Landscape and western art / Malcolm Andrews.

By: Andrews, Malcolm, 1942- [author].

Material type: materialTypeLabel

BookSeries: Oxford history of art: Publisher: Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1999Copyright date: ©1999Description: vii, 248 pages : illustrations (some colour) ; 25 cm.Content type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 0192842331 (paperback).Subject(s): Landscapes in art

| Nature (Aesthetics)

DDC classification: 758.1

Contents:

Land into landscape -- Subject or setting?: Landscape and Renaissance painting -- Landscape as amenity -- Topography and the beau ideal -- Framing the view -- 'Astonished beyond expression': landscape, the sublime, and the unpresentable -- Landscape and politics -- Nature as picture or process? -- Landscape into land: earth works, art, and environment.

Summary: "What is landscape? How does it differ from 'land'? Does landscape always imply something to be pictured, a scene? When and why did we begin to cherish images of nature? What is 'nature'? Is it everything that isn't art, or artefact? This book explores many fascinating issues raised by the great range of ideas and images of the natural world in Western art since the Renaissance. Using a thematic structure many issues are examined, for instance: landscape as a cultural construct; the relationship between landscape as accessory or backdrop and landscape as the chief subject; landscape as constituted by various practices of framing; the sublime and ideas of indeterminacy; landscape art as picturesque or as exploration of living processes. These issues are raised and explored in connection with Western cultural movements, and within a full international and historical context. Many forms of landscape art are included: painting, gardening, panorama, poetry, photography, and art. The book is designed to both take stock of recent interdisciplinary debates and act as a stimulus to rethinking our assumptions about landscape." - back cover.

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
General Lending	MTU Crawford College of Art and Design Library Lending	758.1 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		00231919
General Lending	MTU Crawford College of Art and Design Library Lending	758.1 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		00055134

Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

What is landscape? How does it differ from 'land'? Does landscape always imply something to be pictured, a scene? When and why did we begin to cherish images of nature? What is 'nature'? Is it everything that isn't art, or artefact? This book explores many fascinating issues raised by the great range of ideas and images of the natural world in Western art since the Renaissance. Using a thematic structure many issues are examined, for instance: landscape as a cultural construct; the relationship between landscape as accessory or backdrop and landscape as the chief subject; landscape as constituted by various practices of framing; the sublime and ideas of indeterminacy; landscape art as picturesque or as exploration of living processes. These issues are raised and explored in connection with Western cultural movements, and within a full international and historical context. Many forms of landscape art are included: painting, gardening, panorama, poetry, photography, and art. The book is designed to both take stock of recent interdisciplinary debates and act as a stimulus to rethinking our assumptions about landscape.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"What is landscape? How does it differ from 'land'? Does landscape always imply something to be pictured, a scene? When and why did we begin to cherish images of nature? What is 'nature'? Is it everything that isn't art, or artefact? This book explores many fascinating issues raised by the great range of ideas and images of the natural world in Western art since the Renaissance. Using a thematic structure many issues are examined, for instance: landscape as a cultural construct; the relationship between landscape as accessory or backdrop and landscape as the chief subject; landscape as constituted by various practices of framing; the sublime and ideas of indeterminacy; landscape art as picturesque or as exploration of living processes. These issues are raised and explored in connection with Western cultural movements, and within a full international and historical context. Many forms of landscape art are included: painting, gardening, panorama, poetry, photography, and art. The book is designed to both take stock of recent interdisciplinary debates and act as a stimulus to rethinking our assumptions about landscape." - back cover.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

Acknowledgements (p. vii)
Chapter 1 Land into Landscape (p. 1)
Chapter 2 Subject or Setting?: Landscape and Renaissance Painting (p. 25)
Chapter 3 Landscape as Amenity (p. 53)
Chapter 4 Topography and the Beau Ideal (p. 77)
Chapter 5 Framing the View (p. 107)
Chapter 6 'Astonished beyond Expression': Landscape, the Sublime, and the Unpresentable (p. 129)
Chapter 7 Landscape and Politics (p. 151)
Chapter 8 Nature as Picture or Process? (p. 177)
Chapter 9 Landscape into Land: Earth Works, Art, and Environment (p. 201)
Notes (p. 224)
List of Illustrations (p. 231)
Bibliographic Essay (p. 236)
Index (p. 243)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This is not a history of landscape painting but an extended meditation on what Andrews (Victorian and visual studies, Univ. of Kent, Canterbury, UK) describes as "our relationship with the subject of landscape and its representation." The author's premise is that landscape is a construction--that land becomes landscape when it is appropriated for aesthetic purposes. In nine roughly chronological chapters, he explores the idea of landscape as it has evolved since the Renaissance. The narrative addresses topics such as the therapeutic power of scenery, the commodification of landscape, the relationship between the rise of landscape art and urbanization, framing techniques and the perception of landscape, the relationship between landscape and politics, the impact of natural science on landscape art, and the debate over Earth art in recent years. Recognizing that nature is an evolving organism rather than a picture frozen in time, and acknowledging the impact of environmentalism on the perception of scenery, Andrews strikes an elegiac note: "As a phase in the cultural life of the West, landscape may already be over." Even readers who find this conclusion premature will appreciate this book as a thoughtful reexamination of the forms and meanings of landscape. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. D. Schuyler; Franklin and Marshall College

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Malcolm Andrews is Professor of Victorian and Visual Studies at the University of Kent. He is the author of Dickens on England and the English, The Search for the Picturesque, and Dickens and the Grown-up Child. He has edited a three-volume anthology, The Picturesque: Sources and Documents and is currently editor of the journal The Dickensian.