- What does Landscape mean?
A landscape is a part of the earth that is captured in a singular photo. It consists of the geographic features that mark, or are characteristic of, a particular area. Landscape photography commonly involves daylight photography of natural features of land, sky and waters, at a distance. The word Landscape originated from the Dutch word landschap which was a name given to photos of a countryside. The word and technique was borrowed from artists, famous Dutch landscape painters include Jacob van Ruisdael and Vincent van Gogh. It is highly typical for landscape photos to involve naturalistic aspects such as natural mountains, rivers, fields etc. However, photographing human-made features can also be accepted as landscape photos. Landscape photos are very commonly taken in a non-human activity environment and therefore the photographer can devote their full focus so the scenery and not the people that could be involved. As well as art, the definition of a landscape photograph is broad and may include rural or urban settings, industrial areas or nature photography.
2. When did landscape emerge as a genre in western culture?
landscapes emerged as a genre in western culture during The Renaissance. Renaissance is a French word meaning “rebirth.” This event marked the time where people began to move away from medieval ways to more modern times. it was a period of time where people began to appreciate art, modern science and literature more. This is where landscapes emerged in the 16th century. Renaissance art had much more detail than medieval art. for example, Portraits of the Renaissance era depicted bright colours, shading, and realistic features of the subject being painted. The background was often plain because Renaissance artists wanted their subjects to be the focus. During the 1300s, artists began to appreciate the natural aspects of a painting and the surroundings of whoever their subject was.
3. when did classical landscapes emerge as a genre
In the 17th century, Landscapes gained popularity and attention of many people and artists. The classical landscape was ideally seen in scenes in the mythic and idyllic Arcadia of ancient Greece. The leading practitioners of the genre classical landscapes were the French-born-Italy- based artists called Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain. both artists spent their time in Rome drawing landscapes of the Roman countryside and Italy was the most common place for things like these because of the beauty of the country and unique sights. Into the 18th century, Italy kept its popularity for classical landscapes but the new centre focus was brought onto France and England
4. What prompted the rise of landscape art during the late 18th/19th century?
Landscape artists of the 19th century embraced the thought of romantic movements within art and aimed to infuse their work with drama and passion. The 19th century was a time where landscape art had gained much more attention and was beginning to be seen as a go to piece of art technique. In England two of the foremost landscape painters were John Constable and J.M.W Turner. Landscape painting gained prominence in the late 18th century with the rise of Romanticism. Romanticism was a particular movement or era in art that occurred towards the end of the 18th century during the first half of the 19th century. Romanticism often aimed to put much emphasis on emotion and individualism. Characteristics include a focus on individualism, an emphasis on nature, emotion over reason, freedom of form, an exploration of the Gothic and unknown, a return to the past, the awe and wonder, the idealization of women, the purity of childhood, and the search for subjective truth.
5. When did landscape photography originate?
The earliest evidence of a landscape photograph was taken between the years of 1826 and 1827. It was an urban landscape photo taken by a French inventor by the name of Nicephorus Niepce. This photograph took him 8 hours so it was sensible that he didn’t take a moving photograph. Due to landscapes already being a very famous and popular artistic technique, it was no surprise that landscapes also made its way into photograph once the uses of photographs were invented and gained their own popularity. Early photographers seemed to decide that landscapes made the perfect subject because they were static and so the danger of the subject moving was minimal.
