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

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Wiley-Blackwell and The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) are
collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Transactions of the Institute of British
Geographers.

http://www.jstor.org
 45

Prospect, andtheevolution
perspective of
idea
thelandscape
DENIS COSGROVE
SeniorLecturer
in Geography,
Loughborough Leic.LE113 TU
Loughborough,
University,

24 May 1984
RevisedMS received

ABSTRACT
Thelandscape concept ingeography hasrecently beenadoptedbyhumanistic writersbecauseofitsholistic
andsubjec-
Butthehistory
tiveimplications. ofthelandscape ideasuggeststhatitsorigins lieintherenaissancehumanists'searchfor
rather
certainty thana vehicleofindividual subjectivity.
Landscape wasa 'wayofseeing'thatwasbourgeois, individual-
istandrelatedto theexercise ofpoweroverspace.Thebasictheory andtechnique ofthelandscape wayofseeingwas
linear
perspective,as important forthehistoryofthegraphic imageas printing wasforthatofthewritten word.Alberti's
wasthefoundation
perspective ofrealisminartuntilthenineteenth century, byhimto socialclass
andis closelyrelated
andspatialhierarchy. Itemploys thesamegeometry as merchant tradingandaccounting, landsurvey,
navigation, map-
pingandartillery.
Perspective appliedinthecityandthentoa country
is first subjugated tourbancontrolandviewedas
Theevolution
landscape. oflandscape painting
parallelsthatofgeometry justas itdoesthechanging socialrelations
on
thelandinTudor,Stuart andGeorgian England. Thevisualpowergivenbythelandscape wayofseeingcomplements
therealpowerhumans exertoverlandas property. Landscapeas a geographical concept cannotbefreeoftheideological
overlaysofitshistory as a visualconcept unlessitsubjects
landscape tohistorical Onlyas anunexamined
interrogation.
conceptin a geography whichneglects itsownvisualfoundations canlandscape foran antiscientific
be appropriated
humanisticgeography.

KEY WORDS: Landscape,Geometry,Perspective, Humanism,

Prospect, Ideology,Graphicimage,Cartography,
Seeing,Chorography,
Painting, Survey,
Morphology, Space.

Geographicalinterestin the landscapeconcepthas geographical environment, aspects which

seen a revivalin recentyears.In largemeasurethisis
a consequence of the humanist renaissance in
geography.Havingenjoyeda degreeofprominence
in the interwaryears,landscapefellfromfavourin
the 1950s and 1960s. Its referenceto the visible
formsof a delimitedarea to be subjectedto mor-
phologicalstudy(a usage stillcurrent in theGerman
'landscapeindicators'school)' appeared subjective
and too imprecisefor Anglo-Saxon geographers
developinga spatialscience.The static,descriptive
morphologyof landscape ill-suitedtheir call for
dynamic functionalregions to be defined and
investigatedby geographerscontributing to econ-
omicand socialplanning.2
Recently, and primarilyin North America,
geographershave sought to reformulate landscape
as a concept whose subjective and artistic
resonancesare to be activelyembraced.They allow
forthe incorporation of individual,imaginativeand
creative human experience into studies of the
geographicalscienceis claimedto have devaluedat
best and at worst,ignored.Marwyn Samuels,for
example,3 refers to landscapes as 'authored',
CourticeRose thinkingalong similarlines would
analyse landscapes as texts,4and Edward Relph
regardslandscapeas 'anythingI see and sensewhen
I am out of doors-landscape is thenecessarycon-
textand backgroundbothof mydailyaffairs and of
themoreexoticcircumstances ofmylife'.5American
humanistgeographershave adopted landscapefor
theveryreasonsthattheirpredecessorsrejectedit.It
appears to point towardsthe experiential, creative
and humanaspects of our environmental relations,
ratherthan to the objectified,manipulatedand
mechanicalaspectsof thoserelations.It is the latter
againstwhichhumanismis a protest,whichRelph
tracesto the seventeenthcenturyscientific revol-
utionand itsCartesiandivisionofsubjectand object.
Landscape seems to embody the holism which
modernhumanists proclaim.

Trans.Inst.Br.Geogr.N.S. 10: 45-62 (1985) ISSN: 0020-2750 Printedin GreatBritain

46 DENIS COSGROVE
In Britaina revivalof landscapeis also apparent. dominationover space as an absolute, objective
Here the humanistcritiquein geographyhas been entity,its transformation into the propertyof
less vocal. Recent landscape study has remained individualor state. And landscape achieved these
closerto popularusage of theword as an artisticor ends by use of the same techniquesas thepractical
literaryresponse to the visible scene.6 Among sciences,principally by applyingEuclidiangeometry
British geographers interest in landscape was as the guarantorof certainty in spatialconception,
stimulatedpartlyby perceptionstudies,particularly organizationand representation. In thecase of land-
the short-livedexcitementover landscape evalu- scape the techniquewas optical,linearperspective,
ation forplanningpurposeswhichsurroundedthe but the principlesto be learned were identical
1973 reformof local government.7This led to to those of architecture, survey,map-makingand
variousmechanistic theoriesof landscapeaesthetics artilleryscience.The same handbookstaughtthe
which, like Jay Appleton's ethologically-foundedpractitioners all ofthesearts.1
and influential 'habitattheory'of landscape,8had Landscape,likethepracticalsciencesof theItalian
littlein commonwiththe humanismproclaimedin Renaissance,was foundedupon scientific theoryand
NorthAmericanstudies. knowledge. Its subsequent history can best be
Epistemological divergence notwithstanding,understoodin conjunctionwith the historyof sci-
landscapeis again a focusof geographicalinterest. ence.Yet in itscontemporary humanistguisewithin
Withthatinteresthas come a refreshing willingness geography,landscapeis deployedwithina radically
bygeographersto employlandscaperepresentations anti-scientific programme.Significantly that pro-
-in painting,imaginativeliteratureand garden grammeis equallynon-visual.Recentprogrammatic
design-as sources for answering geographical statements of geographicalhumanism(and critiques
questions.9The purposeof thispaper is to support of it) in the pages of these Transactions are notable
and promote that initiativewhile simultaneously fortheirconcentration on verbal,literary and linguis-
enteringcertaincaveats about adopting the land- tic modes of communication and for theiralmnost
scape idea without subjecting it to critical
historical complete neglect of the visual and its place in
examinationas a term which embodies certain geography.12The attackon scienceis characteristic
assumptionsabout relationsbetween humansand of much contemporary humanistwriting.But the
theirenvironment, or morespecifically, society and apparentlack of interestin thegraphicimageis more
space. These caveats go beyond landscapeas such surprising. Considerthe traditions of our discipline,
and touch upon aspects of the whole humanist its alignmentwith cartographyand the long-held
endeavourwithingeography. beliefthattheresultsofgeographicalscholarship are
Landscape firstemerged as a term, an idea, or best embodied in themap. Consider too the human-
betterstill,a way ofseeingiothe externalworld,in ists'proclaimedinterestin imagesof place and land-
the fifteenth and early sixteenthcenturies.It was, scape, and yet their remarkableneglect of the
and it remains,a visualterm,one thatarose initially visual.13 Indeed the clearest statementof the
out of renaissancehumanismand its particular con- centralityofsightingeographythatI knowis found
cepts and constructsof space. Equally,landscape in William Bunge's TheoreticalGeography,a
was, overmuchofitshistory, closelyboundup with manifestoforspatialscience:'geographyis the one
the practicalappropriation of space.As we shallsee, predictivescience whose inner logic is literally
its connectionswere withthe surveyand mapping visible'.'4 Bunge's book may be closer in spiritto
of newly-acquired,consolidated and 'improved' the originalhumanistauthorsof thelandscapeidea
commercialestates in the hands of an urban than his contemporary humanistcritics.The book
bourgeoisie;with the calculationof distance and afterall is a celebrationof thecertainty of geometry
trajectory forcannonfireand of defensivefortifica- as theconstructional principleofspace.
tions against the new weaponry; and with the In fact,the humanistattackon science and its
projection of the globe and its regions onto map neglectof the visual image in geographyare not
graticulesby cosmographersand chorographers, unconnected.They both resultin some measure
those essential set designers for Europe's entry fromthe lack of criticalreflection on the European
centre-stage of the world'stheatre. In painting and humanist tradition,from the conflationof thespatial
garden design landscape achieved visually and themein geographywitha positivistepistemology,
ideologicallywhat survey,map makingand ord- and froma mystification of art and literature.All
nance chartingachievedpractically: thecontroland threeof these aspects will be illustrated in a brief
 ofthelandscape
Evolution idea 47
explorationof thelandscapeidea as a way of seeing Gutenberg invention of movable type in the
in the Europeanvisual tradition,emphasizingthat 1440s.16In thequadrivium, alwaysmoretheoretical,
tradition'smost enduringconventionof space rep- the criticaladvance came fromthe re-evaluation
resentation, linearperspective.In thisexplorationI of Euclid and the elevation of geometryto the
shall justifyand elaboratethe claim thatthe land- keystone of human knowledge, specificallyits
scape idea is a visual ideology;an ideology all too application to three-dimensional space represen-
easily adopted unknowingly into geographywhen tationthroughsingle-point perspectivetheoryand
the landscapeidea is transferred as an unexamined technique. Perspective, the medieval study of
conceptintoourdiscipline. optics, was one of the mathematicalarts,studied
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
Traditionallythe seven liberal arts of medieval theirpicturesin new ways to achieve a greater
scholarship weregroupedintotwo sets.The trivium realism(il vero)than theirpredecessors.'7But the
was composed of grammar, rhetoricand logic; the theoreticaland practicaldevelopmentof a coherent
quadriviumof arithmetic, geometry,astronomyand linear perspective awaited the fifteenth-century
music.While in its narrowestdefinition humanism Tuscan Renaissance.That movement,despite its
referredto studies in the trivium(the recovery, emphasison classicaltexts,grammarand rhetoric,
securedatingand translation of texts),manyearly revolutionizedspatial apprehensionsin the west.
renaissancehumanists wereequallyfascinated by the For the plastic and visual arts:painting,sculpture
materialof thequadrivium, seeking unity know- and architecture,
a of and forgeographyand cosmology,
ledge acrossall thearts.15The fifteenth centurysaw all concerned with space and spatial relations,
revolutionaryadvances in both sets of studies, it was fromthe quadrivium,fromgeometryand
advanceswhichalteredtheirorganization, socialsig- number theory, that form and structurewere
nificance and rolein theproductionand communica- determined-eveniftheircontentwas providedby
tionofhumanknowledgeoftheworldand ourplace thetrivium.
withinit. In the arenaof words,languageand writ- In 1435 the Florentinehumanistand architect
ten expressionthe most strikingadvance was the Leon BattistaAlbertipublishedhis Della Pittura(On

--- Median rays

Extrinsic
rays
Centricray
FIGURE 1. The visual triangleas describedby Alberti(fromSamuel Y. EdgertonJr,The Renaissance of linearperspective,
rediscovery
Harperand Row, London,1975, reproducedwithpermission)
48 DENISCOSGROVE
painting),'8a workwhose authorityin artisticthe- appreciated(Fig 2). We need not concernourselves
ory enduredbeyond the eighteenthcenturywhen herewiththe detailsand accuracyof Alberti'scon-
Sir JoshuaReynolds,firstpresidentof the Royal struction(exceptperhapsto note the definition of
Academy,used it as the foundationforhis lectures pyramid,lifteddirectlyfromEuclid).Butwe should
on pictorialcomposition,beautyand the hierarchy observecertainconsequencesthatflowfromit.First,
of genres.In Della PitturaAlbertidemonstratesa formand positionin space are shownto be relative
techniquewhichhe had workedout experimentallyratherthanabsolute.The formsof whatwe see, of
forconstructing a visualtrianglewhichallowed the objects in space and of geometricalfiguresthem-
painterto determine theshapeand measurement ofa selves,vary withthe angle and distanceof vision.
griddedsquareplaced on the ground when viewed They are producedby the sovereigneye, a single
along the horizontalaxis, and to reproducein pic- eye, for this is not a theoryof binocularvision.
torial formits appearance to the eye. The con- Secondly,Albertiregardstheraysof visionas hav-
struzioneleggitimagave the realist illusion of ing origin in the eye itself,thus confirmingits
three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional sur- sovereigntyat the centre of the visual world.
face.This construction, thefoundationof linearper- Thirdly,he creates a technique which became
spective,dependedupon conceptsof the vanishing fundamental to the realistrepresentation
of space
point, distance point and intersecting plane.Alberti and theexternal world. The artist,
throughperspec-
describesit as a triangleof raysextendingoutwards tive, establishesthe arrangement or composition,
fromtheeye and striking theobjectof vision.There and thusthe specifictime,of the eventsdescribed,
are threekindsofray(Fig I). determines-inboth senses-the 'pointof view' to
be takenby theobserver,and controlsthroughfram-
Theextrinsic rays,thuscircling theplane-one touch- ing the scope of realityrevealed.Perspectivetech-
ing the other,encloseall the planelikethe willow nique was so effective thatthe realistconventions
wands of a basketcage, and make... the visual which it underlaywere not chal-
fundamentally
pyramid. Itis timeformeto describe whatthepyramid untilthenineteenth
is and how it is constructed lenged century.20
by theserays... The Realistrepresentation of three-dimensional
is a figure ofa bodyfrom whosebaselinesare space
pyramid on a two-dimensional surfacethroughlinearper-
drawnupward, terminating a
at singlepoint. The base
ofthepyramid is theplanewhichis seen.Thesidesof spective directs the externalworld towards the
thepyramid aretherayswhichI havecalledextrinsic.individuallocatedoutsidethatspace.It givestheeye
Thecuspid,thatis thepointofthepyramid, is located absolutemasteryover space. The centricraymoves
within theeyewheretheangleofthequantity is.19 in a directline fromtheeye to thevanishingpoint,
to the depth of the recessionalplane. Space is
The visual pyramidhere describedis familiarto measuredand calculatedfromthisline and the rest
every geographerwho reads Area, although its of what is seen constructedaround the vanishing
geographicalsignificance may not always be fully point and withinthe framefixedby externalrays.

Ii
ii

Observation

FIGURE 2. A seventeenth-century to readersofArea)

'way ofseeing'(familiar
 Evolution idea
ofthelandscape 49

...
....

...
..........
.....

...... ...............
...as ~
................
~ ......
....
--
.... .:??
w~~?:;?~?
~1.
..
.............

Lorenzetti:
FIGURE3. Ambrogio 'GoodGovernment PalazzoPubblico,
intheCity'detailfrom Siena(dittaO. B6hm)

Visually space is renderedthe propertyof the Peterthe Keys to the Kingdomof Heaven (Fig 4)
individualdetached observer,fromwhose divine paintedon thewall oftheSistineChapelin 1481,the
location it is a dependent,appropriatedobject. A significance of perspectiveis clear.Lorenzettishows
simplemovementof the head, closingthe eyes or us thecityas an activebustlingworldof humanlife
turningaway and the compositionand spatialform wherein people and their environmentinteract
of objects are alteredor even negated. Develop- across a space whereunityderivesfromthe action
mentsfromthe fifteenth centurymay have altered on itssurface.
the assumedpositionof the observer,or used per-
Thesepre-perspective urbanlandscapesshownot so
spective analyticallyratherthan syntheticallyas much what thetowns looked likeas whatitfeltliketo
Albertiand his contemporaries intended,21 but this
be inthem.We getan impression ofthetownsnotas
visual appropriationof space endured unaltered. a
they mighthavelookedto a detached observer
from
Significantly, the adoption of linearperspectiveas fixedvantagepointbutas theymight haveimpressed a
theguarantorof pictorialrealismwas contemporary andseeingthebuild-
walking
pedestrian up thestreets
withthose otherrealisttechniquesof painting:oils, ingsfrommanydifferent sides.23
framing and productionfora marketofmobile,small
canvases. In this respect perspective may be By contrast,in Perugino'sideal city a formal,
regarded as one of a number of techniqueswhich monumental order is organized throughprecise
allowed forthevisualrepresentation of a bourgeois, geometry,constructedby the eye aroundthe axis
rationalistconceptionoftheworld. whichleads across the chequerboardpiazza to the
The termbourgeoisis appropriate, forlinearper- circulartempleat its centre.The piazza,geometrical
spectivewas an urbaninvention, employedinitially centreofthiscity,becomesin thisgenresymbolicof
to representthe spaces of the city. It was first the whole city.24The hillsand treesbeyondreflect
demonstrated practically by Alberti'sclose associate, thesameregimented orderas theurbanarchitecture.
Filippo Brunelleschi, in a famous experiment of 1425 The people of the city, or ratherwithinit,forthey
whenhe succeededin throwingan imageoftheBap- reveal no particularattachmentto it, group them-
tisteryat Florenceonto a canvas set up in the great selves in dignifiedand theatrical poses. In the 'ideal
portal of the cathedral.22 If we compareAmbrogio townscapes' of the late fifteenth-century Umbrian
Lorenzetti's well-knownfrescoesin thePalazzo Pub- school of Piero della Francesca humans scarcely
blico at Siena (Fig 3) whichrepresentgood govern- appear. They have no need to forthe 'measureof
mentin the city,paintedin the 1340s, withPeitro man',so neatlycapturedin Leonardoda Vinci'sMan
Perugino's representationof Christgiving to St ina Circleand a Square,is writtenintothemeasured
50 DENIS COSGROVE
?~:~?:i?~;~?~?~?~?:?~~??:
x~i:~rQ M~:?i:aww'~j::
ldiiiil::'iilili.~g:l:t:l:lll:
:':::::::::::::::::::':~"''':~:'::':':::::i:::::::::::::
1:::1:::::?::1:1:1:1:i:':::::-:l:':l:l:l ..
Illlilliililil:liiIli:::::il:::l:i:i:l ~:gi :~i?:-:::?:?:??l?:-::::::'i:I:i:::::j:::

:?~:n:~?~~sse5988sr~~?~:~jsnaassess~answ
i~:'~pp~88BB~BSB~jeB8888~a~::::::i?~8

,..,.
ii~CO.iiiiiiijiiijhiiiiii'ii?i.i.i:i: ?: I~iBLli~iiiB
lil:l:liii~:~8SIBBi4!Qi
?~~'~i~88JBl~ea~H~!ii~igl'i~
:i:i
-:::::::::-r II ~::::::::- I:i
~p~g~ggg~g~::::-:~:::-:l-llilcil~Bk~:i:- :i
:: a:IO
j;::::
:. Piiiiliiiliiiiililiiliiili
:~l~ss~R9n-as;~srss6s~ak:::
iii
~::::r PIPi:i i~B~::~:i.i~:l~jj~~~:.~~f~""~"~""~""""""
::: li-i~ ii: :::
ini:l ~:----;::i:i-1-1:::1:1:::::-:':1:1:::1-:
::1: ~i~'..~...::i~~.ili~/j~l;:l(
Sj , : L-i B
::,::::: j::::: :::':::::;e iiiiii-~iiiiiiiiiii~;iii~
?? B;~a! i-i " '~Zil
:::-z ?: ::::::~
II: i~ia~~l -
:-1
r:i :1
iiia
_i:i:i:
:iliiliiiiiiiliiiii~,l~B~B~:?:'~~~8~3~81
~ii~i
::::::
~~i?ji~I~j~~
li?8BS88~8eB~aBBB~~I;:~~:X:jir~d~Bs~B~~ _-_-~;L~i?~j~31~;i18~.::-:~S~Bs~BH~sE~81
~~_~~~__$BagarPnsa~or~Bl~s~8ssaaaaa~.~a:
~:::::i
r~~silillii iii
''iiiiiiiii~iL~:iij~~i~-I -ili-~~ll~j~ir~~-i :!-
:Pi---'?:::~3~;~~iiij~7~e~61~8~~ g:~S~Ss~~
'' . .-isay '
8?:---:-:-:I:::
.-: I~i j~f88li~?i8~i~Bsa~ase~s~an~gi
:'.'~8~?~:-:::::-:~:~:
i~iiiiiil
ii-i:iii??i~.~i"iiia4 Il~iBid ~
ili:i~:::-:::
::
u~?:?::::::::::::::::

~~:::~~_: :I:--r-:-I^;~.-i?--?:
-:-
----I:::.:.;~~-::_?-i.-_?_::::?~~*wl~:.
~::r::~
*:-:-:-:::::~:::~:ia,:,:,:::,~,-,-
..L...._ r~s; -::::~:S~:i:-:
::-:_:-:::~;:::i:il:'::d:i::t:::::l.':l :::_~;:':'::i:l::~::I:::l:::-:-:_-is~is~.
::11:1:':~?::-:-:-:
~ii:_-:
: ?-~i.l::::--i---:~:--:-:
?jj~:

FIGURE 4. PietroPerugino:'Christgivingto St PetertheKeys to theKingdomofHeaven' VaticanCity,SistineChapel (dittaO. B6hm)

architectural facadesand proportionedspaces of the appear in printedbook form,followingonly two

city,an intellectualmeasure ratherthan sensuous yearsafterthefirst printedgeometryand settingthe
humanlife.25This alertsus to thefactthatperspec- model fora collectionof latertexts.Paciolidevotes
tiveand itsgeometryhad a greatersignificance than thesecondbook of thevolumeto geometryand the
merelyitsemployment as a paintingtechnique. measurementof distance,surfaceand volume. He
The mathematicsand geometryassociated with points out the value of such skillsforland survey
perspectivewere directlyrelevantto the economic and map making,.for warfareand navigation.Froma
lifeof the Italianmerchantcitiesof theRenaissance, text like thisItalianmerchantslearnedto calculate
to tradingand capitalistfinance,to agriculture and visuallyor 'gauge' by eye and usingntthevolumeof
theland market, to navigationand warfare.Michael a barrel,a churn,a haystackor otherregularshape,a
Baxandall26has shownthatmerchants attendingthe valuable skillin an age beforestandardsizes and
abbacoor commercialschool in theiryouthunder- volumesbecame thenorm.This visualgaugingwas
took a curriculum whichprovidedthe key skillsof regardedas a wonderful skill.In thewordsof Silvio
mathematicsforapplicationin commerce:account- it is
Belliwritingof visual surveyin 1573: 'certainly
ing, book-keeping,calculationof interestand rates a wondrousthingto measurewiththeeye,because
of return, determining proportionsin jointriskven- to everyone who does not know its rationaleit
tures.One of the most commonlyused testssum- appears completely impossible.'28 It has been
marizingthe various merchantskillswas Fra Luca arguedthatthesearchforaccuratevisualtechniques
Pacioli's Summa di Arithmetica, Geometria,Propor- of land survey held back Italian innovationsin
tioneet Proportionalita (1494).27 Its author,a close instrumentation formanydecades,29but thesignifi-
friendof Leonardo,acknowledgesAlbertias well as cance accorded to it indicates the importance
Ptolemyand Vitruvius, and of courseEuclidamong attachedto the power of vision linkedto intellect
his sources.While Piero della Francescahad himself throughgeometry,and how the principleswhich
writtenan earliertext,De Abbaco,Pacioli'swas the underlayperspectivetheory were the everyday
firstcompletemanual of practicalmathematicsto skillsoftheurbanmerchant.
 Evolution idea
ofthelandscape 51
Not all land surveywas by eye. The astrolabe, creationin whichGod was to be foundat thecentre
quadrantand plane tablewere in use and discussed and circumferenceof the cosmos. A regular
in the textscited.For map makersand navigators geometryproceedingfromthe perfectionof the
these were crucialinstruments. But they required circleunderlaythe structureof both spiritualand
geometrical calculation to make their results temporalworlds.Geometryand proportiontook on
meaningful.The Italian renaissancewas a carto- therefore a metaphysicalsignificance, one thatwas
graphic as much as an artistic
event. Ptolemy whose given even greaterweight with the translatingand
Almagesthad always rankedas a key geometrical misdatingof the CorpusHermeticum by Marsilio
source became known too for his Cosmografia,Ficinoin 1464 and theintroduction of cabalistnum-
broughtas a Greektextto Florenceat thebeginning ber theoryby Pico della Mirandolain 1486.34 The
of the fifteenth century.Albertiproducedan accu- circle,the golden section,the rule of threes,all of
rately surveyedmap of Rome, Leonardo one of thempartand parcelof theintellectual and practical
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
application of geometry. Perhaps more closely most eruditemetaphysicalspeculation.Above all it
relatedto landscapepaintingwas thepiantaprospet- was the humanintellect,humanreason,thatcould
tiva,the bird'seye view of citieswhichbecame so apprehendthissignificance and seek the certainties
popular at the turn of the sixteenthcentury. Among of geometry. And the human body, createdin the
thebestknownof theseis Jacopode 'Barbari's1500 imageand likenessof God, replicatedin microcosm
map of Venice,likeso manyof its typeas muchan the divineproportions, as Leonardo'shumanfigure
ideological expression of urban dominion as an enclosed in divine geometrymakes clear. At the
accuraterenderingof the urbanscene.30The view- centreof Renaissancespace, the space reproduced
pointforthesemapsis, significantly, highabove the by perspective,was the human individual,the
city,distant,commanding, uninvolved.It is thesame measureof his world and its temporalcreatorand
perspectivethatwe findin Bruegel'sor Titian'sland- controller.Like God, the microcosm,man, also
scapes,panoramasover greatsweeps of earthspace, appears at the circumference of Renaissancespace,
seas,mountainsand promontories. high above the globe, seeing it spread beforethe
Linearperspectiveorganizesand controlsspatial sphere of his eye in perspectiveon the map, the
coordinates, and because it was founded in piantaprospettiva or thepanoramiclandscape.
geometry it was regarded as the discovery of The authority attributed to man35was exercised
inherent propertiesof space itself.3'In this,perspec- in a hierarchy thatwas at once spatialand social,a
tivehad a deeperculturalsignificance, as Pollaiuolo's hierarchy in whichthelandscapeidea playeda signi-
bas-reliefof Prospettiva as a nubilegoddess, sculp- ficant,if subordinaterole.Referring to architecture,
ted on thetombofSixtusIV in 1493 mightsuggest. the 'queen of the arts',Albertidiscussesthe decor-
One oftheearliestand mostwidelyinfluential ofthe ationsuitableto different buildings:
Renaissancethinkers, thePaduanhumanistNicholas
of Cusa, theologian,cosmographerand mathema- Bothpaintings andpoetryvaryinkind.The typethat
tician,challengedthe Aristotelianscholasticworld portrays thedeedsof greatmen,worthy of memory,
view in his De Docta Ignorantia of 1440 by appeal fromthatwhichdescribes
differs thehabitsofprivate
to theEuclideangeometry.32 citizensand againfromthatdepicting thelifeof the
Rejectingtheidea that The which is in should
there could be no empiricalknowledge of the peasants. first, majestic character,
be usedforpublicbuildings and thedwellings of the
spiritualsphereby men confined to the temporal, great,whilethelastmentioned wouldbe suitablefor
and thusno directknowledgeof God, Cusanuspro- foritis themostpleasing ofall.Ourmindsare
gardens,
claimed the significanceof indirectevidence in a cheeredbeyondmeasureby the sightof paintings,
neoplatonic sense. He pointed out that in the depicting thedelightful countryside,harbours,fishing,
infinitelylarge circlethe circumference and tangent hunting, swimming, thegamesof shepherds-flowers
coincidein a straightline while the infinitely small andverdure.36
circlewas a point.This is the foundationof a con-
tinuousgeometryrelatingall Euclid'sseparateprop- The referenceis to the genres of paintingwhich
ositionsand giving formsa qualitativeas well as replicatethose of poetry:fromthe most elevated,
quantitativecharacter.33 Equally,it gave supportto storia (epic or historic events), to portraiture
Cusanus'argumentfora patternrunningthroughall and domesticscenes,and finallythe least serious,
52 DENIS COSGROVE

landscapes and rural scenes. Geographically,the importanceof perspectiveis in no doubt: 'for

centre of the city, where public buildings and Leonardo, as for Alberti,painting is a science
monuments adornthemainpiazza,is thesettingfor because of its foundationon mathematicalperspec-
greatmenand shouldrecordtheirepic deeds. In the tive and on thestudyof nature'.42Leonardohimself
urbanpalaces and privatehouses of the patriciate wrotethat
appear portraitsand familygroups while in the
countryside, faraway fromand subordinateto the Amongall thestudiesof naturalcausesand reasons
powerat theheartof thecity,thepeasants-'beasts lightchieflydelightsthe beholder-andamongthe
of the villa' -disport themselvesin their rude greatfeaturesofmathematics ofitsdem-
thecertainty
manner,while gentlemenrelax,followappropriate is whatpre-eminently
onstrations tendsto elevatethe
mindoftheinvestigator. musttherefore
Perspective be
leisurelypursuitsand enjoy thebeautyof nature.37
In the theatre,whose auditoriumdesign, spatial to all thediscourses
preferred and systemsof human
learning.43
arrangementsand stage sets were exercises in
applied geometryand perspectiveconstruction--
even cosmological theory38--thishierarchywas Geometryis the source of the painter'screative
power, perspectiveits technicalexpression.For
carefullyarticulatedfor the threeformsof drama. Leonardo,perspective'transforms the mindof the
Tragedywas playedagainstsettingsoftheidealcity
and its monumentalarchitecture, romancein the painterintothelikenessof thedivinemind,forwith
a freehandhe can producedifferent beings,animals,
palaceinterioror closedgarden,and comedyor farce
in the sylvansettingof a rurallandscape.Control plants,fruits,landscapes,open fields,abysses and
fearfulplaces'.44Linearperspectiveprovidesthecer-
and power radiatedown a socio-spatialhierarchy
taintyof our reproductionsof naturein art and
along the orthogonallines reachingout fromthe underlies the power and authority,the divine
piazza of an ideal city to transectrecognizably of theartist.
distinctlandscapetypes. creativity
Leonardo,despitethese commentsand his map-
pingexperiments, is not remembered as a landscape
LANDSCAPE, PERSPECTIVE AND REALIST painter,although his geographical contributions
SPACE wereby no meansmeagre.45More interesting from
this point of view is the work of the Venetian
It is knownthatthefirstartistreferences to specific
Christoforo Sortein thelaterRenaissance.Sortewas
paintingsas 'landscape'(paesaggio)come fromearly a cartographerand surveyor,employed by the
sixteenth-century Italy. One of the most often Venetian republicas one of the 'periti' or land
quoted is that from 1521 referring
to Giorgione's
BothKennethClarkand J.B. Jackson, in surveyorsand valuersof the Provveditorisopra i
Tempesta.39 beni inculti,thereclamation officewhichsupervised
discussionsof landscapein thisperiod,sense a rela-
marshlanddrainageand drylandirrigationin the
tionshipbetween the new genre and notions of secondhalfofthesixteenth century.He was a skilled
authorityand control.Noting the appearance of whose are
cartographer maps regardedas being
'realist'landscapein upper Italy and Flanders,the
second mercantilecore of early modern Europe, amongthefinestrecordsoftheVenetianstateat this
time(Fig 5).46 Sorte was also a landscapepainter
Clark claims thatit reflected'some change in the
who has leftus a remarkable treatiseon his art47 in
action of the humanmindwhichdemandeda new
theformofa replyto a letterfroma Veronesenoble,
nexus of unity,enclosed space,' and suggeststhat
BartolomeoVitali,requestinginformation on how
this was conditionedby a new, scientific way of Sortehad succeededin reproducing
thinking about the worldand an 'increasedcontrol
of natureby man'.40Jacksonrefersto a widespread the varietyof the
the truegreenof the pastures,
beliefthatthe relationship betweena social group therangeofgreenplants,thedensityof the
flowers,
and its landscapecould be so expertlycontrolledas forests, of
of water...thedistances
thetransparency
to make appropriate a comparison between perspectives.48
environmental bonds and familybonds,41 thereby
allowing landscape to become a means of moral The work that Vitali refersto is sadly unknown.
commentary. Perspectivewas the centraltechnique But fromtextual evidence it is clearly part-map
whichallowedthiscontrolto be achievedin thenew drawing:a chorography
part-landscape in plan and
paintingsof landscape.In Leonardo'swritingsthe perspectiveof the province of Verona, carefully
 ..........

"Al _,:::i

IVS'4:i---
'A-:r*

il:::
~_:~-.;;. -il-`::7
*;i:: A?IFiii
ii~i?iii~i~~-?i--i

::
~iiic

ii:--;-:?:ii:Ao?: :j:
-il?::
Ai:
74:i.
J*.
ov
-i:i
~iilii-i

~
Mt^-~i~
:ii':--'-:::i:-:
::;i:-

-,
,, ::'i: ~s:~af
~ ::::: 4 -
;:::UU
~:n:::-::j::i:I--

x-:%
::" V
A
$.:-:
AdiL--
4 : i-:::I,
-ia$i:Yi0
-:-?"-i-ii~i i:
i-:--:'
i---i-~_i
il _,-i:

.........

Sorte:Map of Venetianboundariesat Cadore (Venice,Archiviodi Stato,Provv. Cameradei Confin

FIGURE 5. Christoforo
54 DENISCOSGROVE
colouredand considereda workof art.Sorte,in his dimensions, butratherexhilaratedby thepotencyof
reply,modestlyrefersto himselfas merelya practi- extensionin depth,a controlled, axial entryintothe
cal man (un puroprattico)ratherthana philosopher pictureplane achieved by linearperspective.This
or an artist.He is a chorographer. But his chorogra- is the achievementot all the great landscapists,
phy is securelybased in science.From Ptolemy's of Bruegel's and Titian's cosmic panoramas,of
Cosmographia he has learnedhow to organizehis Giovanni Bellini's carefullylocated figuresand
mapaccordingto thefourcardinalpoints,and he has modulatedbands of light and shade, of Claude's
'locatedthesaid chorography withits truerelations stage-likewings, coulisses and recessionalplanes
and distanceson themap'.49Once thesegeometrical along theaxis,and ofJ.M. W. Turner-himself Pro-
essentialsare completedhe can discussthecolouring fessorof Perspectiveat the Royal Academy-who
of the map. Colours are used partlyto avoid too once claimedthat'withouttheaid ofperspective, all
manywords,partlyto producea representation of arttotterson itsveryfoundations'.52
reality.Thus different shades of greenallows us to Perspectivethenis criticalto landscapepainting,
recognize fertile
and infertile lands and forests.
The and itis significant,
ifbeyondthescope of thispaper
carefuland observantuse of colour helps us to to explore in detail,how close are the historical
'createtheimageof a landscape(paese)on canvas in parallelsbetweenthegreatadvancesin perspective
gouache and accordingto perspective'.Indeed the geometryand innovationsin landscapeart.Alberti
textends witha discourseon perspective, of which wrotehis treatiseat the timeof Van Eyckand the
Sorte describes two methods, one theoretical earliestItalianlandscapists;Pelerin,who refinedthe
foundedin distanceand angle measurement and a distancepoint construction in 1505 was the con-
second,morepractical, forwhichhe employsa mir- temporary ofLeonardoand Giorgione;Vignolawho
rormarkedwitha graticule.ForSorteperspectiveis showed in 1535 thatPelerinand Alberti'sconstruc-
'the foundationof painting'withoutwhichnothing tionproducedthesame geometrical resultswroteat
can be paintedof any value.And thisskillof paint- the timeof Titian'sand Bruegel'smaturity and was
ing is itselffundamental to the work ofthe chorogra- published in theproductiveyears of Paolo Veronese
pher:'niunapotra esser corografo,che non sappia and JacopoBassano. The great advances of Pascal
disegnareo dipingere'.50 and Desarguesin the 1630s in establishing thecon-
The relationshipbetween perspectiveand land- vergenceofparallellinesand showingtheirapparent
scape could scarcelybe more clear than in Sorte's visualconvergenceto be a necessaryconsequenceof
textwherethe practicalsurveyorand topographer point,lineand surfacedefinitions devoid ofEuclidian
offersone of theearliesttreatiseson theartofpaint- metrical assumptions,coincide with the Dutch
ing landscape. The early twentieth-century art supremacyin optics and its great school of land-
historian BernardBerensonagreedwithSorte.'Space scape. Geometricalcontinuityand new transform-
composition'he wrote,is the 'bone and marrowof ational rules between geometrical forms are
theartof landscape'.Referring to theearlyUmbrian propoundedin a treatiseby Ponceletwrittenat the
landscapists PietroPerugino and Raphael,Berenson same timethatConstableand Turnerwereexploring
claimedtheirtriumph lay less in thesubtlemodelling light and atmospherein landscape in ways that
of atmosphereand elaborate study of light and implicitlychallengedthe dominanceof linearper-
shade such as we findin the Venetiansthanin the spectiveforspace composition.Finallyvon Staudin
techniqueof space composition.AlthoughBerenson the 1840s eliminated metricalideas fromperspective
speaksofthisabilityto composespaceas 'a structure geometry, revealing the possibility of a
of feeling'ratherthana specifictechniquebased on non-Euclidianspace and n-dimensionalconstruc-
sophisticated geometrical theory,he is wellawareof tions.His workwas completedby F. Kleinin 1875 a
thatsense of powerand controlover space thatthe littlebeforemodernists eliminatedperspectivefrom
spectatorderivesfromthe perspectiveorganization space compositionand at the same timeas the first
oflandscapepainting: patentswere taken out for modernphotographic
in suchpictures,howfreely one breathes-asifa load printing techniques.53
hadjustbeenliftedfromone'sbreast, how refreshed,
hownoble,howpotentonefeels.51 LANDSCAPE, PROSPECT AND VISUAL
IDEOLOGY
No longeris thespectatordelightedonlyby surface While it is not suggestedthat perspectivestands
patternand the arrangement of formsacross two alone as thebasis forrealismand landscapepainting
 Evolution ofthelandscape
idea 55
-the demandforii veroin Renaissanceart was a The Italianword forperspectiveis prospettiva. It
complex social and cultural is
product54-it argued combines senses which in modem English are dis-
that the realistillusionof space which was revol- tinct:'perspective'and 'prospect'.Perspectiveitself
utionizedmoreby perspectivethanany othertech- has a numberofmeaningsin English,butas thepro-
nique was, throughperspective,aligned to the jectionofa spatialimageonto a planeitfirst appears
physicalappropriation of space as property, or ter- in the laterdecades of the sixteenthcentury.This
ritory. Surveyors' charts which located and usage is foundforexamplein JohnDee's Prefaceto
measuredindividualestates,forexamplein England thefirstEnglishtranslation of Euclid(1570). Dee, the
afterthe dissolutionof monasteries;cartographers' Elizabethanmathematician, navigationalinstrument
maps whichused the graticuleto apportionglobal makerand magician,linksthisuse of perspectiveto
space, for example the line defined by Pope paintingin a classicallyrenaissanceway:
Alexander VI dividing the new world between
Portugaland Spain; engineers'plans forfortresses greatskillof Geometrie, Arithmetik, Perspectiveand
and cannon trajectoriesto conquer or defend Anthropographie withmanyotherparticular artshath
nationalterritory, as forexampleVauban's French the Zographerneed of for his perfection... This
work or Sorte's for the Venetiandefencesagainst mechanical Zographer (commonly calledthePainter)is
marvelous in his skil,and seemeth to have a divine
Austria;all of theseare examplesof the application
of geometryto the productionof real property.55 power.
58

They presuppose a differentconcept of space

ownershipthanthe contingentconceptof a feudal Dee is writingat theopeningofa decade whichwill
societywhereland is lockedintoa web of interde- see Saxton'scountymapspublishedand whena new
pendentlordshipsbased on fiefand fealty.The new 'image of the country'was being producedas an
chorographieswhich decorated the walls of six- aspect of Elizabethanpatriotism,using maps and
teenth-century councilhallsand signorialpalaces,56 landscape representations as instruments of Tudor
and the new taste for accuraterenderingsof the powerand nationalist ideology.59
externalworld whichgraduallymoved fromback- By 1605 we can findreference to perspectiveas a
ground to main subjectmatter,were both organized formof a
insight, point of view, as in thephrase'get-
by perspectivegeometryand achieve aesthetically tingsomethinginto perspective',or seeing it in its
what maps, surveysand ordnancechartsachieve truelight,its correctrelationship withotherthings.
Landscapeis thusa way ofseeing,a com- Many of the earlyreferences
practically. quoted in the Oxford
positionand structuring of theworldso thatit may EnglishDictionaryto supportthe definition of per-
be appropriatedby a detached,individualspectator spectiveas a drawingcontrivedto representtrue
to whom an illusionof orderand controlis offered space and distancerelationsreferto landscapeand
throughthe compositionof space accordingto the gardenlayout.60The visualideologyof perspective
certainties of geometry. That illusion very and of landscapeas ways of seeingnature,indeeda
frequentlycomplementeda very real power and trueway of seeing,is certainly current in theEnglish
controlover fieldsand farmson the partof patrons Renaissance.When we turnto thewordprospect we
and ownersoflandscapepaintings."5Landscapedis- finditused to denotea view outward,a lookingfor-
tancesus fromtheworldin criticalways,defininga wardin timeas well as space. By theend of the six-
particularrelationshipwith natureand those who teenthcenturyprospect carriedthe sense of 'an
appearin nature,and offersus theillusionofa world extensiveor commanding sightor view, a view of
in whichwe may participatesubjectivelyby enter- the landscapeas affectedby one's position'.61This
ing thepictureframealong theperspectival axis.But neatlyreflectsa period when commandover land
thisis an aestheticentrancenot an active engage- was being establishedon new commercially-run
mentwitha natureor space thathas its own life. estatesby Tudor enclosersand thenew landowners
Implicitin the landscape idea is a visual ideology of measured monasticproperties.That command
whichwas extendedfrompaintingto our relation- was establishedwith the help of the surveyors'
shipwiththerealworldwhose 'frameand compass' 'maliciouscraft',the geometrywhich wrote new
Elizabethansso admiredand whichGeorgianEnglish perspectives acrossreallandscapes.62
gentlemenwould onlyapproachthroughthelangu- By the mid-seventeenth century'prospect'had
age oflandscapepaintingor theopticaldistortion of become a substitutefor landscape. The command
theirClaude Glass. thatit impliedwas as much social and politicalas
56 DENISCOSGROVE

:-li; :;~ . -_:::::.:

i:;::::~~i, .:::--: 11:
.-::::::::::::~:~::-:-::;:':
1-~::~-:::-:-
1:-i'~
_:::::::: IS1!
_::::::::::::
..............
KR . : _-_
j-::-::
:::ll::_:ii_::::i:::::.:::_
W
W,:::--lilllii: ?:_
::. i1~:-:ii:-:
-::j:::?:::::-
:---':--':-
:'ill-::-'':i-
:::-:::: :?'
l~ilii~
ci:~:::-1:::-::::-lii - :::11..?::-:::
~~-~'-~: ..... .
Or--::::::::::- \i~iili:~~i~ :::::-::::-::----
l~li:-::1':-.:
:::::::::::::::
i~l :_: :::::~?~?~lllii~ii~:':::::-
i~i~ii~iiiiiiFilll
-i-li'i-'il~i-iil~l~
jn
= ---:,:-' :'1I1
::.'?-::'-
I-~'::-?:::::::::::::-':::~:.i..-::
:---:~l~-i:~~:-.i
:i~~l....... :::::;:-::::::
ll:.
ii~l--l
:5,5!2,
;l:-:
:-:-::~-:~~i:~: i-i~-!~
on:::::-:::-r_:-.-
,-:,~l::~::-::R ~j,~ ~ -.-:?::~:::--:
::::i~-:l~~:~ :--r-:--
~--
-- --::::?::j:::------_:::i:-
:-:::-
::::-::::~_::::?::::::::::?:_~
~lii-:~-:-lii:-: :i::::;:_i-:--::::Mr.
:
-l~~:-:----:-l_?--:::::_-:~-
:i-i:~--::
:--::::-x-::
-li. ..........
.....::--

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

spatial. Commanding views are the theme of
countryhouse painting,poetry and landscaping
throughoutthe seventeenthand eighteenthcen-
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 Marlboroughat Blenheimwho had made
theirfortunesfromwar had an appropriately
mili-
tarycharacter in theirblocksofwoodlandsetagainst
shavenlawns.Thisno doubtreinforced theimageof
powerand authority, at leastforthosewho wielded
it. The surveyskillswhich calculatedand laid out
these landscapesproducedfortification plans, ord-
nance chartsand campaignmaps as well as serving
therequirements of theparliamentaryenclosers.It is
not surprising thatin hiscritiqueofemparkment and
landscapingOliver Goldsmithin The DesertedVil-
lage should describe the park that has replaced
Sweet Auburn in militarymetaphors:'its vistas
strike,its palaces surprise'.In those great English
landscape parks prospectalso signifiedthe future.
Control was as much temporalas spatial. Their
clumpsof oak and beech would not be seen in full
maturityby those who had them planted, but
securityof propertyensuredforlaterscions of the
familytreetheprospecton inheritance of command-
ing a fineview. The prospectof theeye was equally
commercial, suchwoodland in thelandscapewas an
economicinvestment. It represented
prospectingin
wood, as thosewho scouredthelandscapein thefol-
lowingcenturyseekinggold would be described.64
LANDSCAPE AND THE HUMANIST
TRADITION IN GEOGRAPHY
Landscapecomes into Englishlanguagegeography
primarilyfromthe German landschaft. Much has
been writtenabout the factthatthe Germanword
means area, withoutany particularly aestheticor
artistic,or even visual connotations.65My own
knowledgeof Germanusage is too meagreto con-
test thisclaim,but some commentis warranted.In
Humboldt'sKosmos,regardedby many as one of
the two pillarsupon whichGermangeographywas
erected,a whole sectionis devotedto thehistoryof
the love of landscapeand natureup to the timeof
Goethe whom Humboldtgreatlyreveredand who
was a major visual theorist.66Englishgeographers
could have takentheirlandscapeconceptfromJohn
Ruskinand discovereda usage not very different
fromHumboldt's.67More directly, Landschaftin the
workof Hettnerand Passarge,themainsourcesfor
Englishlanguage geographerslike Carl Sauer and
 Evolutionofthelandscapeidea 57
R. E. Dickinson of the landscape concept, was pling,survey or detailed
inventory, he achievesthe
confinedto the study of visibleforms,it was the comprehensive butsynthetic ofthehelicop-
perspective
eye whichdeterminedtheirselectionand inclusion. terpilotor balloonistarmedwithmaps,photographs
Moreover, Landschaft, as Sauer's classic paper- anda pairofbinoculars.
72

'Morphologyof Landscape'-makes clear,68was to

be studiedby thechorologicalmethodand itsresults The distinctionseems spurious,it is drawn at the
transmitted descriptively in prose and above all by level of techniqueratherthanaims and objectives.
the map. Given what we know of the traditional Given what we know of Leonardo'sdetailednotes
linksbetweencartography, chorographyand land- on how lightfallsupon different rockformations,or
scape paintingit is difficult to accept the argument of Constable'sinventoriesof cloud formations and
thatLandschaft sustainedin Germangeographythe atmosphericconditions,of Turner'sstrappinghim-
entirely neutral sense of area or regionas its English selfto a ship'smastthebetterto observethemove-
and American devotees of the inter-warperiod ment of the storm,or of Ruskin'sinstructions to
claimed.Certainlythereis a threadof interestin painters to rival the geologist, botanist and
German geography for GestaltendeGeografie, meteorologistin theirknowledgeof topography,
study of aestheticholism in landscape,that runs geology, vegetationand skies,it is likelythathad
fromHumboldtthroughEwald Banse to Gerhart theyhad access to the batteryof techniqueswith
Hard.69 which Mikesell would arm his geographerthey
Anglo-Saxongeographersintroducing landscape would all have made good use of them.Certainly
as an areal conceptwere not unawareof the prob- Christoforo Sortewouldhave revelledin theiruse to
lemscausedby itscommonusage as a painters'term. improvehis'chorographic art',and bothBruegeland
But in the interestsof a scientific geographythey Titianproducedlandscapesthathave a perspective
were keen to distancetheirconcept of landscape farabove thegroundand are as comprehensive and
fromthatof paintersor literarywriters;poets and syntheticas Mikesellcould wish for.Above all the
novelists.Thus the linksbetween landscape,per- geometrywhichunderlayperspective, theconstruc-
spectiveand the controlof space as property-the tional of
principle landscapes, and which gave cer-
visualideology commonto landscapepaintingand taintyto theirrealism,is the same geometrywhich
cartography-have gone unrecordedand unex- determinesthe graticuleof Mikesell's maps and
ploredby geographers.This is particularly surpris- delimitstheboundariesor locatestheelementsofhis
ing today when we are far clearer about the role that geographicallandscapes.
geography has played in the evolution of the Beyondthe issue of specifictechniquesthereare
bourgeois concept of individual and national also methodologicalsimilarities betweenlandscape
space.70Landscaperemainspartof our unexamined inpaintingand ingeography,similarities whichhave
discourse, to be embraced by humanist geographers allowed to
geographers adopt unconsciouslysome-
as a conceptwhichappearsto fulfil theirdesirefora thingofthevisualideologyintegralto thelandscape
contextualand anti-positivist geography.Whereas idea. Likeotherarea conceptsin geography,region
in thepastlandscapegeographersactivelydistanced or pays, landscape has been closely associated in
theirconcept fromthat of common usage, today geographywiththemorphological method.73Mor-
writerslike Samuels,Meinig,WrefordWatson and phology is the study of constituentforms,their
Pococktaketheoppositeposition.7'In bothperiods isolation,analysis and recompositioninto a syn-
of its popularityin geographylandscapeas an art- theticwhole.When appliedto thevisibleformsof a
isticconceptis given the role of potentialor actual delimitedarea of land this is termedchorology.74
challenger to geographical science. Marwyn The result of a landscape chorology is a static
Mikesell'sclaim(withitsinteresting reference to per- patternor picturewhose internalrelationsand con-
spective) is an example of this view: stituentformsare understood,but whichlackspro-
cess or change. Indeed, one of the criticismsof
theperspective of thegeographer is not thatof the
chorology in thepost-waryearswas preciselythatit
individual observer locatedat a particularpointon the failed to
ground.The geographer's workentailsmapinterpret- explain the processes giving rise to the
ationas wellas diret-6ob-ser-vation,-and
he-makes no dis- forms and spatialrelationsit described.The idea of
tinctionbetweenforeground and background. The change,or process,is very difficult to incorporate
landscape ofthegeographer is thusverydifferentfrom into landscapepainting,althoughthereare certain
thatofthepainter, poetornovelist. Bymeansofsam- conventionslike the memento morior the ruined
58 DENISCOSGROVE
buildingwhichoccasionallydo so. But one of the ing implicitin much of our geographystillawaits
consistentpurposesof landscapepaintinghas been detailedexamination. At themostobviouslevel,we
to presentan imageof orderand proportioned con- warnstudentsof the pitfallsof acceptingthe auth-
trol,to suppressevidence of tensionand conflict orityof numbers,of the dangersof misusedstat-
betweensocialgroupsand withinhumanrelationsin istics,but virtuallynever those of acceptingthe
theenvironment. Thisis trueforthevillalandscapes cartographic,still less the landscape,image. Less
painted by Paolo Veronese in the strife-riddenobviously,but more significantly for geographical
Venetiancountryside of the latersixteenthcentury, scholarship, geographyand the arts,or geography
it was equallytrueforthearcadianimageof English as art,is frequently presentedas a refugefromten-
landscapeparks in the Georgianperiod of ruralcon- dentious social and politicaldebateswithinthedisci-
flictand transformation. In thissense the alignment pline,and the 'soul' of geographya resortin which
of geographicallandscapewithmorphologyserves we can express our 'passions' in the neutraland
to reproducea centraldimensionof theideologyof refinedarea of subjectivityand humanediscourse,
thelandscapeidea as itwas developedin thearts. expressingourselvesin those reverential tonesthat
Despite appearancesthesituationis littledifferent serve purely to sustainmystification. Geography
in muchof contemporary geographicaluse of land- and the arts are too importantfor this.Both bear
scape. Too often geographicalhumanistsmake the directlyupon our world,bothcan challengeas well
mistakeofassumingthatartand withinit,landscape, as supportthe ways we structure, modifyand see
are to do with the subjective,somehow standing thatworld.
againstscienceand its proclaimedobjectivecertain- In TheoreticalGeography Bunge came closerthan
ties.75The subjectivism of artis a recentand by no anyotherrecentgeographicalwriterto acknowledg-
means fullyacceptedthesis,a productabove all of ing the significance of the graphicimage in geo-
the artisticself-imagegeneratedin the Romantic graphy.His later,brilliantuse of cartographyas a
movement.Originally,as we have seen, landscape subversiveart bears testimonyto his insight.79
was composedand constructed by techniqueswhich Bunge was equally clear that geometrywas the
wvere consideredto ensurethecertainty ofreproduc- language of space, the guarantorof certaintyin
ing the real world.Equally,again as we have seen, geographical science, visually and logically. As
thereis an inherentconservatismin the landscape shown, the relationshipbetweengeometry,optics
idea, in its celebrationof propertyand of an and the studyof geographicspace is verystrongin
unchangingstatusquo, in its suppressionof tension European intellectualhistory since the Renais-
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
publicpolicywe inevitablyimportin largemeasure generalizingpositivistscience,a verydifferent con-
the realist,visual values with which it has been ception of science fromthat understoodby the
loaded: itsconnectionswitha way of seeing,itsdis- foundersof modem geometryand perspective,
tancingof subjectand objectand itsconservatism in manyofwhomstillrecalledthemagicofPythagoras
presentingan image of naturaland social harmony. and regardedmetaphysics as beingas mucha branch
John Punter has the
pinpointed place of these social of science as empiricalstudy,81 and forwhom the
and visual values in contemporary discussionsof triviumand quadriviumwere equal contributors to
landscape and the conservationand planningof the seven liberalarts.In rejectingsciencetoutcourt,
areas definedas having'landscapevalue'.76A vast humanist geographers have severed links with
fieldawaits researchinto contemporary visual and spatial geometry,concentratedon the materialof
socialvaluesin landscape77 the triviumand failed,among other things,to
To return, however,to the openingpointof this developa propercritiqueoflandscape.
paper. Humanistgeographershave spent a great Such a division was not true of Renaissance
deal of timeand energychallengingthe orthodoxy humanistgeographers.JohnDee was as close to
of positivism,theyhave opened up a debateon the Orteliusand Mercatoras he was to SirPhilipSidney,
language of geography-the constraints and admiredthe magicianCorneliusAgrippa'sworkas
opportunities oflanguage.Some have evenbegunto muchas he did thatof Copernicus.Cusanus'closest
explorethe ideologicalassumptionsinherentin our friend, the executorof his will,was Pierodal Pozzo
conceptsof space itself.78 All of theseare important Toscanelli.Toscanelli,froma Florentinemerchant
matters.But theideologyof vision,theway of see- family,was a doctor, studentof optics and the
 ofthelandscapeidea
Evolution
foremost geographerofhis day.As a memberof the
GreekAcademy at Florence,he studiedone of its
greatestintellectualtrophies,Ptolemy'sCosmogra-
fiabroughtfromConstantinople in theearlyyearsof
thefifteenth In thisworkPtolemydescribes
century.
a projectionfortheworldmap whichuses thesame
geometrical constructionas theFlorentinehumanists
employedto develop linearperspective.82 Withthe
aid of thisstudyToscanelliproduceda map which
he sent with a letter to ChristopherColumbus
encouragingthe Genoese navigator'sexploration
west on the groundsthatthe distancefromEurope
to China was shorterthan was then commonly
believedby cartographers. The geographicalconse-
quences of this collaborationof art, science and
practicalskillneed not be spelledout here.But the
exampleof thisgeographicalcolleague of the great
humanists Albertiand Brunelleschi
mayremindcon-
temporaryhumanistsin geography to pay equal
attentionto the Albertianrevolutionas to thatof
Gutenberg.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would liketo thankthe followingpeople fortheir
help in improvingupon earlierdraftsof thispaper:
Stephen Daniels, Cole Harris,Robin Butlin and
Trevor Pringle, and those who contributedat
variousseminars.Some of theItalianmaterialswere
collectedduringa periodof studyin Italyfundedby
a grantfromtheBritish Academy.
NOTES
1. GEIPEL,R. (1978) 'The landscapeindicatorsschool in
Germangeography',in LEY, D. and SAMUELS, M.
(eds) Humanisticgeography:prospectsand problems
(London)pp. 155-72
2. See for example the comments on landscape in
HARVEY, D. (1969) Explanation in geography
(London)pp. 114-15
3. SAMUELS, M. (1979) 'The biographyof landscape',
in MEINIG, D. (ed.) The interpretation of ordinary 15. YATES, F. A. (1964) Giordano Bruno and the
landscapes (Oxford)pp. 51-88
4. ROSE, C. (1981) 'WilliamDilthey'sphilosophyof his-
toricalunderstanding: a neglected heritageof con-
temporaryhumanisticgeography',in STODDARD,
D. R. (ed.) Geography,ideologyand social concern
(Oxford)pp. 99-133
5. RELPH, E. (1981) Rationallandscapesand humanistic
geography (London) p. 22. This sense of landscape as
an all inclusive,quotidianphenomenonowes a great
deal in NorthAmericangeographyto theworkofJ.B.
Jackson.See forexamplethemostrecentcollectionof
Jackson'slandscape essays (1980), 'The necessity for
ruinsandothertopics'(Amherst)
59
6. See the discussionby PUNTER, J. V. (1982) 'Land-
scape aesthetics:a synthesisand critique',in GOLD, J.
and BURGESS, J.(eds) Valuedenvironments (London)
pp. 100-23
7. PENNING-ROWSELL,E. C. (1974) 'Landscapeevalu-
ation fordevelopmentplans',J.R. Tn Plann.Inst.,60:
930-4
8. APPLETON, J. (1975) The experience of landscape
(London)
9. POCOCK, D. C. D. (ed.) (1981) Humanistic geogra-
phy and literature: essays in the experience of place
(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
and the Humanities',Loughborough Univ. of Techn.,
Occ. Pap.,No. 5
10. This phraseis takenfromBERGER,J.(1972) Waysof
seeing(London), where some of the social impli-
cations of visual conventions are challengingly
explored
11. Examples are numerous. One of the earliest is
FRANCESCO FELICIANO (1518) Librod'aritmetica,
e geometriaspeculativa, e practicale, more commonly
Scala & Grimaldelli (Venice).One of themostcompre-
hensivewas Cosimo Bartoli(1564) Del mododi mis-
urareledistantie ... (Venice)
12. MEINIG, D. (1983) 'Geographyas Art' Trans.Inst.Br.
Geogr. NS. 8: 314-28; WREFORD-WATSON, J.
(1983) 'The soul of geography',Trans.Inst.Br. Geogr.
NS. 8: 385-99; BILLINGE,M. (1983) 'The Mandarin
dialect', Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr. NS. 8: 400-20.
POCOCK, D. C. D. (1983) 'The paradox of human-
isticgeography',Area,15: 355-58
13. As always,thereare exceptions,althoughto mymind
none have examined the visual in relation to
geographical study as such: POCOCK, D. C. D.
(1981) 'Sight and Knowledge', Trans.Inst.Br. Geogr.
NS. 6: 385-93; TUAN, YI-FU (1979) 'The eye and the
mind's eye', in MEINIG, The interpretation of ordin-
arylandscapes (NOTE 3) pp. 89-102
14. BUNGE, W. (1966) Theoretical geography(2nd ed.
Lund),p. xiv
HermeticTradition (London) pp. 160-1 discussesthe
relationsof quadriviumand triviumin Renaissance
humanism, arguingthat'the two traditionsappeal to
entirelydifferent interests.The humanist'sbent is in
the directionof literatureand history;he sets an
immensevalue on rhetoricand good literarystyle.
The bentof theothertradition is towardsphilosophy,
theology, and also science (at the stage of magic)'.
This argumentdependson a veryrestricted definition
of humanism(see herfn.3, p. 160), ignoresthe visual
arts which combined literaryreference(ut pictura
poesis) with 'scientific'skill,and failsto account for
the large numberof Renaissancescholarsequally at
60 DENIS COSGROVE
home in philosophyand science as they were con-
cernedwithgrammar, rhetoricand classicaltexts,for
exampleGiangiorgioTrissinoand Daniele Barbaroin 30.
sixteenth-century Venice
16. EISENSTEIN, E. L. (1979) The printing pressas an
agentofchange(Cambridge)
17. MARTINES, L. (1980) Power and imagination:
City-StatesinRenaissanceItaly(London)
18. ALBERTI, L. B. (1966) On painting(trans. J. R.
Spencer,London)
19. Ibidpp. 47, 48
20. Even photographywas constricted by conventionsof 31.
perspectiverealism,landscape paintinghaving far
moreinfluence on earlyphotographythanvice-versa.
See GALASSI, P. (1981) Beforephotography: painting
and theinvention ofphotography (New York)
21. Ibid.pp. 16-17 32.
22. For a detaileddiscussionof Brunelleschi's experiment
see EDGERTON, S. J. Jr.(1975) The Renaissance
rediscoveryoflinearperspective(London)pp. 143-52
23. REES, R. (1980) 'Historicallinksbetweengeography
and art',Geogr.Rev.70: 66
24. This groupofpaintings, producedbeforethecentrally 33.
planned church became architecturallypopular,
includes Raphael's Spozalizioand Carpaccio's Recep- 34.
tion of the EnglishAmbassadorsin the St Ursula
cycle.The sacredsignificance of the circleand centre
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 centralto muchRenaissancethought,and is dis-
cussed in Yates, GiordanoBruno(note 15) p. 193. 37.
Geometryis of coursean intellectualactivity.Nicolo
Tartagliacalls it 'the pure food of intellectuallife'(il
puro cibo della vita intellettuale)EuclideMagarense,
philosopho (Venezia, 1543) p. FII, in the firsttrans-
lationof EuclidintoItalian.None the less,one of the
reasonswhy humanistslikeAlbertiacceptedthe sig-
nificanceof numbersand proportionswas that the 38.
same proportionswhich pleased the intellectalso
seemed to please our eyes and ears. This is a corner-
stoneofRenaissanceaesthetics
26. BAXANDALL, M. (1972) Paintingand experience in 39.
Italy(London)
fifteenth-century
27. FRA LUCA PACIOLI (1494) Summadi arithmetica,
geometria,proportioneet proportionalitta (Venice).
See the referenceto the significance of thiswork in 40.
BRAUDEL, F. (1982) Civilizationand capitalism,
15th-18thCentury.Vol. II: The Wheelsof Commerce 41.
(London)p. 573
28. SILVIO BELLI (1565) Libro del misurarcon la
vista... (Venezia)preface,pp. 1-2 ('certamente cosi
meravigliosail misurarcon la vista,poi che ogni uno, 42.
che non sa la ragionepar del tuttoimpossible')
29. ROSSI, F. (1877) Gromae squadra,ovverostoriadell' 43.
agrimensura italianadai tempiantichial secoloXVIPI
(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
strumentoper il dominio',in PUPPI, L. (ed.) Architet-
tura e utopia nella Veneziadel cinquecento (Milano)
pp. 59-62. It has been pointed out that,like con-
temporary ideal townscapes,the Barbarimap lacksall
humanpresence
Renaissancewritersnever tire of emphasizingthat
geometryprovides certainty.eg. Pacioli, Summadi
arithmetica ... (note27) p. 2r 'e in la sua Metaphysica
afferma(Euclid)le scientiemathematiche, essere nel
primogrado de certezza'
McLEAN, A. (1972) Humanismand theriseofscience
in TudorEngland(London) pp. 112 ff.For a fulldis-
cussion of Cusanus' work and its impacton Renais-
sance thought see CASSIRER, E. (1964) The
individualand the cosmosin Renaissancephilosophy
(New York)
IVINS, W. M. Jr(1946) Art and geometry, a studyof
spaceintuitions (New York)pp. 79-80
There is no space here to explore the fascinating
implications of Renaissance magic theories for
attitudesto natureand naturalbeauty.These theories
are of course fully discussed in Yates, Giordano
Bruno... (note 15)
There is no escaping the use of 'man' here.We are
dealingwitha specifically 'male' view oftheworld
ALBERTI, L. B. (1965) Ten books on architecture
(trans.ofJ.Leoni,1755; facs.copy,London)p. 194
SARTORI, P. L. (1981) 'Gli scrittori Venetid'agraria
del cinquecentoe del primo seicento.Tra realta e
utopia' in Tagliaferri, E. (ed.) Veneziae la terraferma
attraversole relazione dei rettori (Milano) pp.
261-310. See particularlythe last three 'days' of
GALLO, A. (1565) Le diecigiornatedella vera agri-
culturae piaceredellavilla(Vinegia)
ZORZI, L. (1977) Il teatroe la citta.Saggiasulla scena
italiana(Torino). On the linksbetween theatreand
cosmologicaltheoriessee YATES, F. A. (1966) Theart
ofmemory (London)
GOMBRICH, E. (1971) 'The renaissancetheoryof art
and the rise of landscape',in Gombrich,E. Normand
Form:studiesin the art of the renaissance (London)
109
CLARK, K. (1956) Landscapeinto art (Harmond-
sworth)
Significantly, thetitleof theessay by JACKSON,J.B.
(1979) 'Landscapeas theatre'in Landscape, 23: 3; and
reprintedin JACKSON, The necessity forruins(note
5)
BLUNT, A. (1962) Artistictheoryin Italy 1450-1600
(Oxford)p. 26 Italicsadded
Quoted in Ibid.p. 50
 ofthelandscapeidea
Evolution
44. Leonardowas a masternot merelyof linearperspec-
tive but also of that otherand distinctformof per-
spective,aerialperspective, whichplaysa complemen-
taryrole in creatingthe illusionof space throughthe
manipulationof tone, light and shade and colour
intensity.While based on optical theoryand exper-
iment,aerialperspectiveis not geometrically founded. 58.
Leonardo'sworkwithcolourand chiaroscuroallowed
him to convey the 'mood' of space, and he saw the
superiorityof paintingover other arts to lie in its
abilityto employaerialperspective
45. ALEXANDER, D. 'Leonardo da Vinci and fluvial
geomorphology', Am.i. Sci.282: 735-55
46. SCHULZ, J.(1976) 'New maps and landscape draw- 59.
ings by ChristoforoSorte', Mitteilungen der Kuns-
thistorischen Institutesin FlorenzXX: I; MAZZI, G.
(1980), 'La Repubblicae uno strumento peril dominio' 60.
in PUPPI, L. (ed.) Architettura e Utopa nella Venezia
del Cinquecento (Milano)pp. 59-62
47. SORTE, C. (1580) 'Osservazioni nella pittura',
reprintedin BARROCCHI, P. (ed.) (1960) Trattati
d'arte del cinquecento: fra manierismo e controriformo
Vol. 1 (Bari) pp. 275-301. This text meritsdetailed
geographicalstudy,not only as a discussionof land-
scape and cartographybut equally because Sorte
appearsto anticipateby a centurythe recognitionby
JohnRayoftherealmovementofthehydrologicalcycle
48. LetterfromVitali to Sorte, reprintedin Barrocchi, 61.
Trattatid'art... (note47) p. 275
49. SORTE, 'Osservazioninella pittura'(note 47) p. 282: 62.
'Inoltreho posta detta Corografiacon le sue giuste
misuree distanzein pianta'.In otherwords,the work
was based on a planisphericsurvey.On the relations
between such surveyand perspectivesee Edgerton.
TheRenaissance (note22)
rediscovery
50. SORTE, 'Osservazioninellapittura'(note47) p. 283
51. BERENSON, B. (1952) Italianpaintersof theRenais-
sance'(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 Photography (note20)
54. MARTINES, Powerand imagination (note 17); BAX- 63.
ANDALL, Painting andexperience (note26)
55. A pointthathas not gone entirelyunnoticedby his-
toricalgeographers.See forexampleIan Adams' work
on the role of land surveyorsin eighteenth-century
Scottishagrarianchange.ADAMS, I. H. (1980) 'The
agents of agrarianchange', in PARRY, M. L. and
SLATER, T. R. (eds) The makingof the Scottish
countryside(London)pp. 155-75, esp. pp. 167-70
56. For example the great galleryof maps painted by 64.
Ignazio Dante in theVatican(1580-83) or the similar
commissionsto Christoforo Sorteto paintwallsin the
Ducal Palace at Venice(1578 and 1586)
57. COSGROVE, D. (1982) 'Agrarianchange,villabuild-
ing and landscape: the Godi estates in Vicenza
61
1500-1600', in Ferro,G. (ed.) Symposium on histori-
cal changesin spatial organisation and its experience
in the Mediterranean world (Genova) pp. 133-56;
DANIELS, D. J. (1982) 'HumphreyRepton and the
moralityof landscape',in GOLD, J.and BURGESS, J.
(eds) Valuedenvironments (note6) pp. 124-44
Quoted in McLEAN, Humanismand the rise of
science... (note 32) p. 138. The translationof Euclid
was by Billingsley.For Dee's importanceforgeogra-
phy and cartographysee TAYLOR, E. G. R. (1954)
The mathematical of Tudor and Stuart
practitioners
England(London) pp. 26-48. For Dee and magic see
YATES, GirodanoBruno(note 15) pp. 148-50
MORGAN, V. (1979) 'The cartographic image of the
countryin earlymodem England',Trans.R. Hist.Soc.
29:129-54
The whole issue of gardendesign along circularand
orthogonallines is too large to discuss here but is
obviouslyverycloselyrelatedto thegeometryunder
discussion,to spatialtheoryand thoseof microcosm,
macrocosmand medicinalconcepts. The firstsuch
garden was designed in Padua in the late sixteenth
centuryby Daniele Barbaro,translaterof Vitruvius
and commentatoron 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:
thegrowthof a profession (London); HARVEY, P. D.
A. (1980) The historyof topographic maps: symbols,
pictures and surveys(London). The idea that survey-
ing was a maliciousand magicalart was foundedin
parton thenegativeconsequencesfortraditional land
rightsof new conceptsof privatepropertyenshrined
in the legal documentthatthe surveyorproduced,in
part on the recognitionof connectionsbetween the
geometryof surveytechniquesand thatof hermetic
magicians.In the book burningsunder Edward VI
books containinggeometricalfigureswere particu-
larlyat risk
TURNER, J. (1979) The politicsof landscape:rural
sceneryand society in English poetry 1630-1690
(Oxford); ADAMS, J. (1979) The artist and the
countryhouse.A historyof countryhouseand garden
view painting in Britain 1540-1870 (London);
BARRELL, J. (1980) The dark side of the landscape:
the ruralpoor in Englishpainting1631-1741 (Cam-
bridge); ROSENTHAL, M. (1982) Britishlandscape
painting (London)
The OED notesthattheverb'to prospect'emergedin
the nineteenthcenturyreferring to the particularly
capitalistactivitiesof speculativegold miningand
playingthe stock exchange.It is interesting to note
how 'speculation' has itself roots in visual
terminology
62 DENIS COSGROVE
65. MIKESELL, M. (1968) 'Landscape', in International 71. Notes 3 and 12
encyclopaedia of the social sciences(New York) p. 72. MIKESELL,'Landscape'(note64) p. 578
577-79. DICKINSON, R. E. (1939) 'Landscape and 73. Explicitlyso by SAUER, 'Morphologyof Landscape'
Society', Scott. geogr. Mag. 55: 1-15; HART- (note 67), and equally in physicalgeographywhere
SHORNE, R. (1939) The natureofgeography. A sur- landscapein the titlesuggestsa morphologicalstudy
veyof current thought in thelightof thepast (Lancas- oflandforms
ter,Pa.) 74. VAN PAASEN, C. (1957) The classicaltraditionof
66. HUMBOLDT, A. VON (1849-52) Cosmos:a sketch geography (Groningen)
of a physicaldescription of the Universe(London), 75. See for example the diagram which serves as the
Vol. II. The relationshipbetween the landscapeidea foundationfor the discussionof spatial conceptsin
and attitudesto naturein the nineteenthcenturyis SACK, R. D. (1980) Conceptions of space in social
of course enormouslycomplex. On Goethe and thought:a geographicalperspective (Minneapolis) p.
geography see SEAMON, D. (1978) 'Goethe's 25
approach to the natural world: implicationsfor 76. PUNTER, J.'Landscapeaesthetics...' (note6)
environmentaltheory and education',in LEY and 77. Some of the essays in GOLD, and BURGESS, Valued
SAMUELS, Humanistic Geography(note 1) pp. environments (note 6) begin to broach this field,as
238-50 have papers presented in recent IBG sessions of
67. COSGROVE, D. (1979) 'John Ruskin and the 'Geographyand theMedia'
geographicalimagination'Geog.Rev.69: 43-62 78. SACK, Conceptions ofSpace... (note 74)
68. SAUER, C. 0. (1926) 'The morphologyof landscape', 79. BUNGE, W. (1973) 'The geography of human
reprintedin LEIGHLY, J. (ed.) (1963) Land and life: survival',Ann.Ass.Am. Geogr.63: 275-95
selectionsfrom the writingsof Carl Ortwin Sauer 80. This is distinctfromthe relationsof Greekgeometry
(Berkeleyand Los Angeles) which apparently were derived from a tactile-
69. BANSE, E. (1924) Die Seele der Geographie muscularapprehensionof space, an apprehension
(Brunswick); HARD, G. (1965) 'Arkadienin Deutch- whichwas non-visual.IVINS, Artand geometry(note
land',Die Erde,96: 31-4 33)
70. HARVEY, D. (1974) 'What kind of geographyfor 81. YATES, GiordanoBruno(note 15) pp. 144-56
what kind of public policy', Trans.Inst.Br. Geogr.; 82. EDGERTON, The Renaissancerediscovery... (note
HARVEY, D. (1984) 'On thehistoryand presentcon- 22)
dition of geography: an historical materialist
manifesto',Prof.Geogr.35: 1-10