all-publications/case-studies/</ref> and international level, for example the [[UN Environment Programme]] states that "UNEP champions the landscape approach de facto as it embodies the main elements of integrated [[ecosystem management]]".

===Landscape archaeology===
{{Main|Landscape archaeology|Historical ecology}}
[[File:Medieval Ridge and Furrow above Wood Stanway - geograph.org.uk - 640050.jpg|220px|left|thumb|[[Medieval]] Ridge and Furrow above [[Wood Stanway]], [[Gloucestershire]], England.]]
Landscape archaeology or [[landscape history]] is the study of the way in which humanity has changed the physical appearance of the environment - both present and past. Landscape generally refers to both natural environments and environments constructed by human beings.<ref name="Nicole">Branton, Nicole (2009) Landscape Approaches in Historical Archaeology: The Archaeology of Places. In International Handbook of Historic Archaeology, Majewski, Teresita and [[David Gaimster|Gaimster, David]], eds. Springer:</ref>  [[Natural landscape]]s are considered to be environments that have not been altered by humans in any shape or form.<ref name="Hood">Hood, Edward J. (1996)  "Social Relations and the Cultural Landscape". In Landscape Archaeology:Reading and Interpreting the American Historical Landscape. Yamin, Rebecca and Karen Bescherer Metheny, eds. Knoxville:The University of Tennessee Press.</ref>  [[Cultural landscapes]], on the other hand, are environments that have been altered in some manner by people (including temporary structures and places, such as campsites, that are created by human beings).<ref name="Wood">Spencer-Wood, Suzanne M. and Sherene Baugher. (2010) "Introduction to the Historical Archaeology of Powered Cultural Landscapes." International Journal of Historical Archaeology 14, pp. 463-474.</ref> Among archaeologists, the term landscape can refer to the meanings and alterations people mark onto their surroundings.<ref name="Wood" /><ref name="garden" />  As such, landscape archaeology is often employed to study the human use of land over extensive periods of time.<ref name="garden">Gleason, Kathryn L. (1994). "To Bound and to Cultivate: An Introduction to the Archaeology of Gardens and Fields. In The Archaeology of Garden and Field. Miller, Naomi F. and Kathryn L. Gleason, eds. Philadelphia:University of Pennsylvania Press</ref><ref>Erika Martin Seibert. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090531144737/http://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/guidance/NR_workshop_3-11-09/Archeol_and_landscapes_Erika.doc "Archaeology and Landscape"], Accessed December 12, 2010.</ref>
Landscape archaeology can be summed up by Nicole Branton's statement: 
:"the landscapes in landscape archaeology may be as small as a single household or garden or as large as an empire", and "although resource exploitation, class, and power are frequent topics of landscape archaeology, landscape approaches are concerned with spatial, not necessarily ecological or economic, relationships. While similar to [[settlement archaeology]] and ecological archaeology, landscape approaches model places and spaces as dynamic participants in past behavior, not merely setting (affecting human action), or artifact (affected by human action)".<ref name="Nicole" />

===Cultural landscape===
[[File:Inside the Batad rice terraces.jpg|thumb|The Batad rice terraces, The [[Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras]], the first site to be included in the [[World Heritage Site|UNESCO World Heritage List]] cultural landscape category in 1995.<ref name=not-danger>{{cite news|last=Malig|first=Jojo|title=Philippine rice terraces no longer in danger|url=http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/-depth/06/26/12/philippine-rice-terraces-no-longer-danger|access-date=26 June 2012|newspaper=[[ABS-CBN News]]|date=26 June 2012}}</ref>]]
The concept of [[cultural landscapes]] can be found in the European tradition of [[landscape art|landscape painting]].<ref>PANNELL, S (2006) Reconciling Nature and Culture in a Global Context: Lessons form the World Heritage List. James Cook University. Cairns, Australia. Page 62</ref>  From the 16th century onwards, many European artists painted landscapes in favor of people, diminishing the people in their paintings to figures subsumed within broader, regionally specific landscapes.<ref name="GIBS1989">GIBSON, W.S (1989) Mirror of the Earth: The World Landscape in Sixteenth-Century Flemish Painting.  Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey</ref>

The geographer [[Otto Schlüter]] is credited with having first formally used  "cultural landscape" as an academic term in the early 20th century.<ref name="JAMA1981">JAMES, P.E & MARTIN, G (1981) ''All Possible Worlds: A History of Geographical Ideas''. John Wiley & Sons. New York, p. 177.</ref> In 1908, Schlüter argued that by defining [[geography]] as a ''Landschaftskunde'' (landscape science) this would give geography a logical subject matter shared by no other discipline.<ref name="JAMA1981"/><ref>ELKINS, T.H (1989) ''Human and Regional Geography in the German-speaking lands in the first forty years of the Twentieth Century''. ENTRIKEN, J. Nicholas & BRUNN, Stanley D (Eds) Reflections on Richard Hartshorne's The nature of geography. Occasional publications of the Association of the American Geographers, Washington DC. Page 27</ref>  He defined two forms of landscape: the ''Urlandschaft'' (transl. original landscape) or landscape that existed before major human induced changes and the ''Kulturlandschaft'' (transl. 'cultural landscape') a landscape created by human culture. The major task of geography was to trace the changes in these two landscapes.

It was [[Carl O. Sauer]], a [[human geography|human geographer]], who was probably the most influential in promoting and developing the idea of cultural landscapes.<ref>JAMES, P.E & MARTIN, G (1981) All Possible Worlds: A History of Geographical Ideas. John Wiley & Sons. New York. Page 321-324.</ref> Sauer was determined to stress the agency of culture as a force in shaping the visible features of the Earth's surface in delimited areas. Within his definition, the physical environment retains a central significance, as the medium with and through which human cultures act.<ref name ="SAUE1925">SAUER, C (1925) ''The Morphology of Landscape''. University of California Publications in Geography. Number 22. Pages 19-53</ref>  His classic definition of a 'cultural landscape' reads as follows:

<blockquote>
The cultural landscape is fashioned from a [[natural landscape]] by a cultural group. Culture is the agent, the natural area is the medium, the cultural landscape is the result.</blockquote>

A cultural landscape, as defined by the [[World Heritage Site|World Heritage Committee]], is the "cultural properties [that] represent the combined works of nature and of man."<ref>UNESCO (2012) Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention [https://whc.unesco.org/archive/opguide12-en.pdf]. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Paris. Page 14.</ref>

The World Heritage Committee identifies three categories of cultural landscape, ranging from (i) those landscapes most deliberately 'shaped' by people, through (ii) full range of 'combined' works, to (iii) those least evidently 'shaped' by people (yet highly valued).  The three categories extracted from the Committee's Operational Guidelines, are as follows:<ref>UNESCO (2005) Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Paris. Page 84.</ref>

# "A landscape designed and created intentionally by man";
# an "organically evolved landscape" which may be a "[[relict (geology)|relict (or fossil) landscape]]" or a "continuing landscape"; and
# an "associative cultural landscape" which may be valued because of the "religious, artistic or cultural associations of the natural element".

==Human conceptions and representations of landscape==

===Landscape gardens===
[[File:Stourhead garden.jpg|left|thumb|[[Stourhead]] garden, [[Wiltshire]], England ]]
[[File:Jichang Yuan.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Jichang Garden]] in [[Wuxi]] (1506–1521) ]]
{{See also|Landscaping|Landscape design|Landscape architecture|Garden|Park}}
The [[Chinese garden]] is a landscape garden style which has evolved over three thousand years. It includes both the vast gardens of the Chinese emperors and members of the Imperial Family, built for pleasure and to impress, and the more intimate gardens created by scholars, poets, former government officials, soldiers and merchants, made for reflection and escape from the outside world.  They create an idealized miniature landscape, which is meant to express the harmony that should exist between man and nature.<ref>Michel Baridon, ''Les Jardins - paysagistes, jardiners, poḕts''. p. 348</ref>
A typical Chinese garden is enclosed by walls and includes one or more ponds, [[scholar's rock]]s, trees and flowers, and an assortment of halls and pavilions within the garden, connected by winding paths and zig-zag galleries. By moving from structure to structure, visitors can view a series of carefully composed scenes, unrolling like a scroll of landscape paintings.<ref>Records of the 21st conference of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, describing Classical Chinese garden design and the gardens of Suzhou.</ref>

The [[English landscape garden]], also called English landscape park or simply the 'English garden', is a style of parkland garden intended to look as though it might be a natural landscape, although it may be very extensively re-arranged.  It emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal, symmetrical ''[[jardin à la française]]'' of the 17th century as the principal style for large parks and gardens in Europe.<ref>Yves-Marie Allain and Janine Christiany, ''L'Art des jardins en Europe'', Citadelles and Mazenod, Paris, 2006.</ref> The English garden (and later [[French landscape garden]]) presented an idealized view of nature. It drew inspiration from paintings of landscapes by [[Claude Lorraine]] and [[Nicolas Poussin]], and from the classic [[Chinese gardens]] of the East,<ref name=Boults/> which had recently been described by European travellers and were realized in the Anglo-Chinese garden,<ref name=Boults>{{cite book|title=Illustrated History of Landscape Design|author=Boults, Elizabeth and Chip Sullivan|publisher=[[John Wiley and Sons]]|year=2010|isbn=978-0-470-28933-4|page=175}}</ref> and the philosophy of [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] (1712 – 1778).

The English garden usually included a lake, sweeps of gently rolling lawns set against groves of trees, and recreations of classical temples, Gothic ruins, bridges, and other picturesque architecture, designed to recreate an idyllic pastoral landscape. The work of [[Capability Brown|Lancelot "Capability" Brown]] and [[Humphry Repton]] was particularly influential. By the end of the 18th century the English garden was being imitated by the French landscape garden, and as far away as St. Petersburg, Russia, in [[Pavlovsk, Saint Petersburg|Pavlovsk]], the gardens of the future [[Emperor Paul]]. It also had a major influence on the form of the [[public parks]] and gardens which appeared around the world in the 19th century.<ref>Lucia Impelluso, ''Jardins, potagers et labyrinthes'', Mondatori Electra, Milan</ref>

===Landscape architecture===
[[File:Central park manhattan 2 New York photo D Ramey Logan.jpg|thumb|[[Central Park]], [[New York City]], US, designed by [[Frederick Law Olmsted]]. ]]
[[Landscape architecture]] is a multi-disciplinary field, incorporating aspects of [[botany]], [[horticulture]], the [[fine art]]s, [[architecture]], [[industrial design]], [[geology]] and the [[earth sciences]], [[environmental psychology]], [[geography]], and [[ecology]]. The activities of a landscape architect can range from the creation of public parks and parkways to site planning for campuses and corporate office parks, from the design of residential estates to the design of civil [[infrastructure]] and the management of large [[wilderness]] areas or [[Land reclamation|reclamation]] of degraded landscapes such as mines or [[landfill]]s. Landscape architects work on all types of structures and external space&nbsp;– large or small, [[urban area|urban]], [[suburban]] and [[rural]], and with "hard" (built) and "soft" (planted) materials, while paying attention to ecological [[Sustainable development|sustainability]].

For the period before 1800, the history of landscape gardening (later called landscape architecture) is largely that of master planning and [[garden design]] for [[manor houses]], [[palace]]s and royal properties, religious complexes, and centers of government. An example is the extensive work by [[André Le Nôtre]] at [[Vaux-le-Vicomte]] and at the [[Palace of Versailles]] for King [[Louis XIV of France]]. The first person to write of making a landscape was [[Joseph Addison]] in 1712. The term landscape architecture was invented by [[Gilbert Laing Meason]] in 1828 and was first used as a professional title by [[Frederick Law Olmsted]] in 1863. During the latter 19th century, the term [[landscape architect]] became used by professional people who designed landscapes. [[Frederick Law Olmsted]] used the term 'landscape architecture' as a profession for the first time when designing [[Central Park]], [[New York City]], US. Here the combination of traditional landscape gardening and the emerging field of city planning gave landscape architecture its unique focus. This use of the term landscape architect became established after [[Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.]] and others founded the [[American Society of Landscape Architects]] (ASLA) in 1899.

===Landscape and literature===
{{See also|Pastoral|British regional literature|American literary regionalism}}

====The earliest landscape literature====
[[File:Damarri001.jpg|thumb|The [[Djabugay people|Djabugay]] language group's mythical being, ''Damarri'', transformed into a mountain range, is seen lying on his back above the [[Barron Gorge National Park|Barron River Gorge]], looking upwards to the skies, within north-east Australia's wet tropical forested landscape]]
Possibly the earliest landscape literature is found in [[Australian Aboriginal mythology|Australian aboriginal myths]]  (also known as [[Dreamtime]] or Dreaming stories, [[songlines]], or Aboriginal [[oral literature]]), the stories [[ritual|traditionally performed]] by [[Indigenous Australians|Aboriginal peoples]]<ref>Morris, C. (1994) "Oral Literature" in Horton, David (General Editor)</ref> within each of the [[language group]]s across Australia. All such myths variously tell significant truths within each Aboriginal group's local [[cultural landscape|landscape]]. They effectively layer the whole of the Australian continent's topography with cultural nuance and deeper meaning, and empower selected audiences with the accumulated wisdom and knowledge of Australian Aboriginal ancestors back to [[time immemorial]].<ref>Morris, C. (1995) "An Approach to Ensure Continuity and Transmission of the Rainforest Peoples' Oral Tradition", in Fourmile, H; Schnierer, S.; & Smith, A. (Eds) ''An Identification of Problems and Potential for Future Rainforest Aboriginal Cultural Survival and Self-Determination in the Wet Tropics.'' Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Participation Research and Development. Cairns, Australia</ref>

In the [[Western culture|West]] [[pastoral]] poetry represent the earliest form of landscape literature, though this literary genre presents an idealized landscape peopled by shepherds and shepherdesses, and creates "an image of a peaceful uncorrupted existence; a kind of [[fall of man|prelapsarian]] world".<ref>J. A. Cuddon, P. 644.</ref> The pastoral has its origins in the works of the Greek poet [[Theocritus]] (c. 316 - c. 260 BC). The [[Romanticism|Romantic period]] poet [[William Wordsworth]] created a modern, more realistic form of pastoral with ''[[Michael (poem)|Michael, A Pastoral Poem]]'' (1800).<ref>Peter V. Marinetti, ''Pastoral''. London: Methuen, 1971, p.4.</ref>

An early form of landscape poetry, [[Shanshui poetry]], developed in China during the third and fourth centuries A.D.<ref name="Yip, 130">Yip, 130</ref>

[[File:Hambledon Hill towards Stourton Tower 20070730.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Vale of Blackmore]], the main setting for [[Thomas Hardy]]'s novel ''[[Tess of the d'Urbervilles]]''. [[Hambledon Hill]] towards [[King Alfred's Tower|Stourton Tower]] ]]

====Topographical poetry====
[[Topographical poetry]]  is a [[genre]] of poetry that describes, and often praises, a landscape or place. [[John Denham (poet)|John Denham]]'s 1642 poem "Cooper's Hill" established the genre, which peaked in popularity in 18th-century England. Examples of [[Topography|topographical]] verse date, however, to the [[Late Classical]] period, and can be found throughout the [[Medieval]] era and during the [[Renaissance]]. Though the earliest examples come mostly from continental Europe, the topographical poetry in the tradition originating with Denham concerns itself with the classics, and many of the various types of topographical verse, such as river, ruin, or hilltop poems were established by the early 17th century.<ref>Aubin, Robert Arnold. ''Topographical Poetry in XVIII-Century England''. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1936, p. 3.</ref> [[Alexander Pope]]'s "Windsor Forest" (1713) and [[John Dyer]]'s "[[Grongar Hill]]' (1762) are two other familiar examples. [[George Crabbe]], the [[Suffolk]] regional poet, also wrote topographical poems, as did  [[William Wordsworth]], of which ''[[Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey]]'' is an obvious example.<ref>L. A. Cuddon, ''Dictionary of Literary Terms''. London: Penguin, 1999, p. 922</ref> More recently, [[Matthew Arnold]]'s "[[The Scholar Gipsy]]" (1853) praises the [[Oxfordshire]] countryside, and [[W. H. Auden]]'s "[[In Praise of Limestone]]" (1948) uses a [[limestone]] landscape as an allegory.<ref name="France">{{cite journal|author=France, Alan W.|title=Gothic North and the Mezzogiorno in Auden's 'In Praise of Limestone'|journal=[[Renascence (journal)|Renascence]]|volume=42|issue=3|year=1990|pages=141–148|doi=10.5840/renascence199042319}}</ref>

Subgenres of topographical poetry include the [[country house poems|country house poem]], written in 17th-century England to compliment a wealthy patron, and the [[prospect poem]], describing the view from a distance or a temporal view into the future, with the sense of opportunity or expectation.  When understood broadly as landscape poetry and when assessed from its establishment to the present, topographical poetry can take on many formal situations and types of places. Kenneth Baker, in his "Introduction to ''The Faber Book of Landscape Poetry'', identifies 37 varieties and compiles poems from the 16th through the 20th centuries—from [[Edmund Spenser]] to [[Sylvia Plath]]—correspondent to each type, from "Walks and Surveys", to "Mountains, Hills, and the View from Above", to "Violation of Nature and the Landscape", to "Spirits and Ghosts."<ref>Baker, Kenneth, ed. ''The Faber Book of Landscape Poetry.'' New York: Faber and Faber, 2000.</ref>

Common aesthetic registers of which topographical poetry makes use include [[pastoral]] imagery, the [[sublime (philosophy)|sublime]], and the [[picturesque]], which include images of rivers, ruins, moonlight, birdsong, and clouds, peasants, mountains, caves, and waterscapes.

Though describing a landscape or scenery, topographical poetry often, at least implicitly, addresses a political issue or the meaning of [[nationalism|nationality]] in some way.  The description of the landscape therefore becomes a poetic vehicle for a political message.  For example, in John Denham's "Cooper's Hill", the speaker discusses the merits of the recently executed [[Charles I of England|Charles I]].<ref>John Denham, "Cooper's Hill", (ll.111-119)</ref>

====The Romantic era in Britain====
{{Quote box |width=300px |align=right |quoted=true |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=right
 |quote  =<poem>
'''The Vision on Mount [[Snowdon]]'''

.................................and on the shore
I found myself of a huge sea of mist,
Which meek and silent rested at my feet.
A hundred hills their dusky backs upheaved
All over this still ocean, and beyond,
Far, far beyond, the vapours shot themselves
In headlands, tongues, and promontory shapes, Into the sea, the real sea, that seemed
To dwindle and give up its majesty,
Usurped upon as far as sight could reach.

</poem>|source =from ''[[The Prelude]]'' (1805), Book 13, lines 41-51.<br>by [[William Wordsworth]]
}}
One important aspect of British [[Romantic poetry|Romanticism]]&nbsp;– evident in painting and literature as well as in politics and philosophy&nbsp;– was a change in the way people perceived and valued the landscape. In particular, after [[William Gilpin (priest)|William Gilpin]]'s ''Observations on the River Wye'' was published in 1770, the idea of the [[picturesque]] began to influence artists and viewers. Gilpin advocated approaching the landscape "by the rules of picturesque beauty,"<ref>Gilpin, William, quoted in Baker, Kenneth, ed. ''The Faber Book of Landscape Poetry.'' New York: Faber and Faber, 2000, p. xxvi</ref> which emphasized contrast and variety. [[Edmund Burke]]'s ''[[A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful]]'' (1757) was also an influential text, as was [[Longinus (literature)|Longinus]]' ''On the Sublime'' (early A.D., Greece), which was translated into English from the French in 1739. From the 18th century, a taste for the sublime in the natural landscape emerged alongside the idea of the sublime in language; that is elevated rhetoric or speech.<ref>In the late 17th century in England, [[John Dennis (dramatist)|John Dennis]] brought attention to Longinus' argument for the emotive power of figurative language in poetry.</ref> A topographical poem that influenced the Romantics, was [[James Thomson (poet, born 1700)|James Thomson]]'s ''[[The Seasons (Thomson poem)|The Seasons]]'' (1726–30).<ref>Fulford, Tim. ''Landscape, Liberty, and Authority: Poetry, Criticism, and Politics from Thomson to Wordsworth.''  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996., p. 21'</ref>
The changing landscape, brought about by the [[Industrial Revolution|industrial]] and [[British Agricultural Revolution|agricultural revolution]]s, with the expansion of the city and depopulation of the countryside, was another influences on the growth of the [[Romantic movement]] in Britain. The poor condition of workers, the new class conflicts, and the pollution of the environment all led to a reaction against urbanism and industrialisation and a new emphasis on the beauty and value of [[nature]] and landscape.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica. "Romanticism". Retrieved 30 January 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Britannica.com. Retrieved 24 August 2010.</ref> However, it was also a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the [[Age of Enlightenment]], as well a reaction against the scientific [[rationalization (sociology)|rationalisation]] of nature.<ref>Christopher Casey, (October 30, 2008). ""Grecian Grandeurs and the Rude Wasting of Old Time": Britain, the Elgin Marbles, and Post-Revolutionary Hellenism". ''Foundations''. Volume III, Number 1. Retrieved 25 June 2009.</ref>

The poet [[William Wordsworth]] was a major contributor to the literature of landscape,<ref>Margaret Drabble, ''A Writer's Britain'' (originally subtitled "Landscape in literature", 1979).  New York: Thames & Hudson, 2000, p. 152.</ref> as was his contemporary poet and novelist [[Walter Scott]]. Scott's influence was felt throughout Europe, as well as on major [[Victorian novel]]ists in Britain, such as [[Emily Brontë]], [[Mrs Gaskell]], [[George Eliot]], and [[Thomas Hardy]], as well as [[John Cowper Powys]] in the 20th-century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.scottsabbotsford.co.uk/history/ |title=Walter Scott was the foremost literary figure of his days |access-date=2011-04-09}}</ref><ref>Drabble,, p. 170</ref> [[Margaret Drabble]] in ''A Writer's Britain'' suggests that Thomas Hardy "is perhaps the greatest writer of rural life and landscape" in English.<ref>Drabble, p.91</ref>

====Europe====
Among European writers influenced by Scott were Frenchmen [[Honoré de Balzac]] and [[Alexandre Dumas]] and Italian [[Alessandro Manzoni]].<ref>Drabble, p. 166; [http://www.france.fr/en/literature-and-french-language/alexandre-dumas-1802-1870.html/ "Alexandre Dumas": The official French site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140515044747/http://www.france.fr/en/literature-and-french-language/alexandre-dumas-1802-1870.html |date=2014-05-15 }}</ref> Manzoni's famous novel ''[[The Betrothed]]'' was inspired by [[Walter Scott]]'s ''[[Ivanhoe]]''.<ref>From Georg Lukàcs, "The Historical Novel" (1969): "In Italy Scott found a successor who, though in a single, isolated work, nevertheless broadened his tendencies with superb originality, in some respect surpassing him. We refer, of course, to Manzoni's ''I Promessi Sposi'' (The Betrothed). Scott himself recognized Manzoni's greatness. When in Milan Manzoni told him that he was his pupil, Scott replied that in that case Manzoni's was his best work. It is, however, very characteristic that while Scott was able to write a profusion of novels about English and Scottish society, Manzoni confined himself to this single masterpiece."</ref>

====North America====
Also influenced by Romanticism's approach to landscape was the American novelist [[Fenimore Cooper]], who was admired by [[Victor Hugo]] and Balzac and characterized as the "American [[Walter Scott|Scott]]."<ref>[[#Phillips|Phillips, 1913]], p. 160</ref>

====China====
Landscape in [[Chinese poetry]] has often been closely tied to Chinese landscape painting, which developed much earlier than in the West. Many poems evoke specific paintings, and some are written in more empty areas of the scroll itself. Many painters also wrote poetry, especially in the [[scholar-official]] or literati tradition.  Landscape images were present in the early ''[[Shijing]]'' and the ''[[Chuci]]'', but in later poetry the emphasis changed, as in painting to the ''[[Shan shui]]'' ({{lang-zh|山水}} lit. "mountain-water") style featuring wild mountains, rivers and lakes, rather than landscape as a setting for a human presence.<ref name="Yip, 130"/>  [[Shanshui poetry]] {{CJKV|t=山水詩|s=山水诗}} developed in China during the third and fourth centuries AD<ref name="Yip, 130">Yip, 130</ref> and left most of the varied landscapes of China largely unrepresented. ''Shan shui'' painting and poetry shows imaginary landscapes, though with features typical of some parts of South China; they remain popular to the present day.

[[Fields and Gardens poetry]] ({{lang-zh|t=田園詩|s=田园诗|p=tiányuán shī|w=t'ien-yuan-shih|l=fields and gardens poetry}}), in [[Chinese poetry|poetry]] was a contrasting poetic movement which lasted for centuries, with a focused on the nature found in gardens, in backyards, and in the cultivated countryside. Fields and Gardens poetry is one of many [[Classical Chinese poetry genres]].  One of the main practitioners of the Fields and Gardens poetry genre was Tao Yuanming (also known as [[Tao Yuanming|Tao Qian]] (365–427), among other names or versions of names).<ref>Yip, 163-169</ref> Tao Yuanming has been regarded as the first great poet associated with the Fields and Gardens poetry genre.<ref>Watson, 79</ref>

===Landscape art===

{{Main|Landscape photography|Conservation photography|Aerial photography}}
[[File:Adams The Tetons and the Snake River.jpg|thumb|''The Tetons and the Snake River'' (1942) photograph by [[Ansel Adams]]]]

====Landscape photography====
Many landscape photographs show little or no human activity and are created in the pursuit of a pure, unsullied depiction of [[nature]]<ref name="Photography: A Cultural History 136">Mary Warner Marien (2006). ''Photography: A Cultural History''. Laurence King Publishing. Page 136.</ref> devoid of human influence, instead featuring subjects such as strongly defined landforms, weather, and ambient light. As with most forms of art, the definition of a landscape photograph is broad, and may include urban settings, industrial areas, and [[nature photography]]. Notable landscape photographers include [[Ansel Adams]], [[Galen Rowell]], [[Edward Weston]], [[Ben Heine]], Mark Gray and [[Judges Postcards|Fred Judge]].

====Landscape painting====
{{Main|Landscape painting|Aerial landscape art}}
[[File:Salomon van Ruisdael Deventer.jpg|left|thumb|[[Salomon van Ruisdael]], "View of Deventer" (1657). ]]
The earliest forms of art around the world depict little that could really be called [[Landscape painting|landscape]], although ground-lines and sometimes indications of mountains, trees or other natural features are included. The earliest "pure landscapes" with no human figures are [[fresco]]s from [[Minoan civilization|Minoan Greece]] of around 1500 BCE.<ref>Honour & Fleming, 53. The only very complete example is now in the [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens]]</ref> Hunting scenes, especially those set in the enclosed vista of the reed beds of the [[Nile Delta]] from Ancient Egypt, can give a strong sense of place, but the emphasis is on individual plant forms and human and animal figures rather than the overall landscape setting. For a coherent depiction of a whole landscape, some rough system of perspective, or scaling for distance, is needed, and this seems from literary evidence to have first been developed in [[Ancient Greece]] in the [[Hellenistic]] period, although no large-scale examples survive. More [[Ancient Roman art|ancient Roman]] landscapes survive, from the 1st century BCE onwards, especially frescos of landscapes decorating rooms that have been preserved at archaeological sites of [[Pompeii]], [[Herculaneum]] and elsewhere, and [[mosaic]]s.<ref>Honour & Fleming, 150-151</ref>

The Chinese [[Ink and wash painting|ink painting]] tradition of [[shan shui]] ("mountain-water"), or "pure" landscape, in which the only sign of human life is usually a sage, or a glimpse of his hut, uses sophisticated landscape backgrounds to figure subjects, and landscape art of this period retains a classic and much-imitated status within the Chinese tradition.

Both the Roman and Chinese traditions typically show grand panoramas of imaginary landscapes, generally backed with a range of spectacular mountains – in China often with waterfalls and in Rome often including sea, lakes or rivers. These were frequently used to bridge the gap between a foreground scene with figures and a distant panoramic vista, a persistent problem for landscape artists.

A major contrast between landscape painting in the West and East Asia has been that while in the West until the 19th century it occupied a low position in the accepted [[hierarchy of genres]], in East Asia the classic Chinese mountain-water ink painting was traditionally the most prestigious form of visual art. However, in the West, history painting came to require an extensive landscape background where appropriate, so the theory did not entirely work against the development of landscape painting – for several centuries landscapes were regularly promoted to the status of history painting by the addition of small figures to make a narrative scene, typically religious or mythological.
{{Clear}}

[[Dutch Golden Age painting]] of the 17th century saw the dramatic growth of landscape painting, in which many artists specialized, and the development of extremely subtle realist techniques for depicting light and weather. The popularity of landscapes in the [[Netherlands]] was in part a reflection of the virtual disappearance of religious painting in a [[Calvinist]] society, and the decline of religious painting in the 18th and 19th centuries all over Europe combined with [[Romanticism]] to give landscapes a much greater and more prestigious place in 19th-century art than they had assumed before.

In England, landscapes had initially been mostly backgrounds to portraits, typically suggesting the parks or estates of a landowner, though mostly painted in London by an artist who had never visited the site. The English tradition was founded by [[Anthony van Dyck]] and other, mostly [[Flemish people|Flemish]], artists working in England. By the beginning of the 19th century the English artists with the highest modern reputations were mostly dedicated landscapists, showing the wide range of [[Romanticism|Romantic]] interpretations of the English landscape found in the works of [[John Constable]], [[J. M. W. Turner]] and [[Samuel Palmer]]. However all these had difficulty establishing themselves in the contemporary art market, which still preferred history paintings and portraits.<ref>Reitlinger, 74-75, 85-87</ref>

[[File:Cole Thomas The Course of Empire The Arcadian or Pastoral State 1836.jpg|thumb|[[Thomas Cole]] "The Course of Empire The Arcadian or Pastoral State", US, 1836.]]
[[File:Laurent Guetal Le lac de l'Eychauda.jpg|thumb|[[Laurent Guétal]], ''[[Lac de l'Eychauda]]'', France, 1886, [[Museum of Grenoble]].]]
In Europe, as [[John Ruskin]] said,<ref>''[[Modern Painters]]'', volume three, "Of the novelty of landscape".</ref> and [[Sir Kenneth Clark]] confirmed, landscape painting was the "chief artistic creation of the nineteenth century", and "the dominant art", with the result that in the following period people were "apt to assume that the appreciation of natural beauty and the painting of landscape is a normal and enduring part of our spiritual activity"<ref>Clark, 15-16.</ref>

The Romantic movement intensified the existing interest in landscape art, and remote and wild landscapes, which had been one recurring element in earlier landscape art, now became more prominent.  The German [[Caspar David Friedrich]] had a distinctive style, influenced by his [[Art of Denmark|Danish training]]. To this he added a quasi-mystical Romanticism. French painters were slower to develop landscape painting, but from about the 1830s [[Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot]] and other painters in the [[Barbizon School]] established a French landscape tradition that would become the most influential in Europe for a century, with the [[Impressionist]]s and [[Post-Impressionist]]s for the first time making landscape painting the main source of general stylistic innovation across all types of painting.

In the [[United States]], the [[Hudson River School]], prominent in the middle to late 19th century, is probably the best-known native development in landscape art. These painters created works of mammoth scale that attempted to capture the epic scope of the landscapes that inspired them. The work of [[Thomas Cole]], the school's generally acknowledged founder, has much in common with the philosophical ideals of European landscape paintings — a kind of secular faith in the spiritual benefits to be gained from the contemplation of natural beauty. Some of the later Hudson River School artists, such as [[Albert Bierstadt]], created less comforting works that placed a greater emphasis (with a great deal of Romantic exaggeration) on the raw, even terrifying power of nature. The best examples of Canadian landscape art can be found in the works of the [[Group of Seven (artists)|Group of Seven]], prominent in the 1920s.<ref>"Landscapes" in [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/virtual-vault/026018-119.01-e.php?q1=Landscape&PHPSESSID=709io6475tfesngi2m7226o454 Virtual Vault] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312150933/http://www.collectionscanada.ca/virtual-vault/026018-119.01-e.php?q1=Landscape&PHPSESSID=709io6475tfesngi2m7226o454 |date=2016-03-12 }}, an online exhibition of Canadian historical art at Library and Archives Canada</ref> [[Emily Carr]] was also closely associated with the Group of Seven, though was never an official member. Although certainly less dominant in the period after World War I, many significant artists still painted landscapes in the wide variety of styles exemplified by [[Neil Welliver]], [[Alex Katz]], [[Milton Avery]], [[Peter Doig]], [[Andrew Wyeth]], [[David Hockney]] and [[Sidney Nolan]].

The term [[neo-romanticism]] is applied in British art history, to a loosely affiliated school of landscape painting that emerged around 1930 and continued until the early 1950s.<ref>It was first labeled in March 1942 by the critic [[Raymond Mortimer]] in the ''New Statesman''.</ref> These painters looked back to 19th-century artists such as [[William Blake]] and [[Samuel Palmer]], but were also influenced by French cubist and post-cubist artists such as [[Pablo Picasso]], [[André Masson]], and [[Pavel Tchelitchew]].<ref>{{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Clarke and Clarke|2001}}|reference=Clarke, Michael, and Deborah Clarke. 2001. "Neo-Romanticism". ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms''. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.}}</ref><ref>{{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Hopkins|2001}}|reference=Hopkins, Justine. 2001. "Neo-Romanticism". ''The Oxford Companion to Western Art'', edited by Hugh Brigstocke. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-866203-7}}.}}</ref>   This movement was motivated in part as a response to the threat of invasion during World War II. Artists particularly associated with the initiation of this movement included [[Paul Nash (artist)|Paul Nash]], [[John Piper (artist)|John Piper]], [[Henry Moore]], [[Ivon Hitchens]], and especially [[Graham Sutherland]]. A younger generation included [[John Minton (artist)|John Minton]], [[Michael Ayrton]], [[John Craxton]], [[Keith Vaughan]], [[Robert Colquhoun]], and [[Robert MacBryde]].<ref>{{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Button|1996}}|reference=Button, Virginia. 1996. "Neo-Romanticism". ''Dictionary of Art'', 34 volumes, edited by Jane Turner. New York: Grove's Dictionaries. {{ISBN|9781884446009}}.}}</ref>

==Gallery of landscape paintings from different periods==
<gallery widths="154px" heights="154px">
File:Römischer Meister um 125 v. Chr. 001.jpg|Landscape with scene from the [[Odyssey]], [[Rome]], c. 60-40 BC.
File:Raphael - Madonna in the Meadow - Google Art Project.jpg|:[[Raphael]], ''Madonna in the Meadow'' (1505 - 1506).
File:Spring in Kiangnan.jpg|''Spring in Kiangnan'' (1547) by Wen Cheng-Ming(1470-1559) (lower half detail).
File:Claude Lorrain 014.jpg|[[Claude Lorrain]], ''Landscape with [[Apollo]] Guarding the Herds of [[Admetus]] and [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]] stealing them'' (1645).
File:Albert Bierstadt - Matterhorn.jpg|[[Albert Bierstadt]], The [[Matterhorn]] (circa 1867).
File:Wheat Fields at Auvers Under Clouded Sky 1890 Vincent van Gogh.jpg|[[Vincent van Gogh]], ''Wheat Fields at Auvers Under Clouded Sky'' (1890). 
File:Pablo Picasso, 1908, Paysage aux deux figures (Landscape with Two Figures), oil on canvas, 60 x 73 cm, Musée Picasso, Paris.jpg|[[Pablo Picasso]], 1908, ''Paysage aux deux figures'' (Landscape with Two Figures)
File:Paul Nash Wire 1918-19.jpg|[[Paul Nash (artist)|Paul Nash]], ''Wire'' (1918).
File:Carl Brandt - Norrländskt vinterlandskap med Åreskutan i fonden.jpg|Carl Brandt: "[[Åreskutan]], landscape", 1921 ([[Sweden]])
File:EmilyCarr - Odds and Ends.png|[[Emily Carr]], ''Odds and Ends'', 1939 ([[British Columbia]], Canada)
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Boundaries in landscape history]]
* [[Landscape ecology]]
* [[Hardscape]]
* [[List of landscape gardens]]
* [[Softscape]]
* [[Soundscape]]
* [[Landscape mythology]]
* [[Terrain]]
* [[Taskscape]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons and category|landscapes}}
{{Wiktionary|landscape}}
* [https://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2010/aug/04/jonathan-raban-landscape-literature ''Guardian'' podcasts: "Landscape and literature"]
* [https://theworldagriculture.com/plan-and-execute-landscape-projects] Plan & Execute landscape projects
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Landscape| ]]
[[Category:Topography]]