Landscape painting

Lore & Background

The earliest forms of art around the world depict little that could really be called landscape, although ground-lines and sometimes indications of mountains, trees, or other natural features are included. Hunting scenes from Ancient Egypt, such as those from the Tomb of Nebamun (c. A coherent depiction of a whole landscape required some rough system of perspective, which literary evidence suggests first developed in Ancient Greece in the Hellenistic period, though no large-scale examples survive. More ancient Roman landscapes survive from the 1st century BCE onwards, especially frescos at Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Reader's Guide

Landscape painting has been a significant artistic tradition for over a thousand years in both Western and Chinese art. In East Asia, the classic Chinese mountain-water ink painting (shan shui) was traditionally the most prestigious form of visual art, often created by amateur literati and emperors. In the West, landscape painting occupied a low position in the accepted hierarchy of genres until the 19th century, with history painting considered the highest form. However, history painting often required extensive landscape backgrounds, which helped develop the genre. The development of perspective in the Renaissance allowed large and complex views to be painted effectively, and the 'world landscape' style emerged in the Netherlands, using a high aerial viewpoint. The spiritual element in landscape art was recognized from its beginnings in East Asian art, drawing on Daoism, but in the West only became explicit with Romanticism.

Did You Know?

• In East Asia, the classic Chinese mountain-water ink painting was traditionally the most prestigious form of visual art.
• The Chinese style of landscape painting often used dead ground or mist to avoid the difficulty of bridging foreground figures with a distant panoramic vista.