Landscape Painting: A History
From Greek pastorals to the romantic drama of the Hudson River school, artists have envisioned landscapes as emblems of the divine, images of dominion, or reflections of inner worlds. The story of landscape painting is in many ways the story of Western civilization itself, as artists contrast the menace and glory of wilderness with the bounty and safety of cultivation and consider humankind's place in the great web of life. Then, too, there is the story of painting's ongoing stylistic evolution. Art historian Buttner addresses every facet of landscape painting with erudition, acute perception, and finesse in a majestic volume as generous in size and narrative depth as the vistas it showcases and interprets. Buttner's sweeping history unfolds century by century, country by country, beginning with a first-century B.C.E. Roman fresco and concluding with Georgia O'Keeffe. Buttner analyzes paintings by dozens of artists, including Giorgione, Brueghel, Poussin, Jacob van Ruisdael, Albert Bierstadt, and the impressionists, lingering over works that combine "a clear and precise depiction of reality with an intriguing ambiguity."Donna SeamanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved