Prospect, Perspective and the Evolution of the Landscape Idea Author(s): Denis Cosgrove Reviewed work(s): Source: Transactions

of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, Vol. 10, No. 1 (1985), pp. 45-62 Published by: Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/622249 . Accessed: 02/09/2012 14:19
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andthe evolution of Prospect, perspective idea the landscape

DENIS COSGROVE Leic.LE113 TU Lecturer in Geography, Senior Loughborough, Loughborough University, 24 May 1984 MS received Revised
ABSTRACT

45

andsubjecofitsholistic writers because ingeography hasrecently beenadopted Thelandscape byhumanistic concept for in humanists' search that its lie the renaissance But of the idea the tive history origins suggests landscape implications. individualthat wasbourgeois, wasa 'wayofseeing' a vehicle ofindividual than rather subjectivity. certainty Landscape was ofthelandscape andtechnique ofpower overspace. Thebasictheory to theexercise istandrelated wayofseeing ofthe written word. Alberti's as printing wasfor that for ofthe as important the linear history image graphic perspective, to social class andis closely related ofrealism inart until the nineteenth wasthefoundation byhim century, perspective landsurvey, as merchant andaccounting, Itemploys thesame andspatial hierarchy. trading navigation, mapgeometry control andviewed as tourban inthe andthen toa country is first andartillery. city subjugated applied Perspective ping social relations on that ofgeometry oflandscape Theevolution justas itdoesthechanging painting parallels landscape. Thevisual andGeorgian Stuart thelandinTudor, wayofseeing bythelandscape complements power given England. as a geographical cannot befree ofthe humans exert land as property. over the real ideological concept Landscape power tohistorical unless itsubjects as a visual ofitshistory Onlyas anunexamined interrogation. overlays landscape concept for an antiscientific be appropriated canlandscape itsownvisual foundations in a geography which neglects concept humanistic geography. KEY WORDS: Landscape, Humanism, image,Cartography, Geometry, Ideology, Graphic Perspective, Prospect, Survey, Space. Chorography, Morphology, Seeing, Painting,

interest in the landscapeconcepthas Geographical seen a revival in recent thisis years.In largemeasure a consequence of the humanist renaissance in Havingenjoyeda degreeofprominence geography. in the interwar favourin years,landscapefellfrom the 1950s and 1960s. Its reference to the visible forms of a delimited area to be subjectedto morin theGerman (a phologicalstudy usage stillcurrent school)' appeared subjective 'landscapeindicators' and too imprecisefor Anglo-Saxon geographers developinga spatialscience.The static, descriptive morphologyof landscape ill-suitedtheir call for dynamic functionalregions to be defined and to econby geographers investigated contributing omicand socialplanning.2 Recently, and primarilyin North America, have sought to reformulate geographers landscape as a concept whose subjective and artistic resonances are to be actively embraced. They allow forthe incorporation of individual, and imaginative creative human experience into studies of the
N.S. 10: 45-62 (1985) ISSN: 0020-2750 Inst.Br.Geogr. Trans.

geographical environment, aspects which scienceis claimedto have devaluedat geographical best and at worst,ignored.Marwyn Samuels,for example,3 refers to landscapes as 'authored', CourticeRose thinking along similarlines would analyse landscapes as texts,4and Edward Relph I see and sensewhen regards landscapeas 'anything conI am out of doors-landscape is thenecessary and of textand background bothof mydailyaffairs American ofmylife'.5 themoreexoticcircumstances have adopted landscapefor humanist geographers it.It theveryreasonsthattheir rejected predecessors creative appears to point towardsthe experiential, and humanaspects of our environmental relations, ratherthan to the objectified, manipulatedand It is the latter mechanical aspectsof thoserelations. whichRelph is a protest, againstwhichhumanism revolscientific tracesto the seventeenth century ofsubject and object. division utionand itsCartesian Landscape seems to embody the holism which modern humanists proclaim.
in GreatBritain Printed

46

DENIS COSGROVE

a revivalof landscapeis also apparent. dominationover space as an absolute, objective In Britain Here the humanist in geographyhas been entity,its transformation into the propertyof critique less vocal. Recent landscape study has remained individualor state. And landscape achieved these closerto popularusage of theword as an artistic as thepractical or ends by use of the same techniques Euclidian literaryresponse to the visible scene.6 Among sciences, by applying principally geometry British geographers interest in landscape was as the guarantor of certainty in spatialconception, stimulated and representation. In thecase of landstudies, by perception partly particularly organization excitement over landscape evalu- scape the techniquewas optical,linearperspective, the short-lived ation forplanningpurposeswhichsurrounded the but the principlesto be learned were identical This led to to those of architecture, 1973 reformof local government.7 and survey,map-making theories of landscapeaesthetics artillery variousmechanistic science.The same handbookstaughtthe all ofthesearts.1 which, like Jay Appleton's ethologically-foundedpractitioners and influential 'habitattheory'of landscape,8had likethepractical sciencesof theItalian Landscape, littlein commonwiththe humanism in Renaissance, was founded and proclaimed theory upon scientific NorthAmerican studies. knowledge. Its subsequent history can best be with the history of sciEpistemological divergence notwithstanding,understoodin conjunction interest. ence.Yet in itscontemporary humanist within landscapeis again a focusof geographical guise Withthatinterest has come a refreshing a radically willingness geography, landscapeis deployedwithin to employlandscaperepresentations anti-scientific that probygeographers programme. Significantly and garden gramme is equallynon-visual. Recentprogrammatic -in painting,imaginativeliterature of geographical humanism (and critiques design-as sources for answering geographical statements are notable The purposeof thispaper is to support of it) in the pages of these Transactions questions.9 their concentration on verbal, and linguisand promote that initiative while simultaneously for literary and for theiralmnost enteringcertaincaveats about adopting the land- tic modes of communication of the visual and its place in idea without it to critical historical neglect complete scape subjecting The attack on scienceis characteristic examinationas a term which embodies certain geography.12 humanist But the about relationsbetween humansand of much contemporary writing. assumptions lack of in interest the their or morespecifically, and environment, apparent graphic imageis more society Considerthe traditions of our discipline, space. These caveats go beyond landscapeas such surprising. with cartography and the long-held and touch upon aspects of the whole humanist its alignment belief that the results of are endeavour within geographical scholarship geography. best embodied in the Consider too the humanfirst a as an or term, idea, map. Landscape emerged in images interest of place and landa way ofseeingiothe external betterstill, world,in ists'proclaimed the fifteenth and early sixteenth It was, scape, and yet their remarkable centuries. neglect of the and it remains, a visualterm, one thatarose initially visual.13 Indeed the clearest statementof the out of renaissance humanism ofsight and its particular ingeography thatI knowis found con- centrality of space. Equally,landscape in William Bunge's TheoreticalGeography,a cepts and constructs forspatialscience:'geography is the one was, overmuchofitshistory, closelyboundup with manifesto the practical of science whose inner we is As shall see, literally logic appropriation space. predictive were withthe surveyand mapping visible'.'4 Bunge's book may be closer in spirit its connections to of newly-acquired, humanist of thelandscapeidea consolidated and 'improved' the original authors commercialestates in the hands of an urban than his contemporary humanist critics. The book all is a celebration of thecertainty of geometry bourgeoisie;with the calculationof distance and after forcannonfire and of defensive ofspace. fortifica- as theconstructional trajectory principle tions against the new weaponry; and with the In fact,the humanist attackon science and its projectionof the globe and its regionsonto map neglectof the visual image in geographyare not and chorographers, unconnected. They both resultin some measure graticulesby cosmographers those essential set designers for Europe's entry from on the European the lack of critical reflection of humanist from the conflation of thespatial the world's theatre. In and tradition, centre-stage painting in geography witha positivist garden design landscape achieved visually and theme epistemology, of art and literature. All ideologicallywhat survey,map makingand ord- and froma mystification nance charting in a brief achievedpractically: and threeof these aspects will be illustrated thecontrol

47 Evolution idea ofthe landscape of thelandscapeidea as a way of seeing Gutenberg invention of movable type in the exploration in the Europeanvisual tradition, that 1440s.16In thequadrivium, alwaysmoretheoretical, emphasizing most enduring convention of space rep- the criticaladvance came fromthe re-evaluation tradition's In thisexploration linearperspective. I of Euclid and the elevation of geometryto the resentation, shall justify and elaboratethe claim thatthe land- keystone of human knowledge, specificallyits space represenscape idea is a visual ideology;an ideology all too application to three-dimensional into geographywhen tationthrough easily adopted unknowingly theoryand single-point perspective the landscapeidea is transferred as an unexamined technique. Perspective, the medieval study of arts,studied conceptintoourdiscipline. optics, was one of the mathematical since the twelfth-century revival of learning, GEOMETRY, PERSPECTIVE AND as evidencedfor example in Roger Bacon's work. RENAISSANCE HUMANISM Painterslike Cimabue and Giotto had constructed the seven liberal arts of medieval theirpicturesin new ways to achieve a greater Traditionally weregroupedintotwo sets.The trivium realism(il vero)than theirpredecessors.'7But the scholarship rhetoric and logic; the theoretical was composed of grammar, and practical of a coherent development of arithmetic, and linear perspective awaited the fifteenth-century astronomy geometry, quadrivium definition humanism Tuscan Renaissance.That movement,despite its music.While in its narrowest referred to studies in the trivium(the recovery, emphasison classicaltexts,grammar and rhetoric, securedatingand translation of texts),manyearly revolutionized in the west. spatial apprehensions renaissance humanists wereequallyfascinated by the For the plastic and visual arts:painting, sculpture material a unity ofknow- and architecture, of thequadrivium, and forgeography and cosmology, seeking The fifteenth saw all concerned with space and spatial relations, century ledge acrossall thearts.15 advances in both sets of studies, it was fromthe quadrivium, fromgeometryand revolutionary advanceswhichaltered their socialsig- number theory, that form and structurewere organization, and communica- determined-eveniftheir nificance and rolein theproduction content was providedby tionofhuman oftheworldand ourplace thetrivium. knowledge within it. In the arenaof words,languageand writIn 1435 the Florentine humanistand architect ten expressionthe most striking advance was the Leon Battista Alberti his Della Pittura (On published

---

Median rays

Extrinsic rays Centric ray

FIGURE 1. The visual triangle as describedby Alberti(fromSamuel Y. EdgertonJr, The Renaissance of linear rediscovery perspective, withpermission) Harperand Row, London,1975, reproduced

48

DENISCOSGROVE

a workwhose authority in artistic the- appreciated painting),'8 (Fig 2). We need not concernourselves of Alberti's conwhen herewiththe detailsand accuracy ory enduredbeyond the eighteenth century the note the of Sir JoshuaReynolds,first of struction to definition Royal (exceptperhaps president forhis lectures pyramid, lifted from Euclid).Butwe should Academy,used it as the foundation directly it.First, thatflowfrom on pictorial beautyand the hierarchy observecertain composition, consequences a form and positionin space are shownto be relative of genres.In Della Pittura Albertidemonstrates of whatwe see, of thanabsolute.The forms whichhe had workedout experimentallyrather technique thema visualtriangle forconstructing whichallowed the objects in space and of geometrical figures to determine theshapeand measurement ofa selves,vary withthe angle and distanceof vision. painter griddedsquareplaced on the groundwhen viewed They are producedby the sovereigneye, a single in pic- eye, for this is not a theoryof binocularvision. axis, and to reproduce along the horizontal theraysof visionas havtorial formits appearance to the eye. The con- Secondly,Alberti regards thus confirming its struzioneleggitimagave the realist illusion of ing origin in the eye itself, on a at the the visual three-dimensional two-dimensional surcentre of world. sovereignty space thefoundation of linear face.This construction, per- Thirdly,he creates a technique which became to the realistrepresentation of space dependedupon conceptsof the vanishing fundamental spective, The and the external world. distance Alberti and artist, intersecting through point plane. perspecpoint, or composition, it as a triangle of raysextending outwards tive, establishesthe arrangement describes theobjectof vision.There and thusthe specific from theeye and striking time,of the eventsdescribed, kindsofray(Fig I). are three determines-inboth senses-the 'pointof view' to framand controls be taken by theobserver, through thus theplane-one touch- ing the scope of reality Theextrinsic revealed.Perspective techrays, circling encloseall the planelikethe willow nique was so effective thatthe realistconventions ing the other, wands of a basketcage, and make ... the visual which it underlaywere not fundamentally chalfor meto describe what Itis time thepyramid pyramid. thenineteenth until century.20 lenged is and how it is constructed by theserays... The Realistrepresentation of three-dimensional space is a figure ofa bodyfrom baselines are whose pyramid on a two-dimensional surfacethroughlinearpera The base drawn at single terminating point. upward, is theplane which is seen.Thesidesof spective directs the externalworld towards the ofthepyramid locatedoutsidethat I havecalled aretherays which extrinsic.individual space.It givestheeye thepyramid over space. The centric is located absolutemastery is thepoint ofthepyramid, Thecuspid, raymoves that in a direct line from theeye to thevanishing ofthe within the the eyewhere angle quantity is.19 point, to the depth of the recessionalplane. Space is and calculated thisline and the rest from here described is familiar to measured The visual pyramid around the vanishing every geographerwho reads Area, although its of what is seen constructed fixedby external rays. may not always be fully point and withinthe frame geographicalsignificance

Ii
ii

Observation

to readersofArea) FIGURE 2. A seventeenth-century 'way ofseeing'(familiar

idea Evolution ofthe landscape

49

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PalazzoPubblico, Siena intheCity' detail from Lorenzetti: 'GoodGovernment 3. Ambrogio FIGURE (ditta O. B6hm)

of Heaven (Fig 4) Visually space is renderedthe propertyof the Peterthe Keys to the Kingdom on thewall oftheSistine individualdetached observer,fromwhose divine painted Chapelin 1481,the shows is clear.Lorenzetti of perspective location it is a dependent, object. A significance appropriated worldof humanlife of the head, closingthe eyes or us thecityas an activebustling simplemovement interact and spatialform wherein people and their environment away and the composition turning the action of objects are alteredor even negated. Develop- across a space whereunityderivesfrom mentsfromthe fifteenth century may have altered on itssurface. or used perthe assumedpositionof the observer, shownot so urban Thesepre-perspective landscapes as rather than synthetically spective analytically what itfelt liketo like as what the towns looked much but this and his contemporaries Alberti intended,21 notas ofthetowns We getan impression be inthem. of space endured unaltered. visual appropriation a observer from to a detached havelooked they might as the adoption of linearperspective Significantly, a haveimpressed butas they fixed might vantage point realism was contemporary of pictorial theguarantor andseeing thebuildwalking up thestreets pedestrian of painting: withthose otherrealist oils, sides.23 from different techniques many ings ofmobile, small fora market and production framing in Perugino'sideal city a formal, canvases. In this respect perspective may be By contrast, is organized throughprecise order which monumental of one of a number as techniques regarded of a bourgeois, geometry, constructed allowed forthevisualrepresentation by the eye aroundthe axis whichleads across the chequerboard oftheworld. rationalist piazza to the conception The at its centre. linear for circular is The term piazza,geometrical temple perbourgeois appropriate, of ofthiscity, becomesin thisgenresymbolic employedinitially centre spectivewas an urbaninvention, The hillsand treesbeyondreflect the spaces of the city. It was first the whole city.24 to represent orderas theurbanarchitecture. close associate, thesameregimented demonstrated by Alberti's practically or rather of the within of The 1425 in a famous it,forthey Brunelleschi, city, people experiment Filippo to it, group themattachment an imageoftheBap- reveal no particular whenhe succeededin throwing and theatrical onto a canvas set up in the great selves in dignified at Florence poses. In the 'ideal tistery of the late Umbrian If we of the cathedral.22 fifteenth-century compareAmbrogio townscapes' portal in thePalazzo Pub- school of Piero della Francesca humans scarcely frescoes Lorenzetti's well-known blico at Siena (Fig 3) whichrepresent good govern- appear. They have no need to forthe 'measureof in Leonardoda Vinci'sMan mentin the city,paintedin the 1340s, withPeitro man',so neatly captured a and is intothemeasured in a Circle of to St Christ Square, written giving Perugino's representation

50

DENIS COSGROVE
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architectural facadesand proportioned spaces of the measure ratherthan sensuous city,an intellectual humanlife.25 This alertsus to thefactthatperspechad a greater than tiveand itsgeometry significance itsemployment as a painting merely technique. The mathematics and geometry associated with were relevant to the economic directly perspective lifeof the Italianmerchant citiesof theRenaissance, to trading and capitalist to agriculture and finance, theland market, to navigation and warfare. Michael Baxandall26 the has shownthatmerchants attending abbacoor commercial school in theiryouthundertook a curriculum whichprovidedthe key skillsof forapplication in commerce: mathematics accountcalculation of interest and rates ing, book-keeping, of return, in jointriskvendetermining proportions tures.One of the most commonly used testssumskillswas Fra Luca marizingthe various merchant Pacioli's Summa di Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioneet Proportionalita (1494).27 Its author,a close friend of Leonardo, as well as Alberti acknowledges and Euclid and of course Vitruvius, Ptolemy among his sources.While Piero della Francesca had himself written an earlier text,De Abbaco,Pacioli'swas the first to completemanual of practicalmathematics

followingonly two appear in printedbook form, the and setting thefirst yearsafter geometry printed of latertexts.Paciolidevotes model fora collection and the thesecondbook of thevolumeto geometry of distance,surfaceand volume. He measurement points out the value of such skillsforland survey Froma and navigation. warfare and map making,.for learnedto calculate text like thisItalianmerchants or 'gauge' by eye and usingntthevolumeof visually a churn, a haystack or other a barrel, regular shape,a valuable skillin an age beforestandardsizes and This visualgaugingwas volumesbecame thenorm. skill.In thewordsof Silvio as a wonderful regarded it is in 1573: 'certainly of visual survey Belliwriting a wondrousthingto measurewiththeeye,because to everyone who does not know its rationaleit appears completely impossible.'28 It has been visualtechniques arguedthatthesearchforaccurate of land survey held back Italian innovationsin but thesignififormanydecades,29 instrumentation cance accorded to it indicates the importance attachedto the power of vision linkedto intellect which and how the principles throughgeometry, underlayperspectivetheory were the everyday merchant. skills oftheurban

idea the Evolution of landscape

51

in whichGod was to be foundat thecentre Not all land surveywas by eye. The astrolabe, creation of the cosmos. A regular and plane tablewere in use and discussed and circumference quadrant of the in the textscited.For map makersand navigators geometryproceedingfromthe perfection of both spiritual But they required circleunderlaythe structure and these were crucialinstruments. worlds.Geometry and proportion took on geometrical calculation to make their results temporal a metaphysical The Italian renaissancewas a carto- therefore one thatwas meaningful. significance, even an whose with as much as artistic event. the and Ptolemy given greater weight graphic translating had always rankedas a key geometrical misdatingof the CorpusHermeticum Almagest by Marsilio source became known too for his Cosmografia,Ficinoin 1464 and theintroduction of cabalist numat thebeginning ber theory as a Greektextto Florence by Pico della Mirandolain 1486.34 The brought of the fifteenth Alberti all of century. producedan accu- circle,the golden section,the rule of threes, and practical rately surveyedmap of Rome, Leonardo one of thempartand parcelof theintellectual Pavia. These were regardedas revelationsof the baggage of the Renaissance merchant,sailor, rationalorder of created space produced by the surveyorand chartmaker, could be relatedto the Above all it application of geometry. Perhaps more closely most erudite metaphysical speculation. relatedto landscapepainting was thepiantaprospet- was the humanintellect, humanreason,thatcould thissignificance and seek the certainties tiva,the bird'seye view of citieswhichbecame so apprehend at the turn of the sixteenth the human And of century. Among popular body, createdin the geometry. thebestknownof theseis Jacopode 'Barbari's 1500 imageand likeness in microcosm of God, replicated as Leonardo'shumanfigure map of Venice,likeso manyof its typeas muchan the divineproportions, ideological expression of urban dominion as an enclosed in divine geometrymakes clear. At the accuraterendering of the urbanscene.30The view- centreof Renaissancespace, the space reproduced highabove the by perspective,was the human individual,the pointforthesemapsis, significantly, uninvolved. It is thesame measureof his world and its temporal creator and distant, city, commanding, in that we find or Titian's landalso Like the controller. microcosm, man, God, Bruegel's perspective over greatsweeps of earthspace, appears at the circumference of Renaissancespace, scapes,panoramas and promontories. seas,mountains high above the globe, seeing it spread beforethe Linearperspective on the map, the organizesand controls spatial sphere of his eye in perspective or the coordinates, and because it was founded in pianta prospettiva panoramic landscape. to man35was exercised The authority attributed geometry it was regarded as the discovery of inherent of space itself.3' In this, thatwas at once spatialand social,a properties perspec- in a hierarchy as Pollaiuolo's hierarchy in whichthelandscapeidea playeda signitivehad a deepercultural significance, bas-relief of Prospettiva as a nubilegoddess, sculp- ficant, if subordinate to architecture, role.Referring ted on thetombofSixtusIV in 1493 might discussesthe decorsuggest. the 'queen of the arts',Alberti One oftheearliest and mostwidelyinfluential ofthe ationsuitable to different buildings: Renaissance thePaduanhumanist Nicholas thinkers, inkind. The typethat of Cusa, theologian,cosmographer Bothpaintings andpoetry and mathemavary of memory, thedeedsof great men, scholasticworld worthy tician,challengedthe Aristotelian portrays ofprivate that thehabits from which describes differs view in his De Docta Ignorantia of 1440 by appeal thatdepicting thelifeof the and againfrom citizens to theEuclidean theidea that geometry.32 Rejecting incharacter, should Thefirst, which ismajestic peasants. there could be no empiricalknowledge of the and thedwellings of the be usedforpublic buildings men to confined the spiritual sphereby temporal, for whilethelastmentioned wouldbe suitable great, and thusno direct knowledgeof God, Cusanusproare for ofall.Ourminds itis themost gardens, pleasing claimed the significance of indirect evidence in a cheered by the sightof paintings, beyondmeasure thedelightful neoplatonic sense. He pointed out that in the harbours, countryside, fishing, depicting and tangent thegamesof shepherds-flowers infinitely large circlethe circumference swimming, hunting, coincidein a straight line while the infinitely andverdure.36 small circlewas a point.This is the foundation of a continuousgeometry all Euclid'sseparateprop- The reference is to the genres of paintingwhich relating ositionsand giving formsa qualitativeas well as replicatethose of poetry:fromthe most elevated, quantitative character.33 Equally,it gave supportto storia (epic or historic events), to portraiture Cusanus'argument fora pattern the least serious, all and domesticscenes,and finally running through

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DENIS COSGROVE

the landscapes and rural scenes. Geographically, centre of the city, where public buildings and monuments adornthemainpiazza,is thesetting for greatmenand shouldrecordtheir epic deeds. In the urbanpalaces and privatehouses of the patriciate and familygroups while in the appear portraits faraway from and subordinate to the countryside, thepeasants-'beasts powerat theheartof thecity, of the villa' -disport themselvesin their rude while gentlemen manner, relax,followappropriate and enjoy thebeautyof nature.37 leisurely pursuits In the theatre,whose auditorium design, spatial and stage sets were exercises in arrangements applied geometryand perspective construction-even cosmological theory38--this was hierarchy articulated for the threeformsof drama. carefully oftheidealcity Tragedywas playedagainstsettings and its monumental romancein the architecture, or closedgarden, and comedyor farce palaceinterior in the sylvansettingof a rurallandscape.Control and power radiatedown a socio-spatial hierarchy along the orthogonallines reachingout fromthe piazza of an ideal city to transectrecognizably distinct landscapetypes. LANDSCAPE, PERSPECTIVE AND REALIST SPACE It is knownthatthefirst artist to specific references as 'landscape'(paesaggio) come from early paintings sixteenth-century Italy. One of the most often to Giorgione's quoted is thatfrom1521 referring BothKenneth Clarkand J.B. Jackson, in Tempesta.39 of landscapein thisperiod,sense a reladiscussions tionshipbetween the new genre and notions of and control.Noting the appearance of authority the 'realist'landscapein upper Italy and Flanders, second mercantile core of early modern Europe, Clark claims thatit reflected 'some change in the action of the humanmindwhichdemandeda new nexus of unity, enclosed space,' and suggeststhat this was conditionedby a new, scientific way of about the worldand an 'increased control thinking of nature refers to a widespread by man'.40Jackson beliefthatthe relationship betweena social group and its landscapecould be so expertly controlled as to make appropriate a comparison between environmental bonds and family bonds,41 thereby allowing landscape to become a means of moral was the central commentary. Perspective technique to be achievedin thenew which allowedthiscontrol of landscape.In Leonardo'swritings the paintings

importanceof perspectiveis in no doubt: 'for Leonardo, as for Alberti,painting is a science because of its foundation on mathematical perspecLeonardohimself tive and on thestudy of nature'.42 wrotethat of natural causesand reasons Amongall thestudies the beholder-andamongthe lightchiefly delights features ofmathematics ofitsdemthecertainty great is whatpre-eminently onstrations the tends to elevate mind oftheinvestigator. therefore be must Perspective and systems of human to all thediscourses preferred learning.43 Geometryis the source of the painter'screative power, perspectiveits technicalexpression.For the mindof the Leonardo,perspective 'transforms of thedivinemind, forwith intothelikeness painter a free handhe can producedifferent animals, beings, abysses and plants,fruits, landscapes,open fields, fearful thecerperspective provides places'.44Linear of naturein art and taintyof our reproductions the divine underlies the power and authority, of theartist. creativity and his mapLeonardo, despitethese comments as a landscape is not remembered pingexperiments, painter,although his geographical contributions More interesting wereby no meansmeagre.45 from this point of view is the work of the Venetian Christoforo Sortein thelaterRenaissance. Sortewas a cartographer and surveyor,employed by the Venetian republicas one of the 'periti' or land and valuersof the Provveditori surveyors sopra i thereclamation beni inculti, office whichsupervised marshland in the drainageand drylandirrigation secondhalf ofthesixteenth He was a skilled century. whose maps are regardedas being cartographer stateat this records oftheVenetian amongthefinest time(Fig 5).46 Sorte was also a landscapepainter treatise on his art47 in who has leftus a remarkable ofa reply to a letter a Veronesenoble, theform from information on how BartolomeoVitali,requesting Sortehad succeededin reproducing of the the variety the truegreenof the pastures, of the ofgreen flowers, thedensity therange plants, of of water...thedistances forests, thetransparency perspectives.48 to is sadly unknown. The work that Vitali refers But fromtextual evidence it is clearly part-map in plan and a chorography drawing: part-landscape perspectiveof the province of Verona, carefully

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54

DENISCOSGROVE

colouredand considered a workof art.Sorte,in his dimensions, butrather exhilarated by thepotencyof refers to himself as merely a practi- extension a controlled, in depth, axial entry intothe modestly reply, cal man (un puroprattico) rather thana philosopher pictureplane achieved by linearperspective. This or an artist. He is a chorographer. But his chorogra- is the achievement ot all the great landscapists, phy is securelybased in science.From Ptolemy's of Bruegel's and Titian's cosmic panoramas,of he has learnedhow to organizehis Giovanni Bellini's carefullylocated figuresand Cosmographia to thefour cardinal and he has modulatedbands of light and shade, of Claude's mapaccording points, 'locatedthesaid chorography withits truerelations stage-likewings, coulisses and recessionalplanes and distances on themap'.49Once thesegeometrical along theaxis,and ofJ.M. W. Turner-himself Proare completed essentials he can discussthecolouring fessorof Perspective at the Royal Academy-who of the map. Colours are used partlyto avoid too once claimedthat'without all theaid ofperspective, of arttotters on itsveryfoundations'.52 manywords,partlyto producea representation Thus different shades of greenallows us to thenis critical to landscapepainting, reality. Perspective fertile and infertile and lands forests. The and it is if the recognize significant,beyond scope of thispaper carefuland observantuse of colour helps us to to explore in detail,how close are the historical betweenthegreatadvancesin perspective 'createtheimageof a landscape(paese)on canvas in parallels Indeed the geometry in landscapeart.Alberti and innovations gouache and accordingto perspective'. textends witha discourse on perspective, of which wrotehis treatise at the timeof Van Eyckand the Sorte describes two methods, one theoretical earliest the Italianlandscapists; who refined Pelerin, foundedin distanceand angle measurement and a distancepoint construction in 1505 was the conforwhichhe employsa mir- temporary ofLeonardoand Giorgione; second,morepractical, Vignolawho rormarked witha graticule. ForSorteperspective is showed in 1535 thatPelerin and Alberti's construc'the foundation of painting' without whichnothing tionproducedthesame geometrical results wroteat can be paintedof any value.And thisskillof paint- the timeof Titian'sand Bruegel's and was maturity is itself fundamental to the of work the in of Paolo Veronese the years ing chorogra- published productive che non sappia and JacopoBassano. The great advances of Pascal pher:'niunapotra esser corografo, o dipingere'.50 theconand Desarguesin the 1630s in establishing disegnare The relationship between perspective and land- vergence ofparallel linesand showingtheir apparent to be a necessary of scape could scarcelybe more clear than in Sorte's visualconvergence consequence textwherethe practical and topographer point, devoid ofEuclidian lineand surface definitions surveyor offers one of theearliest treatises on theartofpaint- metrical assumptions,coincide with the Dutch The art supremacy in optics and its great school of landearly twentieth-century ing landscape. historian Bernard Berenson and new transformcontinuity agreedwithSorte.'Space scape. Geometrical he wrote,is the 'bone and marrow of ational rules between geometrical forms are composition' theartof landscape'. to theearlyUmbrian propoundedin a treatise at the by Ponceletwritten Referring Pietro and Berenson Turner were time that and same Constable Perugino landscapists Raphael, exploring claimedtheir lay less in thesubtle triumph modelling light and atmospherein landscape in ways that of atmosphereand elaborate study of light and implicitly challengedthe dominanceof linearpershade such as we findin the Venetiansthanin the spectiveforspace composition. von Staudin Finally of space composition. Berenson the 1840s eliminated metrical ideas from Although perspective technique to composespaceas 'a structure geometry, revealing the possibility of a speaksofthisability of feeling' rather thana specific based on non-Euclidian constructechnique space and n-dimensional Klein in of F. 1875 a he is well aware His was tions. work by theory, geometrical sophisticated completed from eliminated over space thatthe little thatsense of powerand control before modernists perspective derivesfrom the perspective and at the same timeas the first organization space composition spectator oflandscapepainting: patentswere taken out for modernphotographic techniques.53 ifa load printing in such howfreely one breathes-as pictures, one'sbreast, how refreshed, from hadjustbeenlifted LANDSCAPE, PROSPECT AND VISUAL hownoble, howpotent onefeels.51 IDEOLOGY No longeris thespectator stands onlyby surface While it is not suggestedthat perspective delighted and landscapepainting of formsacross two alone as thebasis forrealism patternand the arrangement

Evolution idea 55 ofthe landscape -the demandforii veroin Renaissanceart was a The Italianword forperspective is prospettiva. It and social cultural is combines senses which in are dismodem complex product54-it argued English that the realistillusionof space which was revol- tinct:'perspective' and 'prospect'. itself Perspective utionized thanany othertech- has a number moreby perspective ofmeanings in English, butas thepronique was, throughperspective,aligned to the jectionofa spatialimageonto a planeitfirst appears of space as property, or ter- in the laterdecades of the sixteenth This century. physicalappropriation Dee's Preface to ritory. Surveyors' charts which located and usage is foundforexamplein John measured individual forexamplein England thefirst translation of Euclid estates, (1570). Dee, the English afterthe dissolution of monasteries; instrument mathematician, cartographers' Elizabethan navigational to apportionglobal maker and magician, linksthisuse of perspective to maps whichused the graticule in a classically renaissance space, for example the line defined by Pope painting way: Alexander VI dividing the new world between of Geometrie, and Arithmetik, Perspective Portugaland Spain; engineers' plans forfortresses greatskill with other arts hath and cannon trajectoriesto conquer or defend many Anthropographie particular need of for his perfection... This the Zographer nationalterritory, as forexampleVauban's French mechanical called is thePainter) (commonly Zographer work or Sorte's for the Venetiandefencesagainst in his and have a marvelous divine seemeth to skil, all of theseare examplesof the application Austria; 58 of geometry to the production of real property.55 power. They presuppose a different concept of space at theopeningofa decade whichwill than the ownership contingent conceptof a feudal Dee is writing and whena new societywhereland is lockedintoa web of interde- see Saxton'scounty mapspublished based on fief was being producedas an and fealty. The new 'image of the country' pendent lordships which decorated the walls of six- aspect of Elizabethanpatriotism, using maps and chorographies councilhallsand signorial instruments as of Tudor teenth-century landscape representations palaces,56 and the new taste for accuraterenderings of the powerand nationalist ideology.59 reference to perspective as a moved frombackexternalworld whichgradually By 1605 we can find to main were both form of a of as in the view, matter, subject ground insight, point phrase'getorganized into perspective', or seeing it in its and achieve aesthetically tingsomething by perspective geometry what maps, surveysand ordnancechartsachieve true its correct withotherthings. light, relationship a com- Many of the earlyreferences practically. Landscapeis thusa way ofseeing, quoted in the Oxford of theworldso thatit may EnglishDictionary to supportthe definition of perpositionand structuring be appropriated individual to represent true by a detached, spectator spectiveas a drawingcontrived to whom an illusionof orderand controlis offered space and distancerelations refer to landscapeand the composition of space accordingto the gardenlayout.60 The visualideologyof perspective through certainties of geometry. That illusion very and of landscapeas ways of seeingnature, indeeda a very real power and trueway of seeing, is certainly current in theEnglish frequently complemented controlover fields and farms on the partof patrons Renaissance. When we turn to thewordprospect we and ownersoflandscapepaintings."5 find it a used to denote disview a foroutward, Landscape looking tancesus from theworldin critical a wardin timeas well as space. By theend of the sixways,defining with natureand those who teenthcenturyprospect carriedthe sense of 'an particular relationship in and us theillusion ofa world extensiveor commanding nature, offers appear sightor view, a view of in whichwe may participate subjectively This by enter- the landscapeas affected by one's position'.61 frame a period when commandover land axis.But neatlyreflects ing thepicture along theperspectival thisis an aesthetic entrance not an active engage- was being establishedon new commercially-run mentwitha natureor space thathas its own life. estatesby Tudor enclosers and thenew landowners in the landscape idea is a visual ideology of measured monasticproperties. That command Implicit whichwas extendedfrom to our relation- was establishedwith the help of the surveyors' painting and compass' 'maliciouscraft', the geometrywhich wrote new shipwiththerealworldwhose 'frame Elizabethans so admired and whichGeorgianEnglish perspectives acrossreallandscapes.62 would onlyapproachthrough thelangugentlemen By the mid-seventeenth century'prospect'had or theopticaldistortion of become a substitute for landscape. The command age oflandscapepainting their Claude Glass. thatit impliedwas as much social and politicalas

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DENISCOSGROVE

11: 1-~::~-:::-:IS 1! 1:-i'~ :li; :;~ i:;::::~~i, ._:::::.: .-::::::::::::~:~::-:-::;:': .:::--: _:::::::: _:::::::::::: .............. : _-_ j-::-:: ?:_ ::. i1~:-:ii:-: -::j:::?::::::::ll::_:ii_::::i:::::.:::_ W . W,:::--lilllii: KR ci:~:::-1:::-::::-lii :'ill-::-'':i:::-:::: l~ilii~ . :---':--'::?' ~~-~'-~: - :::11..?::-::: ..... \i~iili:~~i~ l~li:-::1':-.: :::::-::::-::---O :::::~?~?~lllii~ii~:':::::r--::::::::::i~i~ii~iiiiiiFilll ::::::::::::::: i~l :_: -i-li'i-'il~i-iil~l~ = ---:,:-' jn I-~'::-?::::::::::: :'1I1 ::.'?-::'::-':::~:.i :---:~l~-i:~~:-.i :i~~l....... ..-:: :::::;:-:::::: ii~l--l ll: . :5,5!2, ;l:-: :-:::~-:~~i:~: i-i~-!~ ~j,~ ::::i~-:l~~:~ ~ -. -:?::~:::--: :--r-:-~-,-:,~l::~::-::R on:::::-:::-r_:-.---::::?::j:::------_:::i:::::-::::~_::::?::::::::::?:_~ ~lii-:~-:-lii:-: ::::-l~~:-:----:-l_?--:::::_-:~:i::::;:_i-:--::::Mr. : : i-i:~--:: :--::::-x-:: li. .......... .....::--

The BowlingGreen:a Claudianlandscapeby WilliamKent FIGURE 6. Roushamgarden,Oxfordshire.

spatial. Commanding views are the theme of countryhouse painting,poetry and landscaping the seventeenthand eighteenthcenthroughout turies(Fig 6), and a numberof recentstudieshave revealed the degree to which landscape was a vehicle for social and moral debate during this period.63The prospectsdesignedformen like the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim who had made theirfortunes fromwar had an appropriately milicharacter in their blocksofwoodlandsetagainst tary shavenlawns.Thisno doubtreinforced theimageof at leastforthosewho wielded powerand authority, it. The surveyskillswhich calculatedand laid out these landscapesproducedfortification plans, ordand campaignmaps as well as serving nance charts of theparliamentary therequirements enclosers. It is not surprising thatin hiscritique ofemparkment and VillandscapingOliver Goldsmithin The Deserted lage should describe the park that has replaced Sweet Auburn in military metaphors:'its vistas In those great English its palaces surprise'. strike, the future. landscape parks prospectalso signified Control was as much temporalas spatial. Their clumpsof oak and beech would not be seen in full by those who had them planted, but maturity of property ensuredforlaterscions of the security treetheprospect on inheritance of commandfamily

view. The prospect of theeye was equally ing a fine suchwoodland in thelandscapewas an commercial, economicinvestment. It represented in prospecting wood, as thosewho scouredthelandscapein thefollowingcentury seeking gold would be described.64 LANDSCAPE AND THE HUMANIST TRADITION IN GEOGRAPHY Landscapecomes into Englishlanguagegeography fromthe German landschaft. Much has primarily been written about the factthatthe Germanword means area, withoutany particularly aestheticor or even visual connotations.65 artistic, My own knowledgeof Germanusage is too meagreto contest thisclaim,but some comment is warranted. In Humboldt'sKosmos, as one of regardedby many the two pillars was upon whichGerman geography a whole sectionis devotedto thehistory of erected, the love of landscapeand natureup to the timeof Goethe whom Humboldtgreatly reveredand who was a major visual theorist.66 Englishgeographers could have takentheir John landscapeconceptfrom Ruskinand discovereda usage not very different from More directly, in the Humboldt's.67 Landschaft workof Hettner and Passarge,themainsourcesfor Englishlanguage geographerslike Carl Sauer and

57 idea Evolution ofthe landscape or R. E. Dickinson of the landscape concept, was detailed he achieves the survey pling, inventory, butsynthetic ofthe confined to the study of visible it was the comprehensive perspective helicopforms, terpilotor balloonist armed with maps, photographs their selectionand inclusion. eye whichdetermined 72 anda pair ofbinoculars. as Sauer's classic paperMoreover, Landschaft, was to 'Morphologyof Landscape'-makes clear,68 it is drawn at the seems spurious, be studied method and itsresults The distinction by thechorological thanaims and objectives. rather in prose and above all by level of technique transmitted descriptively the map. Given what we know of the traditional Given what we know of Leonardo'sdetailednotes or rockformations, and land- on how lightfallsupon different linksbetweencartography, chorography and of cloud formations it is difficult to accept the argument of Constable'sinventories scape painting himof Turner'sstrapping in Germangeographythe atmospheric sustained conditions, thatLandschaft movethe observe to the better a mast to self sense of area or as neutral its ship's entirely region English to and American devotees of the inter-war period ment of the storm,or of Ruskin'sinstructions thereis a threadof interest claimed.Certainly in painters to rival the geologist, botanist and in theirknowledgeof topography, German geography for GestaltendeGeografie, meteorologist of holism in runs aesthetic that geology, vegetationand skies,it is likelythathad study landscape, with of techniques fromHumboldtthroughEwald Banse to Gerhart theyhad access to the battery which Mikesell would arm his geographerthey Hard.69 Anglo-Saxongeographers introducing landscape would all have made good use of them.Certainly use to in their Sortewouldhave revelled as an areal conceptwere not unawareof the prob- Christoforo and and bothBruegel his'chorographic lemscausedby itscommon art', term. improve usage as a painters' But in the interests of a scientific geographythey Titianproducedlandscapesthathave a perspective and were keen to distancetheirconcept of landscape farabove thegroundand are as comprehensive all Above the for. could wish as Mikesell fromthatof painters or literary and writers; synthetic poets theconstrucwhichunderlay novelists.Thus the linksbetween landscape,per- geometry perspective, and whichgave cerof landscapes, spectiveand the controlof space as property-the tionalprinciple which is the same geometry to their visualideology commonto landscapepainting and tainty realism, and of Mikesell's the determines and unexunrecorded maps graticule cartography-have gone ofhis or locatestheelements theboundaries This is particularly ploredby geographers. surpris- delimits clearer abouttherolethat geographical landscapes. ing todaywhenwe are far thereare has in the evolution of the techniques Beyondthe issue of specific geography played betweenlandscape similarities bourgeois concept of individual and national also methodological similarities whichhave and ingeography, space.70Landscaperemains partof our unexamined inpainting someto allowed to be embraced humanist unconsciously discourse, geographers adopt by geographers to thelandscape ofthevisualideologyintegral as a conceptwhichappearsto fulfil their desirefora thing contextual and anti-positivist region geography.Whereas idea. Likeotherarea conceptsin geography, in thepastlandscapegeographers distanced or pays, landscape has been closely associated in actively Morwiththemorphological theirconcept fromthat of common usage, today geography method.73 forms,their writers like Samuels,Meinig,Wreford Watson and phology is the study of constituent into a synPococktaketheoppositeposition.7'In bothperiods isolation,analysis and recomposition of a whole.When appliedto thevisibleforms of its popularity in geographylandscapeas an art- thetic isticconceptis given the role of potential or actual delimitedarea of land this is termedchorology.74 challenger to geographical science. Marwyn The result of a landscape chorology is a static relations and conwhose internal or picture Mikesell's claim(with itsinteresting reference to per- pattern lacks which but are forms stituent is an of this view: understood, prospective) example of cess or change. Indeed, one of the criticisms theperspective of thegeographer is not thatof the thatit was precisely in thepost-war years chorology individual observer located on the at a particular point failed to explain the processes giving rise to the The geographer's work entails ground. mapinterpretThe idea of it described. and spatialrelations ation as wellas diret-6ob-ser-vation,-and he-makes no dis- forms to incorporate The change,or process,is very difficult tinction betweenforeground and background. ofthegeographer althoughthereare certain is thus different from into landscapepainting, very landscape morior the ruined that ofthepainter, ofsam- conventionslike the memento Bymeans poetornovelist.

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in much of our geographystillawaits buildingwhichoccasionallydo so. But one of the ing implicit consistent detailed At themostobviouslevel,we of examination. has been purposes landscapepainting an imageof orderand proportioned to present of the pitfalls of accepting con- warnstudents the authof the dangersof misusedstattrol,to suppressevidence of tensionand conflict orityof numbers, never those of acceptingthe betweensocialgroupsand within in istics,but virtually human relations theenvironment. Thisis trueforthevillalandscapes cartographic, still less the landscape,image. Less for geographical painted by Paolo Veronese in the strife-riddenobviously,but more significantly Venetiancountryside of the latersixteenth century, scholarship, geographyand the arts,or geography it was equallytrueforthearcadian as a refuge from tenpresented imageof English as art,is frequently social and in dentious the debates within the disciof rural conpolitical landscapeparks Georgianperiod flict a resort and transformation. In thissense the alignment pline,and the 'soul' of geography in which of geographical serves we can express our 'passions' in the neutraland landscapewithmorphology to reproduce a central area of subjectivity and humanediscourse, dimension of theideologyof refined thelandscapeidea as itwas developedin thearts. ourselvesin those reverential tonesthat expressing thesituation is little different serve purely to sustainmystification. Despite appearances Geography in muchof contemporary use of land- and the arts are too important for this.Both bear geographical Too often humanists make the our both as well can world, directly scape. geographical upon challenge ofassuming mistake thatartand within and see it,landscape, as supportthe ways we structure, modify are to do with the subjective, somehow standing thatworld. In Theoretical objectivecertainagainstscienceand its proclaimed Geography Bunge came closerthan ties.75The subjectivism of artis a recent and by no anyother recent to acknowledgwriter geographical means fully a productabove all of ing the significance of the graphicimage in geoacceptedthesis, the artistic use of cartography as a self-image generatedin the Romantic graphy.His later,brilliant movement. as have we subversive art bears his to seen, testimony Originally, landscape insight.79 was composedand constructed which Bunge was equally clear that geometrywas the by techniques wvere considered to ensure thecertainty ofreproduc- language of space, the guarantorof certainty in ing the real world.Equally,again as we have seen, geographical science, visually and logically. As thereis an inherent in the landscape shown, the relationship betweengeometry, conservatism optics in idea, in its celebrationof propertyand of an and the studyof geographic space is verystrong statusquo, in its suppression of tension European intellectualhistory since the Renaisunchanging between groups in the landscape.When we take sance.80 In Bunge's thesis spatial geometrywas over landscapeintogeography, and particularly into aligned to a powerfulclaim for geographyas a a verydifferent conin largemeasure generalizing science, positivist publicpolicywe inevitably import the realist,visual values with which it has been ception of science fromthat understoodby the loaded: itsconnections witha way of seeing, itsdis- foundersof modem geometryand perspective, recalled themagicofPythagoras of subjectand objectand itsconservatism in manyofwhomstill tancing as beingas mucha branch an image of natural and social harmony. and regarded metaphysics presenting Punter has pinpointed theplace of thesesocial of scienceas empirical John study,81 and forwhom the to and quadrivium were equal contributors and visual values in contemporary discussionsof trivium sciencetout court, landscape and the conservationand planningof the seven liberalarts.In rejecting areas defined as having'landscapevalue'.76A vast humanist geographers have severed links with concentrated on the materialof visual and spatial geometry, fieldawaits research into contemporary the triviumand failed,among other things,to socialvaluesin landscape77 oflandscape. To return, to the openingpointof this developa proper however, critique not true of Renaissance a a division was Humanist have Such paper. geographers spent great deal of timeand energychallenging the orthodoxy humanist JohnDee was as close to geographers. as he was to SirPhilip and Mercator of positivism, Sidney, theyhave opened up a debateon the Ortelius language of geography-the constraints and admiredthe magicianCorneliusAgrippa'sworkas Cusanus'closest oflanguage.Some have evenbegunto muchas he did thatof Copernicus. opportunities the executor of his will,was Pierodal Pozzo in our friend, inherent explorethe ideologicalassumptions merchant All of theseare important Toscanelli.Toscanelli,froma Florentine conceptsof space itself.78 was a doctor, studentof optics and the But theideologyof vision,theway of see- family, matters.

idea Evolution ofthelandscape

59

of the ofhis day.As a member foremost geographer he studiedone of its GreekAcademy at Florence, Ptolemy'sCosmogragreatestintellectual trophies, in theearlyyearsof from fiabrought Constantinople In thisworkPtolemy describes thefifteenth century. a projection fortheworldmap whichuses thesame as theFlorentine construction humanists geometrical Withthe employedto develop linear perspective.82 aid of thisstudyToscanelliproduceda map which he sent with a letter to Christopher Columbus encouragingthe Genoese navigator'sexploration west on the groundsthatthe distancefrom Europe to China was shorterthan was then commonly believedby cartographers. The geographical consequences of this collaborationof art, science and skillneed not be spelledout here.But the practical of example thisgeographical colleague of the great humanists Alberti and Brunelleschi conmayremind humanists in geography to pay equal temporary as to thatof attention to the Albertian revolution Gutenberg.

6. See the discussionby PUNTER, J. V. (1982) 'Landand critique', in GOLD, J. a synthesis scape aesthetics: and BURGESS, J.(eds) Valuedenvironments (London) pp. 100-23 7. PENNING-ROWSELL,E. C. (1974) 'Landscapeevalu60: ation fordevelopment plans',J.R. Tn Plann.Inst., 930-4 8. APPLETON, J. (1975) The experience of landscape (London) 9. POCOCK, D. C. D. (ed.) (1981) Humanistic geograof place essays in the experience phy and literature: (London); DANIELS, S. J.(1981) 'Landscapingfora manufacturer: HumphreyRepton's commissionfor BenjaminGott at Armleyin 1809-10', J. hist.Geog., 7: 379-96; COSGROVE, D. (ed.) (1982) 'Geography Univ. of Techn., and the Humanities', Loughborough Occ. Pap.,No. 5 10. This phraseis takenfrom BERGER,J.(1972) Waysof seeing(London), where some of the social implications of visual conventions are challengingly explored 11. Examples are numerous. One of the earliest is FRANCESCO FELICIANO (1518) Librod'aritmetica, e practicale, more commonly e geometria speculativa, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Scala & Grimaldelli (Venice).One of themostcomprehensivewas Cosimo Bartoli(1564) Del mododi misI would liketo thank the following people fortheir urare ledistantie ... (Venice) of thispaper: drafts upon earlier help in improving Inst.Br. D. 12. MEINIG, (1983) 'Geographyas Art' Trans. and Butlin Stephen Daniels, Cole Harris,Robin Geogr. NS. 8: 314-28; WREFORD-WATSON, J. Trevor Pringle, and those who contributedat Trans. Inst.Br. Geogr. (1983) 'The soul of geography', were variousseminars. Some of theItalianmaterials NS. 8: 385-99; BILLINGE,M. (1983) 'The Mandarin a periodof studyin Italyfunded collected by during dialect', Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr. NS. 8: 400-20. a grant from theBritish Academy. POCOCK, D. C. D. (1983) 'The paradox of humanisticgeography', Area,15: 355-58 NOTES to mymind 13. As always,there are exceptions, although school in none have examined the visual in relation to 1. GEIPEL,R. (1978) 'The landscapeindicators Germangeography',in LEY, D. and SAMUELS, M. geographical study as such: POCOCK, D. C. D. and problems (1981) 'Sight and Knowledge', Trans.Inst.Br. Geogr. (eds) Humanistic geography: prospects NS. 6: 385-93; TUAN, YI-FU (1979) 'The eye and the (London)pp. 155-72 mind's eye', in MEINIG, The interpretation 2. See for example the comments on landscape in of ordinHARVEY, D. (1969) Explanation in geography (NOTE 3) pp. 89-102 arylandscapes 14. BUNGE, W. (1966) Theoretical (2nd ed. (London)pp. 114-15 geography Lund), 3. SAMUELS, M. (1979) 'The biographyof landscape', p. xiv in MEINIG, D. (ed.) The interpretation of ordinary 15. YATES, F. A. (1964) Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (London) pp. 160-1 discussesthe (Oxford)pp. 51-88 landscapes in Renaissance relationsof quadrivium of hisand trivium 4. ROSE, C. (1981) 'William Dilthey'sphilosophy a neglected heritageof conhumanism, toricalunderstanding: arguingthat'the two traditions appeal to The humanist's bent is in different interests. humanistic entirely geography',in STODDARD, temporary the directionof literature and history;he sets an and social concern D. R. (ed.) Geography, ideology immensevalue on rhetoric and good literary style. (Oxford)pp. 99-133 The bentof theothertradition is towardsphilosophy, and humanistic 5. RELPH, E. (1981) Rationallandscapes (London) p. 22. This sense of landscapeas theology,and also science (at the stage of magic)'. geography This argument definition owes a great an all inclusive, dependson a veryrestricted quotidianphenomenon of humanism to theworkofJ.B. deal in NorthAmerican (see herfn.3, p. 160), ignoresthe visual geography of collection See forexamplethemostrecent arts which combined literaryreference (ut pictura Jackson. skill,and failsto account for for Jackson's poesis) with 'scientific' landscape essays (1980), 'The necessity ruins andother the large numberof Renaissancescholarsequally at (Amherst) topics'

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DENIS COSGROVE italianadai tempi antichi al secoloXVIPI agrimensura (Torino) SCHULZ, J. (1978) 'Jacopo de 'Barbari'sview of Venice: map making, city views, and moralized geographybeforethe year 1500', TheArt Bull.,LX: 425-74; MAZZI, G. (1980) 'La repubblicae uno in PUPPI, L. (ed.) Architetstrumento per il dominio', tura e utopia nella Veneziadel cinquecento (Milano) pp. 59-62. It has been pointed out that,like conideal townscapes, the Barbari temporary map lacksall humanpresence Renaissancewriters never tire of emphasizingthat geometryprovides certainty. eg. Pacioli, Summadi arithmetica ... (note27) p. 2r 'e in la sua Metaphysica essere nel afferma (Euclid)le scientiemathematiche, primo grado de certezza' and theriseofscience McLEAN, A. (1972) Humanism in TudorEngland (London) pp. 112 ff.For a fulldiscussion of Cusanus' work and its impacton Renaissance thought see CASSIRER, E. (1964) The individual and the cosmosin Renaissance philosophy (New York) a study IVINS, W. M. Jr(1946) Art and geometry, of (New York)pp. 79-80 spaceintuitions There is no space here to explore the fascinating implications of Renaissance magic theories for and natural attitudes to nature beauty.These theories are of course fully discussed in Yates, Giordano Bruno... (note 15) There is no escaping the use of 'man' here.We are 'male' view oftheworld dealingwitha specifically ALBERTI, L. B. (1965) Ten books on architecture ofJ.Leoni,1755; facs.copy,London)p. 194 (trans. Venetid'agraria SARTORI, P. L. (1981) 'Gli scrittori del cinquecentoe del primo seicento.Tra realta e E. (ed.) Veneziae la terraferma utopia' in Tagliaferri, attraversole relazione dei rettori (Milano) pp. 261-310. See particularly the last three 'days' of della vera agriGALLO, A. (1565) Le diecigiornate cultura e piacere dellavilla(Vinegia) e la citta. ZORZI, L. (1977) Il teatro Saggiasulla scena italiana(Torino). On the linksbetween theatreand theories see YATES, F. A. (1966) Theart cosmological (London) ofmemory of art GOMBRICH, E. (1971) 'The renaissance theory and the rise of landscape',in Gombrich, E. Normand Form:studiesin the art of the renaissance (London) 109 CLARK, K. (1956) Landscapeinto art (Harmondsworth) thetitleof theessay by JACKSON,J.B. Significantly, in Landscape, 23: 3; and (1979) 'Landscapeas theatre' in JACKSON, The necessity forruins(note reprinted 5) in Italy 1450-1600 BLUNT, A. (1962) Artistic theory (Oxford)p. 26 Italicsadded Quoted in Ibid.p. 50

home in philosophyand science as they were concernedwithgrammar, rhetoric and classicaltexts, for Trissinoand Daniele Barbaroin 30. exampleGiangiorgio Venice sixteenth-century 16. EISENSTEIN, E. L. (1979) The printing pressas an agent ofchange (Cambridge) 17. MARTINES, L. (1980) Power and imagination: inRenaissance City-States Italy(London) 18. ALBERTI, L. B. (1966) On painting(trans. J. R. London) Spencer, 19. Ibidpp. 47, 48 20. Even photography was constricted of 31. by conventions perspectiverealism,landscape paintinghaving far moreinfluence on earlyphotography thanvice-versa. See GALASSI, P. (1981) Before photography: painting and theinvention (New York) ofphotography 21. Ibid.pp. 16-17 32. 22. For a detaileddiscussionof Brunelleschi's experiment see EDGERTON, S. J. Jr.(1975) The Renaissance (London)pp. 143-52 rediscovery oflinear perspective 23. REES, R. (1980) 'Historical linksbetweengeography and art',Geogr. Rev.70: 66 24. This groupofpaintings, thecentrally 33. producedbefore planned church became architecturally popular, includes Raphael's Spozalizioand Carpaccio's Recep- 34. tion of the EnglishAmbassadors in the St Ursula of the circleand centre cycle.The sacredsignificance is an enormoustopicwithcross-cultural implications. See TUAN, YI-FU (1974) Topophilia:a study of environmentalperception attitudes and beliefs 36. (London) 25. The distinction betweenmind,or intellect, and sense 36. was central and is disto muchRenaissancethought, cussed in Yates, GiordanoBruno(note 15) p. 193. 37. is of coursean intellectual Nicolo Geometry activity. life'(il Tartagliacalls it 'the pure food of intellectual Euclide puro cibo della vita intellettuale) Magarense, trans(Venezia, 1543) p. FII, in the first philosopho lationof EuclidintoItalian.None the less,one of the reasonswhy humanists likeAlbertiacceptedthe significance of numbersand proportions was that the 38. same proportionswhich pleased the intellectalso seemed to please our eyes and ears. This is a cornerstoneofRenaissance aesthetics 26. BAXANDALL, M. (1972) Painting and experience in 39. fifteenth-century Italy(London) 27. FRA LUCA PACIOLI (1494) Summadi arithmetica, et proportionalitta geometria,proportione (Venice). See the reference of thiswork in 40. to the significance BRAUDEL, F. (1982) Civilizationand capitalism, Vol. II: The Wheelsof Commerce 41. 15th-18th Century. (London)p. 573 28. SILVIO BELLI (1565) Libro del misurarcon la vista ... (Venezia)preface, pp. 1-2 ('certamente cosi il misurar con la vista,poi che ogni uno, 42. meravigliosa che non sa la ragionepar del tutto impossible') 29. ROSSI, F. (1877) Gromae squadra,ovvero storiadell' 43.

idea Evolution ofthelandscape of linearperspec44. Leonardowas a masternot merely formof pertive but also of that otherand distinct whichplaysa complemenaerialperspective, spective, the the illusionof space through taryrole in creating of tone, light and shade and colour manipulation While based on optical theoryand experintensity. founded. 58. is not geometrically aerialperspective iment, allowed Leonardo'sworkwithcolourand chiaroscuro him to convey the 'mood' of space, and he saw the of paintingover other arts to lie in its superiority to employaerialperspective ability 45. ALEXANDER, D. 'Leonardo da Vinci and fluvial Am.i. Sci.282: 735-55 geomorphology', 46. SCHULZ, J.(1976) 'New maps and landscape draw- 59. der KunsSorte', Mitteilungen ings by Christoforo in FlorenzXX: I; MAZZI, G. Institutes thistorischen e uno strumento (1980), 'La Repubblica peril dominio' 60. e Utopa nella Venezia in PUPPI, L. (ed.) Architettura del Cinquecento (Milano)pp. 59-62 47. SORTE, C. (1580) 'Osservazioni nella pittura', in BARROCCHI, P. (ed.) (1960) Trattati reprinted e controriformo fra manierismo d'arte del cinquecento: Vol. 1 (Bari) pp. 275-301. This text meritsdetailed study,not only as a discussionof landgeographical but equally because Sorte scape and cartography the recognition by by a century appearsto anticipate ofthehydrologicalcycle John Rayoftherealmovement in Barrocchi, 61. 48. LetterfromVitali to Sorte, reprinted Trattati d'art... (note47) p. 275 49. SORTE, 'Osservazioninella pittura' (note 47) p. 282: 62. con le sue giuste 'Inoltreho posta detta Corografia misure e distanzein pianta'.In otherwords,the work was based on a planispheric survey.On the relations see Edgerton. between such surveyand perspective TheRenaissance (note22) rediscovery 50. SORTE, 'Osservazioninellapittura' (note47) p. 283 51. BERENSON, B. (1952) Italianpainters of theRenaissance'(London)p. 12 52. Quoted in WILTON, A. (1980) Turnerand the sublime (London)p. 70 53. IVINS, Art and geometry (note 33) pp. 105-10; GALASSI, Before (note20) Photography 54. MARTINES, Powerand imagination (note 17); BAX- 63. andexperience ANDALL, Painting (note26) 55. A pointthathas not gone entirely unnoticed by hisSee forexampleIan Adams' work torical geographers. in eighteenth-century on the role of land surveyors Scottishagrarian change.ADAMS, I. H. (1980) 'The agents of agrarianchange', in PARRY, M. L. and SLATER, T. R. (eds) The makingof the Scottish (London)pp. 155-75, esp. pp. 167-70 countryside 56. For example the great galleryof maps painted by 64. Ignazio Dante in theVatican(1580-83) or the similar commissions to Christoforo Sorteto paintwallsin the Ducal Palace at Venice(1578 and 1586) 57. COSGROVE, D. (1982) 'Agrarian change,villabuilding and landscape: the Godi estates in Vicenza

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on histori1500-1600', in Ferro,G. (ed.) Symposium and its experience cal changesin spatial organisation in the Mediterranean world (Genova) pp. 133-56; DANIELS, D. J. (1982) 'Humphrey Repton and the of landscape', in GOLD, J.and BURGESS, J. morality environments (note6) pp. 124-44 (eds) Valued Quoted in McLEAN, Humanismand the rise of of Euclid ... (note 32) p. 138. The translation science For Dee's importance forgeograwas by Billingsley. see TAYLOR, E. G. R. (1954) phy and cartography The mathematical of Tudor and Stuart practitioners (London) pp. 26-48. For Dee and magic see England Bruno YATES, Girodano (note 15) pp. 148-50 MORGAN, V. (1979) 'The cartographic image of the in earlymodem England',Trans.R. Hist.Soc. country 29:129-54 The whole issue of gardendesign along circular and orthogonallines is too large to discuss here but is under obviouslyverycloselyrelatedto thegeometry and thoseof microcosm, discussion, to spatialtheory macrocosmand medicinalconcepts. The firstsuch garden was designed in Padua in the late sixteenth of Vitruvius centuryby Daniele Barbaro,translater and commentator on Euclid.See JACKSON, J. B. (1980) 'NearerthanEden' and 'Gardensto Decipher' in The necessity for ruins (note 5) pp. 19-35 and 37-53 OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (OED), italics added THOMPSON, F. M. L. (1968) Chartered surveyors: thegrowth (London); HARVEY, P. D. of a profession A. (1980) The history of topographic maps: symbols, and surveys (London). The idea that surveypictures ing was a maliciousand magicalart was foundedin fortraditional land parton thenegativeconsequences of new conceptsof private enshrined rights property in the legal document in thatthe surveyor produced, of connections between the part on the recognition of surveytechniques and thatof hermetic geometry magicians.In the book burningsunder Edward VI books containinggeometrical figureswere particularlyat risk TURNER, J. (1979) The politicsof landscape:rural sceneryand society in English poetry 1630-1690 (Oxford); ADAMS, J. (1979) The artist and the house.A history houseand garden country of country view painting in Britain 1540-1870 (London); BARRELL, J. (1980) The dark side of the landscape: the ruralpoor in Englishpainting1631-1741 (Cambridge); ROSENTHAL, M. (1982) British landscape (London) painting The OED notesthattheverb'to prospect' emergedin the nineteenth to the particularly centuryreferring capitalistactivitiesof speculativegold miningand playingthe stock exchange.It is interesting to note how 'speculation' has itself roots in visual terminology

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65. MIKESELL, M. (1968) 'Landscape', in International 71. Notes 3 and 12 of the social sciences(New York) p. 72. MIKESELL,'Landscape'(note64) p. 578 encyclopaedia so by SAUER, 'Morphologyof Landscape' 577-79. DICKINSON, R. E. (1939) 'Landscape and 73. Explicitly (note 67), and equally in physicalgeographywhere Society', Scott. geogr. Mag. 55: 1-15; HARTA surSHORNE, R. (1939) The nature study ofgeography. landscapein the titlesuggestsa morphological oflandforms in thelight veyof current of thepast (Lancasthought 74. VAN PAASEN, C. (1957) The classicaltradition ter, of Pa.) 66. HUMBOLDT, A. VON (1849-52) Cosmos:a sketch (Groningen) geography of the Universe(London), 75. See for example the diagram which serves as the of a physicaldescription for the discussionof spatial conceptsin foundation Vol. II. The relationship between the landscapeidea is and attitudes SACK, R. D. (1980) Conceptions to naturein the nineteenth of space in social century a geographical of course enormouslycomplex. On Goethe and thought: perspective (Minneapolis) p. 25 geography see SEAMON, D. (1978) 'Goethe's aesthetics...' (note6) approach to the natural world: implicationsfor 76. PUNTER, J.'Landscape 77. Some of the essays in GOLD, and BURGESS, Valued environmental theory and education',in LEY and environments (note 6) begin to broach this field,as SAMUELS, Humanistic Geography(note 1) pp. have papers presented in recent IBG sessions of 238-50 67. COSGROVE, D. (1979) 'John Ruskin and the and theMedia' 'Geography 78. SACK, Conceptions Geog.Rev.69: 43-62 ofSpace... (note 74) imagination' geographical of landscape', 79. BUNGE, W. (1973) 'The geography of human 68. SAUER, C. 0. (1926) 'The morphology in LEIGHLY, J. (ed.) (1963) Land and life: Ann.Ass.Am. Geogr. 63: 275-95 survival', reprinted selections from of Greekgeometry the relations from the writings of Carl Ortwin Sauer 80. This is distinct and Los Angeles) which apparently were derived from a tactile(Berkeley 69. BANSE, E. (1924) Die Seele der Geographie muscularapprehensionof space, an apprehension in Deutchwhichwas non-visual. HARD, G. (1965) 'Arkadien (note (Brunswick); IVINS, Artand geometry 96: 31-4 land',Die Erde, 33) Bruno 70. HARVEY, D. (1974) 'What kind of geographyfor 81. YATES, Giordano (note 15) pp. 144-56 what kind of public policy', Trans.Inst.Br. Geogr.; 82. EDGERTON, The Renaissancerediscovery... (note and present con22) HARVEY, D. (1984) 'On thehistory dition of geography: an historical materialist 35: 1-10 manifesto', Geogr. Prof.