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

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

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

45

and of writers because itsholistic subjecin has been Thelandscape by concept geography recently adopted humanistic for humanists' search that lie renaissance But history the of landscape suggests itsorigins inthe idea the tive implications. individualthat was of rather a subjectivity. certainty than vehicle individual Landscape a 'wayofseeing' wasbourgeois, was of and of overspace. Thebasictheory technique thelandscape ofseeing to istandrelated theexercise power way written word. Alberti's as was that for history the of graphic as linear image printing for ofthe perspective,important the to class and related him social of in until nineteenth the was by century, is closely perspective thefoundationrealism art land as and Itemploys same the andspatial hierarchy. trading accounting, navigation, survey, mapgeometry merchant control viewed and as to in city to is and subjugated urban applied the andthen a country Perspectivefirst ping artillery. social relations on that of The just painting parallels ofgeometry as itdoesthechanging landscape. evolution landscape The and Stuart Georgian thelandinTudor, way by complements power given thelandscape ofseeing England. visual as cannot free the be of ideological humans exert land property. as over the power real concept Landscape a geographical to unless subjects it as of Only interrogation. as anunexamined overlays itshistory a visual landscape historical concept for be can its foundations landscape appropriated an antiscientific in which neglects ownvisual concept a geography humanistic geography. KEY WORDS: Landscape, Humanism, image,Cartography, Geometry, Ideology, Graphic Perspective, Prospect, Survey, Space. Chorography, Morphology, Seeing, Painting,

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

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

46

DENIS COSGROVE

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

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

---

Median rays

Extrinsic rays Centric ray

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

48

DENISCOSGROVE

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

Ii
ii

Observation

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

idea Evolutionthe of landscape

49

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

of Visually space is renderedthe propertyof the Peterthe Keys to the Kingdom Heaven (Fig 4) on individualdetached observer,fromwhose divine painted thewall oftheSistine Chapelin 1481,the shows is of location it is a dependent, object. A significance perspective clear.Lorenzetti appropriated worldof humanlife of simplemovement the head, closingthe eyes or us thecityas an activebustling interact and spatialform wherein people and their environment away and the composition turning the of objects are alteredor even negated. Develop- across a space whereunityderivesfrom action mentsfromthe fifteenth century may have altered on itssurface. or the assumedpositionof the observer, used pershownot so urban Thesepre-perspective landscapes as ratherthan synthetically spective analytically it like like what towns the looked as what felt to much but and his contemporaries Alberti intended,21 this not of We be inthem. getan impression thetowns as of visual appropriation space endured unaltered. observer a from to havelooked a detached they might as the Significantly, adoption of linearperspective a have but fixed might impressed vantage point as they realism was contemporary of theguarantor pictorial and the walking thestreets seeing buildup pedestrian of withthose otherrealist oils, sides.23 from different techniques painting: many ings of small for and framing production a market mobile, in canvases. In this respect perspective may be By contrast, Perugino'sideal city a formal, which monumentalorder is organized throughprecise as one of a numberof techniques regarded of constructed the eye aroundthe axis allowed forthevisualrepresentation a bourgeois, geometry, by whichleads across the chequerboard of rationalist piazza to the conception theworld. The piazza,geometrical at its centre. for is appropriate, linearper- circular The term temple bourgeois of of becomesin thisgenresymbolic employedinitially centre thiscity, spectivewas an urbaninvention, The hillsand treesbeyondreflect the spaces of the city. It was first the whole city.24 to represent orderas theurbanarchitecture. close associate, thesameregimented demonstrated by practically Alberti's within forthey of 1425 The people of the city,or rather in it, Brunelleschi, a famous experiment Filippo to attachment it, group theman whenhe succeededin throwing imageoftheBap- reveal no particular and onto a canvas set up in the great selves in dignified theatrical at poses. In the 'ideal tistery Florence Umbrian If of the cathedral.22 we compareAmbrogio townscapes' of the late fifteenth-century portal in frescoes thePalazzo Pub- school of Piero della Francesca humans scarcely Lorenzetti's well-known blico at Siena (Fig 3) whichrepresent good govern- appear. They have no need to forthe 'measureof in mentin the city,paintedin the 1340s, withPeitro man',so neatly captured Leonardoda Vinci'sMan and is intothemeasured of Christgiving to St ina Circle a Square, written Perugino's representation

50

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

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

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

idea the Evolution landscape of

51

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

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DENIS COSGROVE

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

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

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at Sorte:Map of Venetianboundaries Cadore (Venice,Archiviodi Stato,Provv. Cameradei Confin FIGURE 5. Christoforo

54

DENISCOSGROVE

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

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

56

DENISCOSGROVE

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

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

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

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

57 idea Evolutionthe of landscape or detailed R. E. Dickinson of the landscape concept, was he achieves the survey pling, inventory, but of helicopconfined the study of visible to it comprehensive synthetic perspectivethe forms, was the terpilotor balloonist armed with maps, photographs their selectionand inclusion. eye whichdetermined 72 anda pair binoculars. of as Moreover, Landschaft, Sauer's classic paperwas to 'Morphologyof Landscape'-makes clear,68 it seems spurious, is drawn at the be studied thechorological method and itsresults The distinction by thanaims and objectives. rather in transmitted descriptively prose and above all by level of technique the map. Given what we know of the traditional Given what we know of Leonardo'sdetailednotes or rock and land- on how lightfallsupon different formations, linksbetweencartography, chorography and of it to scape painting is difficult accept the argument of Constable'sinventories cloud formations himof in sustained Germangeographythe atmospheric conditions, Turner'sstrapping thatLandschaft to sense of area or region its English selfto a ship'smastthebetter observethemoveas neutral entirely to and American devotees of the inter-war period ment of the storm,or of Ruskin'sinstructions thereis a threadof interest claimed.Certainly in painters to rival the geologist, botanist and in German geography for GestaltendeGeografie, meteorologist theirknowledgeof topography, of aestheticholism in landscape,that runs geology, vegetationand skies,it is likelythathad study with of fromHumboldtthroughEwald Banse to Gerhart theyhad access to the battery techniques which Mikesell would arm his geographerthey Hard.69 Anglo-Saxongeographers introducing landscape would all have made good use of them.Certainly use in Sortewouldhave revelled their to as an areal conceptwere not unawareof the prob- Christoforo and his lemscausedby itscommon art', term. improve 'chorographic and bothBruegel usage as a painters' But in the interests a scientific of geographythey Titianproducedlandscapesthathave a perspective and were keen to distancetheirconcept of landscape farabove thegroundand are as comprehensive as fromthatof painters literary or and synthetic Mikesellcould wish for.Above all the writers; poets the whichunderlay novelists.Thus the linksbetween landscape,per- geometry perspective, construcand whichgave cerof tionalprinciple landscapes, spectiveand the controlof space as property-the which is to visualideology commonto landscapepainting and tainty their realism, the same geometry the graticuleof Mikesell's maps and unrecordedand unex- determines cartography-have gone of or the This is particularly ploredby geographers. surpris- delimits boundaries locatestheelements his whenwe are far clearer abouttherolethat geographical landscapes. ing today thereare techniques Beyondthe issue of specific geography has played in the evolution of the betweenlandscape similarities bourgeois concept of individual and national also methodological similarities whichhave and space.70Landscaperemains partof our unexamined inpainting ingeography, someto allowed geographers adopt unconsciously to be embraced humanist discourse, by geographers to of as a conceptwhichappearsto fulfil their desirefora thing thevisualideologyintegral thelandscape contextual and anti-positivist region geography.Whereas idea. Likeotherarea conceptsin geography, in thepastlandscapegeographers distanced or pays, landscape has been closely associated in actively Morwiththemorphological theirconcept fromthat of common usage, today geography method.73 forms,their writers like Samuels,Meinig,Wreford Watson and phology is the study of constituent into a synPococktaketheoppositeposition.7'In bothperiods isolation,analysis and recomposition of whole.When appliedto thevisibleforms a of its popularity geographylandscapeas an art- thetic in isticconceptis given the role of potential actual delimitedarea of land this is termedchorology.74 or challenger to geographical science. Marwyn The result of a landscape chorology is a static relations and conwhose internal or Mikesell's claim(with interesting its reference per- pattern picture to but are forms understood, whichlacksprostituent is an exampleof thisview: spective) of cess or change. Indeed, one of the criticisms theperspective thegeographer not thatof the of is that in yearswas precisely it chorology thepost-war individual observer located a particular on the at point failed to explain the processes giving rise to the The work ground. geographer's entails mapinterpretThe idea of it and spatialrelations described. ation wellas diret-6ob-ser-vation,-andno dis- forms as he-makes to The change,or process,is very difficult incorporate tinction betweenforeground background. and of althoughthereare certain is different from into landscapepainting, very landscape thegeographerthus morior the ruined that thepainter, ornovelist. means sam- conventionslike the memento of of By poet

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in buildingwhichoccasionallydo so. But one of the ing implicit much of our geographystillawaits consistent At of landscapepainting been detailedexamination. themostobviouslevel,we has purposes an to present imageof orderand proportioned of of con- warnstudents the pitfalls accepting auththe of trol,to suppressevidence of tensionand conflict orityof numbers, the dangersof misusedstatnever those of acceptingthe betweensocialgroupsand within in istics,but virtually human relations theenvironment. is trueforthevillalandscapes cartographic, This still less the landscape,image. Less for painted by Paolo Veronese in the strife-riddenobviously,but more significantly geographical Venetiancountryside the latersixteenth of century, scholarship, geographyand the arts,or geography it was equallytrueforthearcadian as from tenpresented a refuge imageof English as art,is frequently socialand political in theGeorgianperiodof rural debateswithin discithe con- dentious landscapeparks flict a and transformation.thissense the alignment pline,and the 'soul' of geography resort which In in of geographical serves we can express our 'passions' in the neutraland landscapewithmorphology to reproduce central a area of subjectivity humanediscourse, and dimension theideologyof refined of thelandscapeidea as itwas developedin thearts. ourselvesin those reverential tonesthat expressing the is different serve purely to sustainmystification. Despite appearances situation little Geography in muchof contemporary use for geographical of land- and the arts are too important this.Both bear Too oftengeographical humanists make the directly our world,bothcan challenge well as scape. upon of mistake assuming thatartand within landscape, as supportthe ways we structure, and see it, modify are to do with the subjective, somehow standing thatworld. In Theoretical objectivecertainagainstscienceand its proclaimed Geography Bunge came closerthan ties.75The subjectivism artis a recent of and by no anyother recent to writer acknowledggeographical means fully a of acceptedthesis, productabove all of ing the significance the graphicimage in geothe artistic use as self-image generatedin the Romantic graphy.His later,brilliant of cartography a movement. as we have seen, landscape subversiveart bears testimonyto his insight.79 Originally, was composedand constructed techniques which Bunge was equally clear that geometrywas the by wvere considered ensure certainty reproduc- language of space, the guarantorof certainty to the of in ing the real world.Equally,again as we have seen, geographical science, visually and logically. As thereis an inherent in betweengeometry, conservatism the landscape shown, the relationship optics in idea, in its celebrationof propertyand of an and the studyof geographic space is verystrong statusquo, in its suppression tension European intellectualhistory since the Renaisof unchanging between groups in the landscape.When we take sance.80 In Bunge's thesis spatial geometrywas over landscapeintogeography, particularly and into aligned to a powerfulclaim for geographyas a a conin science, verydifferent positivist publicpolicywe inevitably import largemeasure generalizing the realist,visual values with which it has been ception of science fromthat understoodby the loaded: itsconnections witha way of seeing, dis- foundersof modem geometryand perspective, its recalled magicofPythagoras the of in tancing subjectand objectand itsconservatism manyofwhomstill as an and social harmony. and regarded metaphysics beingas mucha branch presenting image of natural Punter pinpointed place of thesesocial of scienceas empirical has the John study,81 and forwhom the to and quadrivium were equal contributors and visual values in contemporary discussionsof trivium sciencetout court, landscape and the conservationand planningof the seven liberalarts.In rejecting areas defined having'landscapevalue'.76A vast humanist geographers have severed links with as concentrated the materialof on visual and spatial geometry, fieldawaits research into contemporary the triviumand failed,among other things,to socialvaluesin landscape77 of To return, to however, the openingpointof this developa proper critique landscape. Humanistgeographershave spent a great Such a division was not true of Renaissance paper. deal of timeand energychallenging orthodoxy humanist the JohnDee was as close to geographers. as and of positivism, Sidney, theyhave opened up a debateon the Ortelius Mercator he was to SirPhilip language of geography-the constraints and admiredthe magicianCorneliusAgrippa'sworkas Cusanus'closest of opportunities language.Some have evenbegunto muchas he did thatof Copernicus. the of in inherent our friend, executor his will,was Pierodal Pozzo explorethe ideologicalassumptions merchant All conceptsof space itself.78 of theseare important Toscanelli.Toscanelli,froma Florentine was a doctor, studentof optics and the But matters. theideologyof vision,theway of see- family,

idea Evolution thelandscape of

59

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

6. See the discussionby PUNTER, J. V. (1982) 'Landand in a scape aesthetics: synthesis critique', GOLD, J. and BURGESS, J.(eds) Valuedenvironments (London) pp. 100-23 7. PENNING-ROWSELL,E. C. (1974) 'Landscapeevalu60: ation fordevelopment plans',J.R. Tn Plann.Inst., 930-4 8. APPLETON, J. (1975) The experience landscape of (London) 9. POCOCK, D. C. D. (ed.) (1981) Humanistic geograof essays in the experience place phy and literature: (London); DANIELS, S. J.(1981) 'Landscapingfora manufacturer: HumphreyRepton's commissionfor BenjaminGott at Armleyin 1809-10', J. hist.Geog., 7: 379-96; COSGROVE, D. (ed.) (1982) 'Geography Univ. of Techn., and the Humanities', Loughborough Occ. Pap.,No. 5 10. This phraseis takenfrom BERGER,J.(1972) Waysof seeing(London), where some of the social implications of visual conventions are challengingly explored 11. Examples are numerous. One of the earliest is FRANCESCO FELICIANO (1518) Librod'aritmetica, e more commonly e geometria speculativa, practicale, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Scala & Grimaldelli (Venice).One of themostcomprehensivewas Cosimo Bartoli(1564) Del mododi misI would liketo thank following the people fortheir urare distantie (Venice) le ... of drafts thispaper: upon earlier help in improving Inst.Br. Butlin and 12. MEINIG, D. (1983) 'Geographyas Art' Trans. Stephen Daniels, Cole Harris,Robin Geogr. NS. 8: 314-28; WREFORD-WATSON, J. Trevor Pringle, and those who contributedat Trans. Inst.Br. Geogr. (1983) 'The soul of geography', were variousseminars. Some of theItalianmaterials NS. 8: 385-99; BILLINGE,M. (1983) 'The Mandarin a collected by during periodof studyin Italyfunded dialect', Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr. NS. 8: 400-20. a grant from British the Academy. POCOCK, D. C. D. (1983) 'The paradox of humanisticgeography', Area,15: 355-58 NOTES to 13. As always,there exceptions, are although mymind school in none have examined the visual in relation to 1. GEIPEL,R. (1978) 'The landscapeindicators Germangeography',in LEY, D. and SAMUELS, M. geographical study as such: POCOCK, D. C. D. and problems (1981) 'Sight and Knowledge', Trans.Inst.Br. Geogr. (eds) Humanistic geography: prospects NS. 6: 385-93; TUAN, YI-FU (1979) 'The eye and the (London)pp. 155-72 mind's eye', in MEINIG, The interpretationordin2. See for example the comments on landscape in of HARVEY, D. (1969) Explanation in geography (NOTE 3) pp. 89-102 arylandscapes 14. BUNGE, W. (1966) Theoretical (2nd ed. (London)pp. 114-15 geography Lund), xiv 3. SAMUELS, M. (1979) 'The biographyof landscape', p. in MEINIG, D. (ed.) The interpretation ordinary 15. YATES, F. A. (1964) Giordano Bruno and the of Hermetic Tradition (London) pp. 160-1 discussesthe (Oxford)pp. 51-88 landscapes in relationsof quadrivium of and trivium Renaissance 4. ROSE, C. (1981) 'William Dilthey'sphilosophy hisa humanism, toricalunderstanding: neglected heritageof conarguingthat'the two traditions appeal to The humanist's bent is in different interests. humanistic entirely geography',in STODDARD, temporary the directionof literature and history;he sets an and social concern D. R. (ed.) Geography, ideology immensevalue on rhetoric and good literary style. (Oxford)pp. 99-133 The bentof theothertradition towardsphilosophy, is and humanistic 5. RELPH, E. (1981) Rationallandscapes (London) p. 22. This sense of landscapeas theology,and also science (at the stage of magic)'. geography This argument definition owes a great an all inclusive, dependson a veryrestricted quotidianphenomenon of humanism herfn.3, p. 160), ignoresthe visual to deal in NorthAmerican (see geography theworkofJ.B. of collection See arts which combined literaryreference pictura (ut Jackson. forexamplethemostrecent skill,and failsto account for for Jackson's poesis) with 'scientific' landscape essays (1980), 'The necessity ruins other and the large numberof Renaissancescholarsequally at (Amherst) topics'

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

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

idea Evolution thelandscape of of 44. Leonardowas a masternot merely linearperspecformof pertive but also of that otherand distinct whichplaysa complemenaerialperspective, spective, the the taryrole in creating illusionof space through of manipulation tone, light and shade and colour While based on optical theoryand experintensity. founded. 58. is aerialperspective not geometrically iment, allowed Leonardo'sworkwithcolourand chiaroscuro him to convey the 'mood' of space, and he saw the of superiority paintingover other arts to lie in its to ability employaerialperspective 45. ALEXANDER, D. 'Leonardo da Vinci and fluvial Am. geomorphology', i. Sci.282: 735-55 46. SCHULZ, J.(1976) 'New maps and landscape draw- 59. der Sorte', Mitteilungen Kunsings by Christoforo in Institutes FlorenzXX: I; MAZZI, G. thistorischen e (1980), 'La Repubblica uno strumento il dominio' 60. per e in PUPPI, L. (ed.) ArchitetturaUtopa nella Venezia del Cinquecento (Milano)pp. 59-62 47. SORTE, C. (1580) 'Osservazioni nella pittura', in reprinted BARROCCHI, P. (ed.) (1960) Trattati e fra d'arte del cinquecento: manierismo controriformo Vol. 1 (Bari) pp. 275-301. This text meritsdetailed study,not only as a discussionof landgeographical but equally because Sorte scape and cartography the by by appearsto anticipate a century recognition of John oftherealmovement thehydrologicalcycle Ray in 48. LetterfromVitali to Sorte, reprinted Barrocchi, 61. Trattati d'art... (note47) p. 275 49. SORTE, 'Osservazioninella pittura' (note 47) p. 282: 62. con le sue giuste 'Inoltreho posta detta Corografia misure distanzein pianta'.In otherwords,the work e was based on a planispheric survey.On the relations see Edgerton. between such surveyand perspective TheRenaissance (note rediscovery 22) 50. SORTE, 'Osservazioninellapittura' (note47) p. 283 51. BERENSON, B. (1952) Italianpainters theRenaisof 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 (note Photography 20) 54. MARTINES, Powerand imagination (note 17); BAX- 63. and ANDALL, Painting experience 26) (note 55. A pointthathas not gone entirely unnoticed hisby See torical geographers. forexampleIan Adams' work in on the role of land surveyors eighteenth-century Scottishagrarian change.ADAMS, I. H. (1980) 'The agents of agrarianchange', in PARRY, M. L. and SLATER, T. R. (eds) The makingof the Scottish (London)pp. 155-75, esp. pp. 167-70 countryside 56. For example the great galleryof maps painted by 64. Ignazio Dante in theVatican(1580-83) or the similar commissions Christoforo to Sorteto paintwallsin the Ducal Palace at Venice(1578 and 1586) 57. COSGROVE, D. (1982) 'Agrarian change,villabuilding and landscape: the Godi estates in Vicenza

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on 1500-1600', in Ferro,G. (ed.) Symposium historiand its experience cal changesin spatial organisation in the Mediterranean world (Genova) pp. 133-56; DANIELS, D. J. (1982) 'Humphrey Repton and the of in morality landscape', GOLD, J.and BURGESS, J. environments 6) pp. 124-44 (note (eds) Valued Quoted in McLEAN, Humanismand the rise of of ... science (note 32) p. 138. The translation Euclid For for was by Billingsley. Dee's importance geograsee phy and cartography TAYLOR, E. G. R. (1954) The mathematical of practitioners Tudor and Stuart (London) pp. 26-48. For Dee and magic see England Bruno YATES, Girodano (note 15) pp. 148-50 MORGAN, V. (1979) 'The cartographic image of the in country earlymodem England',Trans.R. Hist.Soc. 29:129-54 The whole issue of gardendesign along circular and orthogonallines is too large to discuss here but is under obviouslyverycloselyrelatedto thegeometry and thoseof microcosm, discussion, spatialtheory to macrocosmand medicinalconcepts. The firstsuch garden was designed in Padua in the late sixteenth of centuryby Daniele Barbaro,translater Vitruvius and commentator Euclid.See JACKSON, J. B. on (1980) 'NearerthanEden' and 'Gardensto Decipher' in The necessity ruins (note 5) pp. 19-35 and for 37-53 OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (OED), italics added THOMPSON, F. M. L. (1968) Chartered surveyors: thegrowth a profession (London); HARVEY, P. D. of A. (1980) The history topographic of maps: symbols, and (London). The idea that surveypictures surveys ing was a maliciousand magicalart was foundedin for land parton thenegativeconsequences traditional of enshrined rights new conceptsof private property in the legal document in thatthe surveyor produced, of between the part on the recognition connections of and thatof hermetic geometry surveytechniques magicians.In the book burningsunder Edward VI books containinggeometrical figureswere particularlyat risk TURNER, J. (1979) The politicsof landscape:rural sceneryand society in English poetry 1630-1690 (Oxford); ADAMS, J. (1979) The artist and the house.A history country houseand garden country of view painting in Britain 1540-1870 (London); BARRELL, J. (1980) The dark side of the landscape: the ruralpoor in Englishpainting1631-1741 (Cambridge); ROSENTHAL, M. (1982) British landscape (London) painting The OED notesthattheverb'to prospect' emergedin the nineteenth to centuryreferring the particularly capitalistactivitiesof speculativegold miningand playingthe stock exchange.It is interesting note to how 'speculation' has itself roots in visual terminology

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DENIS COSGROVE

65. MIKESELL, M. (1968) 'Landscape', in International 71. Notes 3 and 12 of encyclopaedia the social sciences(New York) p. 72. MIKESELL,'Landscape'(note64) p. 578 so 577-79. DICKINSON, R. E. (1939) 'Landscape and 73. Explicitly by SAUER, 'Morphologyof Landscape' (note 67), and equally in physicalgeographywhere Society', Scott. geogr. Mag. 55: 1-15; HARTA SHORNE, R. (1939) The nature geography. surstudy of landscapein the titlesuggestsa morphological oflandforms in veyof current of thought thelight thepast (Lancas74. VAN PAASEN, C. (1957) The classicaltradition ter, of Pa.) 66. HUMBOLDT, A. VON (1849-52) Cosmos:a sketch (Groningen) geography of of a physicaldescription the Universe(London), 75. See for example the diagram which serves as the for foundation the discussionof spatial conceptsin Vol. II. The relationship between the landscapeidea is and attitudes naturein the nineteenth SACK, R. D. (1980) Conceptions space in social to of century a of course enormouslycomplex. On Goethe and thought: geographical perspective (Minneapolis) p. 25 geography see SEAMON, D. (1978) 'Goethe's aesthetics...' (note6) approach to the natural world: implicationsfor 76. PUNTER, J.'Landscape 77. Some of the essays in GOLD, and BURGESS, Valued environmental theory and education',in LEY and environments (note 6) begin to broach this field,as SAMUELS, Humanistic Geography(note 1) pp. have papers presented in recent IBG sessions of 238-50 67. COSGROVE, D. (1979) 'John Ruskin and the and theMedia' 'Geography 78. SACK, Conceptions Space... (note 74) Geog.Rev.69: 43-62 of imagination' geographical of 68. SAUER, C. 0. (1926) 'The morphology landscape', 79. BUNGE, W. (1973) 'The geography of human in Ann.Ass.Am. Geogr. 275-95 63: survival', reprinted LEIGHLY, J. (ed.) (1963) Land and life: selections from relations Greekgeometry of the from the writings Carl Ortwin Sauer 80. This is distinct of and which apparently were derived from a tactile(Berkeley Los Angeles) 69. BANSE, E. (1924) Die Seele der Geographie muscularapprehensionof space, an apprehension in whichwas non-visual. HARD, G. (1965) 'Arkadien Deutch(note (Brunswick); IVINS, Artand geometry 96: land',Die Erde, 31-4 33) Bruno 70. HARVEY, D. (1974) 'What kind of geographyfor 81. YATES, Giordano (note 15) pp. 144-56 what kind of public policy', Trans.Inst.Br. Geogr.; 82. EDGERTON, The Renaissancerediscovery... (note and con22) HARVEY, D. (1984) 'On thehistory present dition of geography: an historical materialist 35: manifesto', Geogr. 1-10 Prof.