Publication details
Obraz krajiny – krajina v obraze
| Title in English | Picture of the landscape – landscape in the picture |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Concept of landscape has a relatively stable status in the history of art; this is undoubtedly due to the fact that landscape painting has long ranked among the major topics of art history. Art historians generally view landscape painting as an unproblematic form, a depiction of a section from a real or ideal environment (the environment may be either natural or altered by human activity) in which landscape plays a dominant role. Author writes of the so-called substitutive function of landscape painting, through which artistic representations were meant to replace the experience of observing real nature, and often depicted ideal landscapes analogous to the pastoral, Arcadian poetry of the ancient world or the Early Modern era. In the Baroque era, mountains were presented as a locus amoenus (or an idyllic garden); this was required by the already-mentioned sacralization of the landscape. It is well known that the phenomenon of landscape painting has been close to poetry since its earliest beginnings – a connection which was particularly close in ancient Asian art. Chinese landscape painting, drawing on the philosophy of Zen and Taoism, emphasized the need for contemplation in the outdoors. It featured a universalistic, holistic approach, saturated by the dynamics of nature; landscape represented a model of the universe's order, making it ideal not only for strolling but also for meditation. |