Lörzing, H., 2005, Different ways to change a landscape, in: ECLAS (D. Oguz), ‘Landscape change’, Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Agriculture Ankara University, Ankara
- Author : Lörzing, H.
- Year : 2005
- Published in Book : Landscape change
- Pages : 90-97
- Outline in English : There was a time when "landscapes" did not exist. This may sound funny, because we are used to see landscapes as a phenomenon as old as the earth itself. But, when we acknowledge that landscape is primarily a human invention, we may see thins in a different perspective. The easiest way to find out how old this human idea of landscape is, is by finding out when the term was used for the first time. What we find is, that the word landscape entered Western languages only at the time when man felt the need to distinguish between "just a piece of land" and "a specific piece of scenery". We even know quote precisely when this happened. It was in the early 16th century, when painters began to use landscape as a serious subject for their paintings. Of course, their predecessors in earlier times had been painting landscapes, too. But in those medieval paintings, landscape (as we would call it now) was no more that a modest background to subjects that the artists' patrons considered to be more worthy of appearing on canvas, like noblemen and biblical figures. The origin of the word landscape shows the importance of man as "maker" of landscape. The early landscape painters made landscape by: looking at the scenery (perception), and catching the scenery in a picture (rendering). These acts of perception and rendering make clear that landscape is a very human thing. Without the intervention of the painter, landscape would perhaps still be just another part of the countryside.
- Comments/Notes : KEYWORDS: landscape change, opinions, strategy, aesthetics. / Eclas 2005