Landscape and Western Art

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 artifact? By addressing these and many other questions, Landscape and Western Art explores the myriad ideas and images of the natural world in Western art since the Renaissance. Implying that land is the raw material, and that art is created by turning land into landscape, which then becomes art, author Malcolm Andrews takes the reader on a thematic tour of the fascinating and challenging issues of landscape as art. The books broad sweep covers the full, rich spectrum of landscape art, including painting, gardening, panorama, poetry, photography, and art. Artistic issues are investigated in connection with Western cultural movements, and within a full international and historical context. Clear explanations and beautiful illustrations convey to the reader the idea of landscape as an experience in which everyone is creatively involved. Landscape and Western Art provides an enlightening and comprehensive critical overview of landscape art.

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.