Prospect, Perspective and the Evolution of the Landscape Idea

Author(s): Denis Cosgrove

Source: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 10, No. 1 (1985), pp. 45-
62
Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/622249
Accessed: 12-04-2020 11:02 UTC

REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/622249?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

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 [email protected].

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) is

collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Transactions of the
Institute of British Geographers

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 45

Prospect, perspective and the evolution of

the landscape idea
DENIS COSGROVE

Senior Lecturer in Geography, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leic. LE11 3 TU

Revised MS received 24 May 1984

ABSTRACT

The landscape concept in geography has recently been adopted by humanistic writers because of its h
tive implications. But the history of the landscape idea suggests that its origins lie in the renaissance huma
certainty rather than a vehicle of individual subjectivity. Landscape was a 'way of seeing' that was bou
ist and related to the exercise of power over space. The basic theory and technique of the landscape w
linear perspective, as important for the history of the graphic image as printing was for that of the writt
perspective was the foundation of realism in art until the nineteenth century, and is closely related by
and spatial hierarchy. It employs the same geometry as merchant trading and accounting, navigation,
ping and artillery. Perspective is first applied in the city and then to a country subjugated to urban con
landscape. The evolution of landscape painting parallels that of geometry just as it does the changing
the land in Tudor, Stuart and Georgian England. The visual power given by the landscape way of seei
the real power humans exert over land as property. Landscape as a geographical concept cannot be free
overlays of its history as a visual concept unless it subjects landscape to historical interrogation. Only
concept in a geography which neglects its own visual foundations can landscape be appropriated for a
humanistic geography.

KEY WORDS: Landscape, Geometry, Perspective, Prospect, Humanism, Ideology, Graphic ima
Painting, Seeing, Chorography, Morphology, Survey, Space.

geographical
Geographical interest in the landscape concept has environment, aspects which
geographical
seen a revival in recent years. In large measure this is science is claimed to have devalued at
a consequence of the humanist renaissance inworst, ignored. Marwyn Samuels, for
best and at
example,3 refers to landscapes as 'authored',
geography. Having enjoyed a degree of prominence
in the interwar years, landscape fell fromCourtice
favourRose
in thinking along similar lines would
the 1950s and 1960s. Its reference to the visible analyse landscapes as texts,4 and Edward Relph
forms of a delimited area to be subjected to mor- regards landscape as 'anything I see and sense when
phological study (a usage still current in the GermanI am out of doors-landscape is the necessary con-
'landscape indicators' school)' appeared subjective text and background both of my daily affairs and of
and too imprecise for Anglo-Saxon geographers the more exotic circumstances of my life'.5 American
developing a spatial science. The static, descriptivehumanist geographers have adopted landscape for
morphology of landscape ill-suited their call for the very reasons that their predecessors rejected it. It
dynamic functional regions to be defined and appears to point towards the experiential, creative
investigated by geographers contributing to econ- and human aspects of our environmental relations,
omic and social planning.2 rather than to the objectified, manipulated and
Recently, and primarily in North America, mechanical aspects of those relations. It is the latter
geographers have sought to reformulate landscape against which humanism is a protest, which Relph
as a concept whose subjective and artistic traces to the seventeenth century scientific revol-
resonances are to be actively embraced. They allow ution and its Cartesian division of subject and object.
for the incorporation of individual, imaginative and Landscape seems to embody the holism which
creative human experience into studies of the modern humanists proclaim.

Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr. N.S. 10: 45-62 (1985) ISSN: 0020-2750 Printed in Great Britain

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 46 DENIS COSGROVE

domination over of
In Britain a revival space as landscape
an absolute, objective
entity, its transformation
Here the humanist critique into the property
inof g
less vocal. Recent
individual or landscape
state. And landscape achieved stu these
closer to popular usage
ends by use of the
of the same techniques wo
as the practical
literary response toby the
sciences, principally visibl
applying Euclidian geometry
British geographers
as the guarantor of certainty interest
in spatial conception,
organization
stimulated partly by and representation.
perception In the case of land- s
the short-lived excitement
scape the ove
technique was optical, linear perspective,
but the principles
ation for planning to be learned were identical
purposes wh
1973 reform of local
to those of architecture, governm
survey, map-making and
various mechanistic
artillery science.theories
The same handbooks taught of the l
which, like Jay Appleton's
practitioners all of these arts.1 eth
and influentialLandscape,
'habitat theory'
like the practical sciences of the Italian
little in common with
Renaissance, the
was founded upon huma
scientific theory and
North American studies.
knowledge. Its subsequent history can best be
Epistemological
understooddivergence no
in conjunction with the history of sci-
landscape is again acontemporary
ence. Yet in its focus of
humanist geo
guise within
geography, landscape
With that interest has is deployed
come within a a
radically
ref
by geographers to employ
anti-scientific landsc
programme. Significantly that pro-
-in painting, imaginative
gramme liter
is equally non-visual. Recent programmatic
design-as sources for
statements of geographical answer
humanism (and critiques
questions.9 The of it) purpose
in the pages of these Transactions
of this are notable
and promote that initiative
for their concentration wh
on verbal, literary and linguis-
entering certain tic modes of communication and for
caveats their almnost
about
scape idea without complete neglect of the visual and its place
subjecting it in t
examination as a term which embodies certain geography.12 The attack on science is characteristic
assumptions about relations between humans ofandmuch contemporary humanist writing. But the
their environment, or more specifically, societyapparent
and lack of interest in the graphic image is more
space. These caveats go beyond landscape as suchsurprising. Consider the traditions of our discipline,
its alignment with cartography and the long-held
and touch upon aspects of the whole humanist
endeavour within geography. belief that the results of geographical scholarship are
Landscape first emerged as a term, an idea,best
or embodied in the map. Consider too the human-
ists'
better still, a way of seeingio the external world, in proclaimed interest in images of place and land-
scape, and yet their remarkable neglect of the
the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. It was,
visual.13 Indeed the clearest statement of the
and it remains, a visual term, one that arose initially
out of renaissance humanism and its particular centrality
con- of sight in geography that I know is found
in William Bunge's Theoretical Geography, a
cepts and constructs of space. Equally, landscape
was, over much of its history, closely bound up manifesto
with for spatial science: 'geography is the one
the practical appropriation of space. As we shallpredictive
see, science whose inner logic is literally
visible'.'4 Bunge's book may be closer in spirit to
its connections were with the survey and mapping
of newly-acquired, consolidated and 'improved'
the original humanist authors of the landscape idea
commercial estates in the hands of an urban than his contemporary humanist critics. The book
bourgeoisie; with the calculation of distance andall is a celebration of the certainty of geometry
after
trajectory for cannon fire and of defensive fortifica-
as the constructional principle of space.
tions against the new weaponry; and with In fact, the humanist attack on science and its
the
projection of the globe and its regions ontoneglect
map of the visual image in geography are not
graticules by cosmographers and chorographers, unconnected. They both result in some measure
those essential set designers for Europe's entry
from the lack of critical reflection on the European
centre-stage of the world's theatre. In painting and
humanist tradition, from the conflation of the spatial
garden design landscape achieved visually and in geography with a positivist epistemology,
theme
ideologically what survey, map making and ord-
and from a mystification of art and literature. All
three
nance charting achieved practically: the control and of these aspects will be illustrated in a brief

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Evolution of the landscape idea 47
Gutenberg
exploration of the landscape idea as a way invention
of of movable type in the
seeing
in the European visual tradition, emphasizing
1440s.16 that
In the quadrivium, always more theoretical,
the critical advance
tradition's most enduring convention came from
of space rep-the re-evaluation
resentation, linear perspective.ofIn
Euclid
this andexploration
the elevation of geometry
I to the
shall justify and elaborate thekeystone
claimofthat humanthe land-
knowledge, specifically its
scape idea is a visual ideology; an ideology
application all too
to three-dimensional space represen-
easily adopted unknowingly into geography
tation through single-pointwhen
perspective theory and
technique.
the landscape idea is transferred as anPerspective,
unexamined the medieval study of
concept into our discipline. optics, was one of the mathematical arts, studied
since the twelfth-century revival of learning,
GEOMETRY, PERSPECTIVE AND as evidenced for example in Roger Bacon's work.
RENAISSANCE HUMANISM Painters like Cimabue and Giotto had constructed
Traditionally the seven liberal arts of their medieval
pictures in new ways to achieve a greater
scholarship were grouped into two sets. The trivium
realism (il vero) than their predecessors.'7 But the
was composed of grammar, rhetoric and logic; the
theoretical and practical development of a coherent
quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy linear perspective
and awaited the fifteenth-century
music. While in its narrowest definition humanism Tuscan Renaissance. That movement, despite its
referred to studies in the trivium (the recovery, emphasis on classical texts, grammar and rhetoric,
secure dating and translation of texts), many early revolutionized spatial apprehensions in the west.
renaissance humanists were equally fascinated by the For the plastic and visual arts: painting, sculpture
material of the quadrivium, seeking a unity of know- and architecture, and for geography and cosmology,
ledge across all the arts.15 The fifteenth century saw all concerned with space and spatial relations,
revolutionary advances in both sets of studies, it was from the quadrivium, from geometry and
advances which altered their organization, social sig- number theory, that form and structure were
nificance and role in the production and communica- determined-even if their content was provided by
tion of human knowledge of the world and our place the trivium.
within it. In the arena of words, language and writ- In 1435 the Florentine humanist and architect
ten expression the most striking advance was the Leon Battista Alberti published his Della Pittura (On

--- Median rays

Extrinsic rays

Centric ray

FIGURE 1. The visual triangle as described by Alberti (from Samuel Y. Edgerton Jr, The Renaissan
Harper and Row, London, 1975, reproduced with permission)

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
48 DENIS COSGROVE

painting),'8 a work whose author

appreciated (Fig 2
here with
ory endured beyond the the det
eighte
Sir Joshua Reynolds,
structionfirst pres
(except
Academy, used pyramid,
it as the lifted
foundat d
on pictorial composition, beauty
observe certain con
of genres. In Della
form Pittura Albe
and position
technique which rather than
he had absol
worked
for constructingobjects in triangl
a visual space a
selves,
painter to determine vary
the shapewith
an
gridded squareThey are
placed onproduc
the gr
eye, for
along the horizontal this
axis, andis t
n
torial form its appearance
Secondly, to
Alberti
struzione leggitima gave
ing origin in the
the
sovereignty
three-dimensional space on a at
tw
face. This Thirdly,
construction, he
the cre
found
fundamental
spective, depended to t
upon concep
point, distance and
point and
the interse
external w
tive,
describes it as a establishes
triangle of rays
from the eye andand thus the
striking the spec
ob
are three kinds determines-in
of ray (Fig I). b
be taken by the ob
The extrinsic rays,
ing thus circling
the scope of t
r
ing the other, nique
enclose all so
was the pla
effe
wands of a basket
whichcage, and m
it underla
pyramid. It is time for me to describ
lenged until the n
is and how
is constructed by it
Realist represent
pyramid is a figure of a body from
on a two-dimens
drawn upward, terminating at a sin
of the pyramid spective directs
is the plane which
the pyramid are individual located
the rays which I h
The cuspid, thatabsolute mastery
is the point of the
in a direct
within the eye where line
the angle of fr
th
to the depth of
The measured
visual
pyramid and
here calcu
describ
of what
every geographer whois seen A
reads c
geographical significance may n
point and within

Ii

ii
Observation

FIGURE 2. A seventeenth-century 'way of seeing' (familiar to readers of Area)

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Evolution of the landscape idea 49

. .. . . .. ..

...

..........

. .... ....

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

.. . . . . . . . . .

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

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

FIGURE 3. Am

Peter
Visually s
individual
painte
location it
signif
simpleus the
mo
wher
turning aw
of objects
across
ments on its
from
the assume
These
spective an
much
Alberti and
be in
visual app
they m
Significant
fixed
the guaran
pedest
with those
ings fr
framing an
canvases.
By co
monu
regarded a
geom
allowed for
which
rationalist
The circul
term b
centre
spective wa
to the w
represe
the
demonstratsa
The
Filippo p
Bru
when reveal
he su
selves
tistery at
portaltowns
of t
Lorenzetti's
schoo
blico appea
at Sie
ment man',
in th
in
Perugino'sa C

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 50 DENIS COSGROVE

?~:~?:i?~;~?~?~?~?:?~~??: M~:?i:aww '~j::

x~i:~rQ
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?:-:::?:

:?~:n:~?~~sse5988sr~~?~:~jsnaassess~answ

i~:'~pp~88BB~BSB~jeB8888~a~::::::i?~8

,..,.
I~iBLli~iiiB
ii~CO.iiiiiiijiiijhiiiiii'ii?i.i.i:i: ?:
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:
::: :::

Sj: ,
ini:l ~:----;::i:i-1-1:::1:1:::::-:':1:1:::1-: ::1: ~i~'..~...::i~~.ili~/j~l;:l(
L-i B
::,::::: j::::: ::: ':::::;e iiiiii-~iiiiiiiiiii~;iii~
?? B;~a! " '~Zil i~ia~~l -
i-i
:::-z
::::::~
?:
II:

:-1
r:i :1
iiia _i:i:i: :iliiliiiiiiiliiiii~,l~B~B~:?:'~~~8~3~81
~ii~i
::::::

~~i?ji~I~j~~
_-_-~;L~i?~j~31~;i18~.::-:~S~Bs~BH~sE~81
li?8BS88~8eB~aBBB~~I;:~~:X:jir~d~Bs~B~~
~~_~~~__$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~?~:-:::::-:~:~: ili:i
i~iiiiiil ii-i:iii??i~.~i"iiia4
Il~iBid
~ ~:::-:::
::

u~?:?:: ::::::::::::::

~~:::~~_: :I:--r-:-I^;~.-i?--?: -:- ----I:::.:.;~~-::_?-i.-_?_::::?~~*wl~:.

~::r::~ r~s;
*:-:-:-:::::~:::~:ia,:,:,:::,~,-,- ..L...._ ::-:_:-:::~;:::i:il:'::d:i::t:::::l.':l

FIGURE 4. Pietro Perugino

architectural facades
appear in printed book form, following only two
city, an intellectual
years after the first printed geometry and setting the
human model for a collection of later
life.25 texts. Pacioli devotes
This al
tive and its
the second bookgeometry
of the volume to geometry and the
merely measurement
its of distance, surface and volume. He
employme
The mathematics
points out the value of such skills for land survey an
perspective
and map making,.for were
warfare and navigation. Fromdira
life of text like this
the Italian merchants learned to calculate
Italian me
to trading visually or and
'gauge' by eye and usingcapita
nt the volume of
the land market, to
a barrel, a churn, a haystack or other regular shape, a
Baxandall26valuable skill inhas show
an age before standard sizes and
abbaco orvolumescommerci
became the norm. This visual gauging was
took a curriculum
regarded as a wonderful skill. In the words of Silvio w
mathematics for
Belli writing of visual survey app
in 1573: 'certainly it is
ing, book-keeping,
a wondrous thing to measure with the eye, because c
of return, to everyone who does not know its rationale it
determinin
tures. One of
appears completely the
impossible.'28 It has been m
marizingargued the variou
that the search for accurate visual techniques
Pacioli's Summa diin
of land survey held back Italian innovations A
tione et Proportiona
instrumentation for many decades,29 but the signifi-
friend ofcance Leonardo,
accorded to it indicates the importance
Ptolemy and
attached to the power Vitruvi
of vision linked to intellect
his sources. While Piero della Francesca had himself through geometry, and how the principles which
written an earlier text, De Abbaco, Pacioli's was the underlay perspective theory were the everyday
first complete manual of practical mathematics to skills of the urban merchant.

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Evolution of the landscape idea 51

Not all land survey was by creation

eye. in whichastrolabe,
The God was to be found at the centre
quadrant and plane table wereand in circumference
use and discussedof the cosmos. A regular
geometryand
in the texts cited. For map makers proceeding from the perfection of the
navigators
these were crucial instruments.circle underlay
But they the required
structure of both spiritual and
geometrical calculation to make their
temporal worlds. results
Geometry and proportion took on
meaningful. The Italian renaissance
therefore a was a carto-
metaphysical significance, one that was
graphic as much as an artistic event.
given evenPtolemy
greater weight
whose
with the translating and
Almagest had always ranked as misdating
a key of geometrical
the Corpus Hermeticum by Marsilio
source became known too for Ficino
his in Cosmografia,
1464 and the introduction of cabalist num-
brought as a Greek text to Florence at the
ber theory beginning
by Pico della Mirandola in 1486.34 The
circle,produced
of the fifteenth century. Alberti the golden section, the rule of threes, all of
an accu-
rately surveyed map of Rome, themLeonardo
part and parcelone
of theof
intellectual and practical
Pavia. These were regarded as baggage of the Renaissance
revelations of themerchant, sailor,
rational order of created space surveyor and chartmaker,
produced by the could be related to the
application of geometry. Perhapsmost eruditemore closely
metaphysical speculation. Above all it
was the
related to landscape painting was the human
pianta intellect, human reason, that could
prospet-
tiva, the bird's eye view of cities which
apprehend becameand
this significance soseek the certainties
popular at the turn of the sixteenth century.
of geometry. And theAmong
human body, created in the
the best known of these is Jacopo
image de 'Barbari's
and likeness of God,1500
replicated in microcosm
map of Venice, like so many ofthe
its type
divine as much
proportions, an
as Leonardo's human figure
ideological expression of urban dominion
enclosed as an
in divine geometry makes clear. At the
accurate rendering of the urban scene.30
centre The view-
of Renaissance space, the space reproduced
by perspective,
point for these maps is, significantly, was thethe
high above human individual, the
measure ofIt
city, distant, commanding, uninvolved. hisis
world
theand its temporal creator and
same
controller.
perspective that we find in Bruegel's orLike God, theland-
Titian's microcosm, man, also
scapes, panoramas over great sweeps of earth space,
appears at the circumference of Renaissance space,
seas, mountains and promontories.
high above the globe, seeing it spread before the
Linear perspective organizes sphere and controls
of his eye inspatial
perspective on the map, the
coordinates, and because it was founded in pianta prospettiva or the panoramic landscape.
geometry it was regarded as the discovery of The authority attributed to man35 was exercised
inherent properties of space itself.3' In this, perspec-
in a hierarchy that was at once spatial and social, a
tive had a deeper cultural significance, as Pollaiuolo's
hierarchy in which the landscape idea played a signi-
bas-relief of Prospettiva as a nubile goddess, sculp-
ficant, if subordinate role. Referring to architecture,
ted on the tomb of Sixtus IV in 1493 might suggest. the 'queen of the arts', Alberti discusses the decor-
One of the earliest and most widely influential of the
ation suitable to different buildings:
Renaissance thinkers, the Paduan humanist Nicholas
of Cusa, theologian, cosmographer and mathema- Both paintings and poetry vary in kind. The type that
portrays the deeds of great men, worthy of memory,
tician, challenged the Aristotelian scholastic world
view in his De Docta Ignorantia of 1440 by appeal differs from that which describes the habits of private
citizens and again from that depicting the life of the
to the Euclidean geometry.32 Rejecting the idea that
peasants. The first, which is majestic in character, should
there could be no empirical knowledge of the
be used for public buildings and the dwellings of the
spiritual sphere by men confined to the temporal,
great, while the last mentioned would be suitable for
and thus no direct knowledge of God, Cusanus pro-gardens, for it is the most pleasing of all. Our minds are
claimed the significance of indirect evidence in cheered
a beyond measure by the sight of paintings,
neoplatonic sense. He pointed out that in the
depicting the delightful countryside, harbours, fishing,
infinitely large circle the circumference and tangent
hunting, swimming, the games of shepherds-flowers
and verdure.36
coincide in a straight line while the infinitely small
circle was a point. This is the foundation of a con-
The reference is to the genres of painting which
tinuous geometry relating all Euclid's separate prop-
ositions and giving forms a qualitative as wellreplicate
as those of poetry: from the most elevated,
quantitative character.33 Equally, it gave supportstoria
to (epic or historic events), to portraiture
Cusanus' argument for a pattern running throughand all domestic scenes, and finally the least serious,

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 52 DENIS COSGROVE

landscapes and rural scenes.

importance of perspective Geogr
is in no doubt: 'for
centre of the city, where
Leonardo, as for Alberti, paintingpublic
is a science b
monuments adornbecausethe main
of its foundation piazza,
on mathematical perspec- is
great men and should record
tive and on the study their
of nature'.42 Leonardo himself ep
wrote that
urban palaces and private houses of
appear portraits and family group
countryside, far Among
away from
all the studies of natural causesand
and reasons sub
power at the heartlight chiefly
of delights
the the beholder-and
city, among the
the
of the villa' great features of mathematics
-disport the certainty of its dem-
themselves
onstrations is what pre-eminently tends to elevate the
manner, while gentlemen relax, foll
mind of the investigator. Perspective must therefore be
leisurely pursuits and enjoy the beau
preferred to all the discourses and systems of human
In the theatre, whose auditorium
learning.43
arrangements and stage sets wer
applied geometry
Geometry and
is the source ofperspective
the painter's creative
even cosmological theory38--this
power, perspective its technical expression. For
carefully articulated for the three f
Leonardo, perspective 'transforms the mind of the
Tragedy was played against settings o
painter into the likeness of the divine mind, for with
and its monumental architecture, r
a free hand he can produce different beings, animals,
palace interior or closed garden, and c
plants, fruits, landscapes, open fields, abysses and
in the sylvan setting of a rural lan
fearful places'.44 Linear perspective provides the cer-
and power radiate down a socio-spa
tainty of our reproductions of nature in art and
along the orthogonal lines reaching
underlies the power and authority, the divine
piazza of an ideal city to transect
creativity of the artist.
distinct landscape types.
Leonardo, despite these comments and his map-
ping experiments, is not remembered as a landscape
LANDSCAPE, PERSPECTIVE AND REALIST painter, although his geographical contributions
SPACE were by no means meagre.45 More interesting from
this point of view is the work of the Venetian
It is known that the first artist references to Christoforo
specific Sorte in the later Renaissance. Sorte was
paintings as 'landscape' (paesaggio) come from early
a cartographer and surveyor, employed by the
sixteenth-century Italy. One of the most often
Venetian republic as one of the 'periti' or land
quoted is that from 1521 referring to Giorgione's
surveyors and valuers of the Provveditori sopra i
Tempesta.39 Both Kenneth Clark and J. B. Jackson, in
beni inculti, the reclamation office which supervised
discussions of landscape in this period, sense a rela-
marshland drainage and dryland irrigation in the
tionship between the new genre and notions of
second half of the sixteenth century. He was a skilled
authority and control. Noting the appearance of
cartographer whose maps are regarded as being
'realist' landscape in upper Italy and Flanders, the
among the finest records of the Venetian state at this
second mercantile core of early modern Europe,
time (Fig 5).46 Sorte was also a landscape painter
Clark claims that it reflected 'some changewho in has
theleft us a remarkable treatise on his art47 in
action of the human mind which demanded a new
the form of a reply to a letter from a Veronese noble,
nexus of unity, enclosed space,' and suggests that
Bartolomeo Vitali, requesting information on how
this was conditioned by a new, scientific way of
Sorte had succeeded in reproducing
thinking about the world and an 'increased control
of nature by man'.40 Jackson refers to a widespread the true green of the pastures, the variety of the
belief that the relationship between a social group flowers, the range of green plants, the density of the
and its landscape could be so expertly controlled as forests, the transparency of water...the distances of
to make appropriate a comparison between perspectives.48
environmental bonds and family bonds,41 thereby
allowing landscape to become a means of moral The work that Vitali refers to is sadly unknown.
commentary. Perspective was the central technique But from textual evidence it is clearly part-map
which allowed this control to be achieved in the new part-landscape drawing: a chorography in plan and
paintings of landscape. In Leonardo's writings theperspective of the province of Verona, carefully

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 ..........

"Al 'A-:r* _ ,: ::.- ii-:::

ii~i ?iii~i~~-?i--i ~iiic 74:i. Ai:

IVS'4:i---
J*. ~ii lii-i -i:iiii-:: -::
A?IFiii

~_:~ il :::*;i:: -il-`::7 ?: :j: -il?:: ov

-.;;. :: ii:--;-:?:ii:Ao

:ii':--'-:::i:-: :

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

-, ~s:~af
AdiL-- i: -:-?"-i-ii~i il _,-i: ::
V A $.:-: : i-:::I, i---i-~_ii:~---:; i-:--:':'-i
x-:% ::" _:_:; i~;:~i-:- -iiiii-_i::l--i~:::i~: -ia$i:Yi0 4

.........

FIGURE

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 54 DENIS COSGROVE

coloured and considered aby work

dimensions, but rather exhilarated the potency of of
reply, modestlyextension
refers to axial
in depth, a controlled, himself
entry into the a
cal man (un puro
picture prattico) rather
plane achieved by linear perspective. This
or an artist. Heis the
is achievement ot all the great landscapists,
a chorographer.
phy is securely based
of Bruegel's and Titian'sin cosmic science.
panoramas, of
Cosmographia Giovanni
he Bellini'shas learned
carefully located figures and how
map according to modulated
the bands of light and shade,
four of Claude's
cardinal
'located the saidstage-like wings, coulisses and recessional planes
chorography with
and distances on the
along the map'.49
axis, and of J. M. W. Turner-himselfOncePro-
fessor of Perspective at the Royal
essentials are completed he Academy-who
can dis
of the map. Colours
once claimed that 'withoutarethe aid of used
perspective, all pa
many words, partly to
art totters on its very produce a
foundations'.52
reality. Thus different
Perspective then is criticalshades
to landscape painting, of
recognize fertile and
and it is infertile
significant, if land
beyond the scope of this paper
careful and observant use
to explore in detail, how close of
are the historical co
'create the image parallels of a great
between the landscape
advances in perspective (p
gouache and according to art.
geometry and innovations in landscape perspe
Alberti
text ends with wrote a his treatise at the time of Van Eyck
discourse on and the
pers
Sorte describes two methods, one theoretical earliest Italian landscapists; Pelerin, who refined the
founded in distance and angle measurement and distance
a point construction in 1505 was the con-
second, more practical, for which he employs a mir-
temporary of Leonardo and Giorgione; Vignola who
ror marked with a graticule. For Sorte perspective isshowed in 1535 that Pelerin and Alberti's construc-
'the foundation of painting' without which nothing tion produced the same geometrical results wrote at
can be painted of any value. And this skill of paint-the time of Titian's and Bruegel's maturity and was
published in the productive years of Paolo Veronese
ing is itself fundamental to the work of the chorogra-
pher: 'niuna potra esser corografo, che non sappiaand Jacopo Bassano. The great advances of Pascal
disegnare o dipingere'.50 and Desargues in the 1630s in establishing the con-
The relationship between perspective and land-vergence of parallel lines and showing their apparent
scape could scarcely be more clear than in Sorte'svisual convergence to be a necessary consequence of
text where the practical surveyor and topographerpoint, line and surface definitions devoid of Euclidian
metrical assumptions, coincide with the Dutch
offers one of the earliest treatises on the art of paint-
ing landscape. The early twentieth-century art supremacy in optics and its great school of land-
historian Bernard Berenson agreed with Sorte. 'Space scape. Geometrical continuity and new transform-
composition' he wrote, is the 'bone and marrow of ational rules between geometrical forms are
the art of landscape'. Referring to the early Umbrianpropounded in a treatise by Poncelet written at the
landscapists Pietro Perugino and Raphael, Berenson same time that Constable and Turner were exploring
claimed their triumph lay less in the subtle modellinglight and atmosphere in landscape in ways that
of atmosphere and elaborate study of light andimplicitly challenged the dominance of linear per-
shade such as we find in the Venetians than in the spective for space composition. Finally von Staud in
technique of space composition. Although Berenson the 1840s eliminated metrical ideas from perspective
speaks of this ability to compose space as 'a structuregeometry, revealing the possibility of a
of feeling' rather than a specific technique based onnon-Euclidian space and n-dimensional construc-
sophisticated geometrical theory, he is well aware oftions. His work was completed by F. Klein in 1875 a
that sense of power and control over space that thelittle before modernists eliminated perspective from
spectator derives from the perspective organizationspace composition and at the same time as the first
of landscape painting: patents were taken out for modern photographic
printing techniques.53
in such pictures, how freely one breathes-as if a load
had just been lifted from one's breast, how refreshed,
LANDSCAPE, PROSPECT AND VISUAL
how noble, how potent one feels.51
IDEOLOGY

No longer is the spectator delighted only by surfaceWhile it is not suggested that perspective st
pattern and the arrangement of forms across twoalone as the basis for realism and landscape pain

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Evolution of the landscape idea 55
-the demand for ii vero in Renaissance art was a The Italian word for perspective is prospettiva. It
complex social and cultural product54-it is argued
combines senses which in modem English are dis-
that the realist illusion of space which was revol-
tinct: 'perspective' and 'prospect'. Perspective itself
utionized more by perspective than any other tech-
has a number of meanings in English, but as the pro-
nique was, through perspective, aligned to the jection of a spatial image onto a plane it first appears
in the later decades of the sixteenth century. This
physical appropriation of space as property, or ter-
ritory. Surveyors' charts which located andusage is found for example in John Dee's Preface to
measured individual estates, for example in England
the first English translation of Euclid (1570). Dee, the
after the dissolution of monasteries; cartographers'
Elizabethan mathematician, navigational instrument
maps which used the graticule to apportion global maker and magician, links this use of perspective to
space, for example the line defined by Pope painting in a classically renaissance way:
Alexander VI dividing the new world between
Portugal and Spain; engineers' plans for fortressesgreat skill of Geometrie, Arithmetik, Perspective and
and cannon trajectories to conquer or defendAnthropographie with many other particular arts hath
national territory, as for example Vauban's Frenchthe Zographer need of for his perfection... This
mechanical Zographer (commonly called the Painter) is
work or Sorte's for the Venetian defences against
marvelous in his skil, and seemeth to have a divine
Austria; all of these are examples of the application
power. 58
of geometry to the production of real property.55
They presuppose a different concept of space
ownership than the contingent concept of a feudal Dee is writing at the opening of a decade which will
society where land is locked into a web of interde- see Saxton's county maps published and when a new
pendent lordships based on fief and fealty. The new 'image of the country' was being produced as an
chorographies which decorated the walls of six- aspect of Elizabethan patriotism, using maps and
teenth-century council halls and signorial palaces,56landscape representations as instruments of Tudor
and the new taste for accurate renderings of the power and nationalist ideology.59
external world which gradually moved from back-By 1605 we can find reference to perspective as a
ground to main subject matter, were both organized form of insight, a point of view, as in the phrase 'get-
by perspective geometry and achieve aesthetically ting something into perspective', or seeing it in its
what maps, surveys and ordnance charts achieve true light, its correct relationship with other things.
practically. Landscape is thus a way of seeing, a com-
Many of the early references quoted in the Oxford
position and structuring of the world so that it may English Dictionary to support the definition of per-
be appropriated by a detached, individual spectator spective as a drawing contrived to represent true
to whom an illusion of order and control is offered space and distance relations refer to landscape and
through the composition of space according to the garden layout.60 The visual ideology of perspective
certainties of geometry. That illusion very and of landscape as ways of seeing nature, indeed a
frequently complemented a very real power and true way of seeing, is certainly current in the English
control over fields and farms on the part of patrons Renaissance. When we turn to the word prospect we
and owners of landscape paintings."5 Landscape dis- find it used to denote a view outward, a looking for-
tances us from the world in critical ways, defining a in time as well as space. By the end of the six-
ward
particular relationship with nature and those who teenth century prospect carried the sense of 'an
extensive or commanding sight or view, a view of
appear in nature, and offers us the illusion of a world
in which we may participate subjectively by enter- the landscape as affected by one's position'.61 This
neatly reflects a period when command over land
ing the picture frame along the perspectival axis. But
this is an aesthetic entrance not an active engage- was being established on new commercially-run
ment with a nature or space that has its own life. estates by Tudor enclosers and the new landowners
Implicit in the landscape idea is a visual ideology of measured monastic properties. That command
which was extended from painting to our relation- was established with the help of the surveyors'
ship with the real world whose 'frame and compass' 'malicious craft', the geometry which wrote new
Elizabethans so admired and which Georgian English perspectives across real landscapes.62
gentlemen would only approach through the langu- By the mid-seventeenth century 'prospect' had
age of landscape painting or the optical distortion become
of a substitute for landscape. The command
their Claude Glass. that it implied was as much social and political as

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
56 DENIS COSGROVE

-::::::::::::~:~::-:-::;:': 1-~::~-:::-:- 11: IS 1! 1:-i'~

.............. :- li; :;~ i:;::::~~i, . - _:::::.: . . :::--: _::::
KR . W W,:::--lilllii: :::ll::_:ii_::::i:::::.:::_ : _-_ j-::-:: ?:_ ::. i1~:-:ii:-: -::j:::?:::

ci:~:::-1:::-::::-lii l~ilii~ :'ill-::-'':i- :::-:::: :---':--':- :?' ~~-~'-~: - :::11 .. ... ..?::-::: .
O r--::::::::::- :::::~?~?~lllii~ii~:':::::-
\i~iili:~~i~ l~li:-::1':-.: :::::-::::-::---- i~i~ii~iiiiiiFilll
::::::::::::::: :::::;:-::::::
j n = ---:,:-' I-~'::-?::::::::::: :'1I1 ::.'?-::'- ::-':::~:.i :---:~l~-i:~~:-.i :_: -i-li'i-'il~i-iil~l~ i~l .: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. :

: :--::::-x-:: i-i:~--:: - li. .......... .....::--

FIGURE 6. Rousham garden, Oxfordshire. The Bowling Green: a Claudian landscap

spatial. Commanding views are

ing the theme
a fine of prospect of the ey
view. The
country house painting, poetrycommercial,
and landscaping
such woodland in the lan
throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth
economic cen-
investment. It represented pr
turies (Fig 6), and a number of recent studies
wood, as those have
who scoured the landscap
revealed the degree to whichlowing
landscape wasseeking
century a gold would be
vehicle for social and moral debate during this
period.63 The prospects designed for men like the
LANDSCAPE AND THE HUMANIST
Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim who had made
TRADITION IN GEOGRAPHY
their fortunes from war had an appropriately mili-
Landscape set
tary character in their blocks of woodland comes into English language geograph
against
primarily
shaven lawns. This no doubt reinforced from
the the German
image of landschaft. Much ha
power and authority, at least forbeen written
those whoabout the fact that the German word
wielded
it. The survey skills which calculated andwithout
means area, laid outany particularly aesthetic o
artistic, or
these landscapes produced fortification even visual
plans, ord- connotations.65 My own
nance charts and campaign mapsknowledge
as well of as German
serving usage is too meagre to con
test this
the requirements of the parliamentary claim, butItsome
enclosers. is comment is warranted. I
not surprising that in his critique Humboldt's Kosmos,and
of emparkment regarded by many as one of
landscaping Oliver Goldsmith inthe The
twoDeserted
pillars upon Vil-
which German geography was
lage should describe the park that has
erected, replaced
a whole section is devoted to the history o
Sweet Auburn in military metaphors:the love of'its vistas
landscape and nature up to the time o
strike, its palaces surprise'. In those
Goethegreat
whom English
Humboldt greatly revered and wh
landscape parks prospect also signified the
was a major future.
visual theorist.66 English geographer
Control was as much temporal could as spatial.
have takenTheir
their landscape concept from Joh
clumps of oak and beech would not Ruskinbeand
seen in fulla usage not very differen
discovered
maturity by those who had them planted, More
from Humboldt's.67 but directly, Landschaft in th
security of property ensured for work
laterofscions
Hettnerof
andthe
Passarge, the main sources fo
Englishof
family tree the prospect on inheritance language
command-geographers like Carl Sauer and

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Evolution of the landscape idea 57
R. E. Dickinson of the landscape
pling, concept, was
survey or detailed inventory,
comprehensive
confined to the study of visible forms, it wasbut synthetic
the perspectiv
ter pilot
eye which determined their selection andor inclusion.
balloonist armed with ma
and a pair of binoculars. 72
Moreover, Landschaft, as Sauer's classic paper-
'Morphology of Landscape'-makes clear,68 was to
The distinction
be studied by the chorological method seems spurious, it
and its results
level and
transmitted descriptively in prose of technique rather than aims
above all by
the map. Given what we know Given what
of the we know of Leonardo's d
traditional
on how light and
links between cartography, chorography fallsland-
upon different roc
scape painting it is difficult toof Constable's
accept inventories of cloud
the argument
atmospheric
that Landschaft sustained in German conditions,
geography the of Turner's
entirely neutral sense of area orself to a ship's
region mast the better to ob
as its English
and American devotees of the ment of the storm,
inter-war period or of Ruskin's
painters
claimed. Certainly there is a thread to rival in
of interest the geologist,
meteorologist
German geography for Gestaltende in their knowledge
Geografie,
study of aesthetic holism in geology,
landscape,vegetation
that runsand skies, it is
from Humboldt through Ewald they had to
Banse access to the battery of t
Gerhart
Hard.69 which Mikesell would arm his geo
would all have
Anglo-Saxon geographers introducing made good use of th
landscape
Christoforo
as an areal concept were not unaware Sorte
of the would have revelle
prob-
lems caused by its common usageimprove his 'chorographic
as a painters' term. art', and b
Titian
But in the interests of a scientific producedthey
geography landscapes that hav
far aboveof
were keen to distance their concept the ground and are as com
landscape
synthetic
from that of painters or literary writers;aspoets
Mikesell
and could wish fo
geometry
novelists. Thus the links between which per-
landscape, underlay perspectiv
tional
spective and the control of space asprinciple of landscapes, and
property-the
tainty topainting
visual ideology common to landscape their realism,
and is the same
determines
cartography-have gone unrecorded andthe graticule of Mike
unex-
plored by geographers. This is delimits the boundaries
particularly surpris- or locates the
geographical
ing today when we are far clearer landscapes.
about the role that
geography has played in the evolution
Beyond of the
the issue of specific techn
bourgeois concept of individual and nationalsimilarities be
also methodological
space.70 Landscape remains partin of
painting and in geography, similar
our unexamined
allowed geographers
discourse, to be embraced by humanist geographers to adopt uncon
thing
as a concept which appears to fulfil of the
their visual
desire for ideology
a integral
contextual and anti-positivist idea. Like other
geography. area concepts in geo
Whereas
or pays,
in the past landscape geographers landscape
actively distancedhas been closel
geography
their concept from that of common withtoday
usage, the morphological m
writers like Samuels, Meinig, phology
Wreford is the study
Watson and of constituen
isolation,
Pocock take the opposite position.7' analysis
In both periodsand recomposit
of its popularity in geography thetic whole.
landscape asWhen applied to the vi
an art-
delimited
istic concept is given the role of area
potential of land this is term
or actual
challenger to geographicalThe result
science. of a landscape chorol
Marwyn
pattern
Mikesell's claim (with its interesting or picture
reference whose internal re
to per-
stituent forms are understood, but
spective) is an example of this view:
cess or change. Indeed, one of the
the perspective of the geographer is not that of the
chorology in the post-war years was
individual observer located at a particular point on the
failed to explain the processes giv
ground. The geographer's work entails map interpret-
forms and spatial relations it descri
ation as well as diret-6ob-ser-vation,-and he-makes no dis-
tinction between foreground change, or process,
and background. Theis very difficult
into
landscape of the geographer is thus verylandscape
differentpainting,
from although t
conventions
that of the painter, poet or novelist. By means like the memento mori
of sam-

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
58 DENIS COSGROVE

building which ing implicit in

occasionally domu
so
detailed
consistent purposes examinatio
of landscape
warnof
to present an image students of t
order and
trol, to suppress evidence
ority of ten
of numbers,
istics, and
between social groups butwithin
virtual h
the environment.cartographic,
This is true forstill
th
painted by Paolo Veronese
obviously, in mo
but th
scholarship,
Venetian countryside geogr
of the later s
as art,
it was equally true for is
thefrequentl
arcadian
landscape parks dentious social and
in the Georgian pe
pline, andIn
flict and transformation. the 'soul
this se
of geographicalwe can express
landscape with ou
m
refined
to reproduce a central area of su
dimension o
expressing
the landscape idea as it was ourselv
develop
Despite serve
appearances purely
the to is
situation su
in much of contemporary
and the artsgeograp
are t
scape. Too often geographical
directly hum
upon our
as support
mistake of assuming that artthe
andwa
w
are to do with that world.
the subjective, som
against science and its proclaimed
In Theoretical Geo
ties.75 The subjectivism
any otherofrecent
art is a
g
means fully accepted
ing thethesis, a pro
significan
the artistic self-image
graphy. generated
His later,
subversive
movement. Originally, arthav
as we be
was composed and Bunge was equally
constructed by
wvere considered language
to ensure of
thespace
cert
geographical
ing the real world. scie
Equally, again
shown,
there is an inherent the relatio
conservatism
idea, in its celebration
and the studyof prop
of g
unchanging statusEuropean
quo, in intellec
its supp
between groups sance.80
in the landscape
In Bunge
aligned
over landscape into to a powe
geography, and
public policy we generalizing positiv
inevitably import
the realist, visual values
ception ofwith wh
science
founders
loaded: its connections withofa mode
way
tancing of subject andof
many object
whom and it
stil
and regarded
presenting an image metap
of natural an
John Punter has of science asthe
pinpointed empipl
and visual values in contemporar
trivium and quadr
landscape and the
the conservation
seven liberal ara
areas defined as humanist
having 'landscap geograp
spatial
field awaits research geometry,
into contem
the trivium and f
social values in landscape77
develop
To return, however, toathe proper openin cr
paper. Humanist Such a division was not true of Renaissance
geographers ha
deal of time andhumanist geographers. John
energy Dee was as close to
challengin
Ortelius and Mercator
of positivism, they have as he wasopened
to Sir Philip Sidney, up
language of geography-the
admired the magician Cornelius Agrippa's work as co
opportunities ofmuch language.
as he did that of Copernicus. Some
Cusanus' closest ha
friend, the executor of assumptions
explore the ideological his will, was Piero dal Pozzo
concepts Toscanelli.
of space Toscanelli, from a Florentine
itself.78 All merchant
of th
matters. But the ideology of and
family, was a doctor, student of optics the
vision

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Evolution of the landscape idea 59

foremost geographer of his day.6. As

See the discussion by
a member ofPUNTER,
the J. V. (1982) 'Land-
Greek Academy at Florence, he scape studied one
aesthetics: of its
a synthesis and critique', in GOLD, J.
and BURGESS,Cosmogra-
greatest intellectual trophies, Ptolemy's J. (eds) Valued environments (London)
fia brought from Constantinople in pp. the
100-23 early years of
7. PENNING-ROWSELL,
the fifteenth century. In this work Ptolemy E. C. (1974) 'Landscape evalu-
describes
ation for development plans', J. R. Tn Plann. Inst., 60:
a projection for the world map which uses the same
930-4
geometrical construction as the Florentine humanists
8. APPLETON, J. (1975) The experience of landscape
employed to develop linear perspective.82
(London) With the
aid of this study Toscanelli produced a D.map
9. POCOCK, D. C. which
(ed.) (1981) Humanistic geogra-
he sent with a letter to Christopher Columbus
phy and literature: essays in the experience of place
encouraging the Genoese navigator's exploration
(London); DANIELS, S. J. (1981) 'Landscaping for a
west on the grounds that the distance from
manufacturer: HumphreyEurope
Repton's commission for
to China was shorter than wasBenjamin then Gottcommonly
at Armley in 1809-10', J. hist. Geog.,
7: 379-96; COSGROVE, D. conse-
believed by cartographers. The geographical (ed.) (1982) 'Geography
and the Humanities', Loughborough Univ. of Techn.,
quences of this collaboration of art, science and
Occ. Pap., No. 5
practical skill need not be spelled out here. But the
10. This phrase is taken from BERGER, J. (1972) Ways of
example of this geographical colleague of the great
seeing (London), where some of the social impli-
humanists Alberti and Brunelleschi may remind con-
cations of visual conventions are challengingly
temporary humanists in geography explored to pay equal
attention to the Albertian revolution as to that of
11. Examples are numerous. One of the earliest is
Gutenberg. FRANCESCO FELICIANO (1518) Libro d'aritmetica,
e geometria speculativa, e practicale, more commonly
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Scala & Grimaldelli (Venice). One of the most compre-
I would like to thank the following people hensive
for theirwas Cosimo Bartoli (1564) Del modo di mis-
urare le distantie ... (Venice)
help in improving upon earlier drafts of this paper:
Stephen Daniels, Cole Harris, Robin 12. MEINIG, D. (1983) 'Geography as Art' Trans. Inst. Br.
Butlin and
Geogr. NS. 8: 314-28; WREFORD-WATSON, J.
Trevor Pringle, and those who contributed at
(1983) 'The soul of geography', Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr.
various seminars. Some of the Italian materials were
NS. 8: 385-99; BILLINGE, M. (1983) 'The Mandarin
collected during a period of study in Italy funded by Inst. Br. Geogr. NS. 8: 400-20.
dialect', Trans.
a grant from the British Academy. POCOCK, D. C. D. (1983) 'The paradox of human-
istic geography', Area, 15: 355-58
NOTES
13. As always, there are exceptions, although to my mind
1. GEIPEL, R. (1978) 'The landscape indicators schoolnone in have examined the visual in relation to
German geography', in LEY, D. and SAMUELS,geographical
M. study as such: POCOCK, D. C. D.
(1981) 'Sight and Knowledge', Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr.
(eds) Humanistic geography: prospects and problems
(London) pp. 155-72 NS. 6: 385-93; TUAN, YI-FU (1979) 'The eye and the
2. See for example the comments on landscape in eye', in MEINIG, The interpretation of ordin-
mind's
HARVEY, D. (1969) Explanation in geography ary landscapes (NOTE 3) pp. 89-102
(London) pp. 114-15 14. BUNGE, W. (1966) Theoretical geography (2nd ed.
3. SAMUELS, M. (1979) 'The biography of landscape',Lund), p. xiv
15. YATES, F. A. (1964) Giordano Bruno and the
in MEINIG, D. (ed.) The interpretation of ordinary
landscapes (Oxford) pp. 51-88 Hermetic Tradition (London) pp. 160-1 discusses the
4. ROSE, C. (1981) 'William Dilthey's philosophy ofrelations
his- of quadrivium and trivium in Renaissance
torical understanding: a neglected heritage of humanism,
con- arguing that 'the two traditions appeal to
temporary humanistic geography', in STODDARD, entirely different interests. The humanist's bent is in
D. R. (ed.) Geography, ideology and social concernthe direction of literature and history; he sets an
(Oxford) pp. 99-133 immense value on rhetoric and good literary style.
5. RELPH, E. (1981) Rational landscapes and humanistic
The bent of the other tradition is towards philosophy,
geography (London) p. 22. This sense of landscape theology,
as and also science (at the stage of magic)'.
This argument depends on a very restricted definition
an all inclusive, quotidian phenomenon owes a great
deal in North American geography to the work of J.ofB.
humanism (see her fn. 3, p. 160), ignores the visual
arts
Jackson. See for example the most recent collection ofwhich combined literary reference (ut pictura
Jackson's landscape essays (1980), 'The necessitypoesis)
for with 'scientific' skill, and fails to account for
ruins and other topics' (Amherst) the large number of Renaissance scholars equally at

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 60 DENIS COSGROVE

home in philosophy and

agrimensura italiana science
dai tempi antichi al secolo XVIPIas
cerned with (Torino)
grammar, rhetoric and c
example 30. SCHULZ, J. (1978)
Giangiorgio 'Jacopo de 'Barbari's
Trissino and view of Da
sixteenth-century Venice
Venice: map making, city views, and moralized
16. EISENSTEIN, E. L.
geography before(1979)
the year 1500', The The
Art Bull., LX:pr
agent of change 425-74; MAZZI, G. (1980) 'La
repubblica e uno
(Cambridge)
17. MARTINES, strumento
L. (1980) Power
per il dominio', in PUPPI, L. (ed.) Architet- an
City-States in Renaissance Italy
tura e utopia nella Venezia (London
del cinquecento (Milano)
18. ALBERTI, L. pp.
B. (1966)
59-62. It On
has been pointed out that, likepain
con-
Spencer, London) temporary ideal townscapes, the Barbari map lacks all
19. Ibid pp. 47, 48human presence
20. Even photography was
31. Renaissance writers constricted
never tire of emphasizing that
perspective realism, landscape
geometry provides paint
certainty. eg. Pacioli, Summa di
more influence on early
arithmetica ... (note 27) photography
p. 2r 'e in la sua Metaphysica
afferma (Euclid) leBefore
See GALASSI, P. (1981) scientie mathematiche, essere nel
photog
primo grado
and the invention of de certezza'
photography (New
21. Ibid. pp. 16-17
32. McLEAN, A. (1972) Humanism and the rise of science
22. For a detailed discussion of
in Tudor England (London) pp. 112 Brunell
ff. For a full dis-
see EDGERTON, cussion
S. ofJ.Cusanus'Jr. (1975)
work and its impact on Renais- Th
rediscovery of sance thought
linear see CASSIRER, E. (1964)(Lond
perspective The
23. REES, R.
(1980) 'Historical
individual and the cosmos in Renaissancelinks
philosophy b
and art', (New York) 70: 66
Geogr. Rev.
24. This group of 33. paintings, produced
IVINS, W. M. Jr (1946) Art and geometry, a study of b
planned churchspacebecame
intuitions (New York) pp. 79-80architectu
34. There is Spozalizio
includes Raphael's no space here to explore the fascinating
and Car
tion of the English
implications of Ambassadors
Renaissance magic theories for i
cycle. The
sacred attitudes
significance of the
to nature and natural beauty. These theories
is an enormousare of course fully
topic with discussed in Yates, Giordano
cross-cultu
See TUAN, YI-FUBruno... (note (1974)
15) Topophi
environmental perception
36. There attitu
is no escaping the use of 'man' here. We are
(London) dealing with a specifically 'male' view of the world
25. The distinction between mind, or intellect, and sense 36. ALBERTI, L. B. (1965) Ten books on architecture
was central to much Renaissance thought, and is dis- (trans. of J. Leoni, 1755; facs. copy, London) p. 194
cussed in Yates, Giordano Bruno (note 15) p. 193. 37. SARTORI, P. L. (1981) 'Gli scrittori Veneti d'agraria
Geometry is of course an intellectual activity. Nicolo del cinquecento e del primo seicento. Tra realta e
Tartaglia calls it 'the pure food of intellectual life' (il utopia' in Tagliaferri, E. (ed.) Venezia e la terraferma
puro cibo della vita intellettuale) Euclide Magarense, attraverso le relazione dei rettori (Milano) pp.
philosopho (Venezia, 1543) p. FII, in the first trans- 261-310. See particularly the last three 'days' of
lation of Euclid into Italian. None the less, one of the GALLO, A. (1565) Le dieci giornate della vera agri-
reasons why humanists like Alberti accepted the sig- cultura e piacere della villa (Vinegia)
nificance of numbers and proportions was that the 38. ZORZI, L. (1977) Il teatro e la citta. Saggia sulla scena
same proportions which pleased the intellect also italiana (Torino). On the links between theatre and
seemed to please our eyes and ears. This is a corner- cosmological theories see YATES, F. A. (1966) The art
stone of Renaissance aesthetics of memory (London)
26. BAXANDALL, M. (1972) Painting and experience in 39. GOMBRICH, E. (1971) 'The renaissance theory of art
fifteenth-century Italy (London) and the rise of landscape', in Gombrich, E. Norm and
27. FRA LUCA PACIOLI (1494) Summa di arithmetica, Form: studies in the art of the renaissance (London)
geometria, proportione et proportionalitta (Venice). 109

See the reference to the significance of this work in 40. CLARK, K. (1956) Landscape into art (Harmond-
BRAUDEL, F. (1982) Civilization and capitalism, sworth)
15th-18th Century. Vol. II: The Wheels of Commerce 41. Significantly, the title of the essay by JACKSON, J. B.
(London) p. 573 (1979) 'Landscape as theatre' in Landscape, 23: 3; and
28. SILVIO BELLI (1565) Libro del misurar con la reprinted in JACKSON, The necessity for ruins (note
vista ... (Venezia) preface, pp. 1-2 ('certamente cosi 5)
42. BLUNT, A. (1962) Artistic theory in Italy 1450-1600
meravigliosa il misurar con la vista, poi che ogni uno,
che non sa la ragione par del tutto impossible') (Oxford) p. 26 Italics added
43. Quoted in Ibid. p. 50
29. ROSSI, F. (1877) Groma e squadra, ovvero storia dell'

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Evolution of the landscape idea 61
44. Leonardo was a master not merely 1500-1600', in Ferro, perspec-
of linear G. (ed.) Symposium on histori-
cal changes
tive but also of that other and distinct in spatial
form of organisation
per- and its experience
in the Mediterranean
spective, aerial perspective, which plays a complemen- world (Genova) pp. 133-56;
DANIELS,
tary role in creating the illusion of space D. J. (1982) 'Humphrey
through the Repton and the
manipulation of tone, light andmorality
shade and colour
of landscape', in GOLD, J. and BURGESS, J.
intensity. While based on optical (eds)
theory and exper-
Valued environments (note 6) pp. 124-44
58. Quoted in McLEAN,
iment, aerial perspective is not geometrically Humanism and the rise of
founded.
Leonardo's work with colour and chiaroscuro
science ... (note 32)allowed
p. 138. The translation of Euclid
him to convey the 'mood' of space, was by Billingsley.
and he saw For Dee's
the importance for geogra-
superiority of painting over other phyarts
and cartography
to lie in see its
TAYLOR, E. G. R. (1954)
ability to employ aerial perspectiveThe mathematical practitioners of Tudor and Stuart
45. ALEXANDER, D. 'Leonardo da Vinci and fluvial England (London) pp. 26-48. For Dee and magic see
geomorphology', Am. i. Sci. 282: 735-55 YATES, Girodano Bruno (note 15) pp. 148-50
46. SCHULZ, J. (1976) 'New maps and landscape draw- 59. MORGAN, V. (1979) 'The cartographic image of the
ings by Christoforo Sorte', Mitteilungen der Kuns- country in early modem England', Trans. R. Hist. Soc.
thistorischen Institutes in Florenz XX: I; MAZZI, G. 29:129-54

(1980), 'La Repubblica e uno strumento per il dominio' 60. The whole issue of garden design along circular
in PUPPI, L. (ed.) Architettura e Utopa nella Venezia orthogonal lines is too large to discuss here but
del Cinquecento (Milano) pp. 59-62 obviously very closely related to the geometry un
47. SORTE, C. (1580) 'Osservazioni nella pittura', discussion, to spatial theory and those of microco
reprinted in BARROCCHI, P. (ed.) (1960) Trattati macrocosm and medicinal concepts. The first su
d'arte del cinquecento: fra manierismo e controriformo garden was designed in Padua in the late sixtee
Vol. 1 (Bari) pp. 275-301. This text merits detailed century by Daniele Barbaro, translater of Vitru
geographical study, not only as a discussion of land- and commentator on Euclid. See JACKSON, J
scape and cartography but equally because Sorte (1980) 'Nearer than Eden' and 'Gardens to Decip
appears to anticipate by a century the recognition by in The necessity for ruins (note 5) pp. 19-35
John Ray of the real movement of the hydrologicalcycle 37-53

48. Letter from Vitali to Sorte, reprinted in Barrocchi, 61. OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (OED), italics
Trattati d'art ... (note 47) p. 275 added
49. SORTE, 'Osservazioni nella pittura' (note 47) p. 282: 62. THOMPSON, F. M. L. (1968) Chartered surveyors:
'Inoltre ho posta detta Corografia con le sue giuste the growth of a profession (London); HARVEY, P. D.
misure e distanze in pianta'. In other words, the work A. (1980) The history of topographic maps: symbols,
was based on a planispheric survey. On the relations pictures and surveys (London). The idea that survey-
between such survey and perspective see Edgerton. ing was a malicious and magical art was founded in
The Renaissance rediscovery (note 22) part on the negative consequences for traditional land
50. SORTE, 'Osservazioni nella pittura' (note 47) p. 283 rights of new concepts of private property enshrined
51. BERENSON, B. (1952) Italian painters of the Renais- in the legal document that the surveyor produced, in
sance' (London) p. 12 part on the recognition of connections between the
52. Quoted in WILTON, A. (1980) Turner and the geometry of survey techniques and that of hermetic
sublime (London) p. 70 magicians. In the book burnings under Edward VI
53. IVINS, Art and geometry (note 33) pp. 105-10; books containing geometrical figures were particu-
GALASSI, Before Photography (note 20) larly at risk
54. MARTINES, Power and imagination (note 17); BAX- 63. TURNER, J. (1979) The politics of landscape: rural
ANDALL, Painting and experience (note 26) scenery and society in English poetry 1630-1690
55. A point that has not gone entirely unnoticed by his- (Oxford); ADAMS, J. (1979) The artist and the
torical geographers. See for example Ian Adams' work country house. A history of country house and garden
on the role of land surveyors in eighteenth-century view painting in Britain 1540-1870 (London);
Scottish agrarian change. ADAMS, I. H. (1980) 'The BARRELL, J. (1980) The dark side of the landscape:
agents of agrarian change', in PARRY, M. L. and the rural poor in English painting 1631-1741 (Cam-
SLATER, T. R. (eds) The making of the Scottish bridge); ROSENTHAL, M. (1982) British landscape
countryside (London) pp. 155-75, esp. pp. 167-70 painting (London)
56. For example the great gallery of maps painted by 64. The OED notes that the verb 'to prospect' emerged in
Ignazio Dante in the Vatican (1580-83) or the similar the nineteenth century referring to the particularly
commissions to Christoforo Sorte to paint walls in the capitalist activities of speculative gold mining and
Ducal Palace at Venice (1578 and 1586) playing the stock exchange. It is interesting to note
57. COSGROVE, D. (1982) 'Agrarian change, villa build- how 'speculation' has itself roots in visual
ing and landscape: the Godi estates in Vicenza terminology

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 62 DENIS COSGROVE

65. MIKESELL, 71.M.Notes 3 and(1968)

12 'Landsca
encyclopaedia 72.
of MIKESELL, 'Landscape' (note
the 64) p. 578
social scien
577-79. DICKINSON,
73. Explicitly so by SAUER, R.'Morphology E. (1939
of Landscape'
Society', Scott. geogr.
(note 67), and equally in physical Mag.
geography where 55
SHORNE, R. landscape in The
(1939) the title suggests a morphological study of
nature
vey of current of landforms
thought in the light
ter, Pa.) 74. VAN PAASEN, C. (1957) The classical tradition of
66. HUMBOLDT, A. VON (1849-52) Cosmos: a sketch geography (Groningen)
of a physical description of the Universe (London), 75. See for example the diagram which serves as the
Vol. II. The relationship between the landscape idea foundation for the discussion of spatial concepts in
and attitudes to nature in the nineteenth century is SACK, R. D. (1980) Conceptions of space in social
of course enormously complex. On Goethe and thought: a geographical perspective (Minneapolis) p.
geography see SEAMON, D. (1978) 'Goethe's 25

approach to the natural world: implications for 76. PUNTER, J.'Landscape aesthetics...' (note 6)
environmental theory 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 'Geography and the Media'
geographical imagination' Geog. Rev. 69: 43-62 78. SACK, Conceptions of Space ... (note 74)
68. SAUER, C. 0. (1926) 'The morphology of landscape',79. BUNGE, W. (1973) 'The geography of human
reprinted in LEIGHLY, J. (ed.) (1963) Land and life: survival', Ann. Ass. Am. Geogr. 63: 275-95
selections from the writings of Carl Ortwin Sauer 80. This is distinct from the relations of Greek geometry
(Berkeley and Los Angeles) which apparently were derived from a tactile-
69. BANSE, E. (1924) Die Seele der Geographie muscular apprehension of space, an apprehension
(Brunswick); HARD, G. (1965) 'Arkadien in Deutch- which was non-visual. IVINS, Art and geometry (note
land', Die Erde, 96: 31-4 33)
70. HARVEY, D. (1974) 'What kind of geography for 81. YATES, Giordano Bruno (note 15) pp. 144-56
what kind of public policy', Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr.; 82. EDGERTON, The Renaissance rediscovery... (note
HARVEY, D. (1984) 'On the history and present con- 22)
dition of geography: an historical materialist
manifesto', Prof. Geogr. 35: 1-10

This content downloaded from 5.94.196.58 on Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:41 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms