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Subjects: Landscape |
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Why do so many artists still paint landscapes?
Artists have created landscapes ever since people first put images of their surroundings on cave walls thousands of years ago. They have made landscapes that faithfully described their surroundings or expressed the fear, awe, respect and enjoyment they inspire. Landscapes have recorded nature at its most serene and its most destructive, and reflected the growth of cities and industrialization. Whether capturing a sense of nature's eternal grandeur or a passing moment in time, artists continue to find landscapes a compelling subject.
Setting the stage
A traditional landscape depicts a scene in nature. Human figures and activities may be included in a landscape. Indeed, people may be an important part of the image — but in a landscape, the surroundings provide the key to understanding who these people are and what they're doing.
The forces of nature
In previous centuries when people made their living by farming, hunting, and fishing, the forces of nature shaped human destiny. In the 17th century, a landscape could be peaceful, depicting farmers tilling their fields — or it could be threatening, with a gathering storm sending farmers to their homes. Artists showed dark, tangled forests where hunters put their lives at risk, and raging seas about to drive a ship onto the rocks. The natural world was a place of labor and hardship rather than recreation, so landscapes became meaningful statements about the tenuous nature of human existence.
Nature as a playground
As cities developed, the natural world outside them came to symbolize a simpler life that had been lost. In the 18th century, landscapes developed into "pastorals" — romantic visions of a placid countryside, filled with happy shepherds and carefree aristocrats on vacation. This vision of nature — although different from the earlier version of the natural world as a potential threat — was equally important as a comment on human civilization.
Falling out of touch with nature
As people flocked to urban areas for work, we romanticized the natural world we'd left behind. In the 18th and 19th centuries, landscape artists became interested in depicting cities, from the ruins of ancient civilizations to the contemporary urban landscape. Ancient ruins provided dramatic stage sets for pictures that pointed out the brevity of life. Contemporary cityscapes immortalized the triumphs of our building ingenuity, and commented on the squalor of our living conditions. Both of these kinds of landscapes were particularly important in the first half of this century in the United States, where tremendous growth and prosperity were coupled with unimaginable urban blight and poverty.
History in the making
The history of landscape, then, is much more than a story about pretty pictures of the countryside. Landscapes can be powerful social, philosophical and political statements — as well as images of great beauty and physical presence.
Next:
Still Life — Is there hidden content in traditional still life?
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