10 Facts About Landscape painting

Landscape painting, known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent composition.

Such views, extremely common as prints in the West, are often seen as inferior to fine art landscapes, although the distinction is not always meaningful; similar prejudices existed in Chinese art, where literati painting usually depicted imaginary views, while professional artists painted real views.

However, in the West, history painting came to require an extensive landscape background where appropriate, so the theory did not entirely work against the development of landscape painting – for several centuries landscapes were regularly promoted to the status of history painting by the addition of small figures to make a narrative scene, typically religious or mythological.

Early in the 15th century, landscape painting was established as a genre in Europe, as a setting for human activity, often expressed in a religious subject, such as the themes of the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, the Journey of the Magi, or Saint Jerome in the Desert.

Landscape backgrounds for various types of painting became increasingly prominent and skillful during the 15th century.

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Unlike their Dutch contemporaries, Italian and French landscape artists still most often wanted to keep their classification within the hierarchy of genres as history painting by including small figures to represent a scene from classical mythology or the Bible.

Landscape painting prints were popular, with those of Rembrandt and the experimental works of Hercules Seghers usually considered the finest.

Landscape painting has been called "China's greatest contribution to the art of the world", and owes its special character to the Taoist tradition in Chinese culture.

Hindu Landscape painting had long set scenes amid lush vegetation, as many of the stories depicted demanded.

Mughal painting combined this and the Persian style, and in miniatures of royal hunts often depicted wide landscapes.