The Art of the Landscape

221 Pages·2009·1.146 MB·English

by  Raffaele Milani

the art of the landscape
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The Art of
the Landscape
raffaele milani
Translated by Corrado Federici
McGill-Queen’s University Press
Montreal & Kingston • London • Ithaca
© McGill-Queen’s University Press 2009
isbn 978-0-7735-3508-4 (cloth)
isbn 978-0-7735-3547-3 (paper)
Legal deposit first quarter 2009
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec
First published by Società editrice il Mulino, 2001, as L’arte del paesaggio.
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free
(100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free
This book has been published with the support of the Italian Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Toronto.
The translation of this book has been funded by seps – Segretariato
Europeo per le Pubblicazioni Scientifiche, Via Val d’Aposa 740123
Bologna, Italy; Fax [phone]; www.seps.it.
McGill-Queen’s University Press acknowledges the support of the
Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also
acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada
through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (bpidp)
for our publishing activities.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Milani, Raffaele
The art of the landscape / Raffaele Milani; translated by Corrado Federici.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-7735-3508-4 (bnd)
isbn 978-0-7735-3547-3 (pbk)
1. Landscape painting. 2. Nature (Aesthetics). I. Federici, Corrado.
II. Title.
nd1340.m49713 2009 758'.1 c2008-906380-5
This book was typeset by Interscript in 11/14 Garamond.
To contemplative souls
O wild beasts, O rocks, O horrid ruins
O uncultivated forests, O solitary grottos
Isabella Di Morra
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Contents
Preface ix
part one pathways
1 Aesthetics of the Environment 3
2 What Is the Landscape? 28
3 The Sentimental Journey 54
part two categories
4 The Art of the Landscape 85
5 Contemplation of the Landscape 114
part three morphologies
6 Morphology of Natural Beauties 135
Conclusion The Mirror of the Senses and of Reason 168
Bibliography 173
Index 197
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Preface
I may walk through a landscape and feel its charms. I may enjoy the
mildness of the air, the freshness of the meadows, the variety and
cheerfulness of the colouring and the fragrant odour of the flowers.
But I may then experience a sudden change in my frame of mind.
From this point on I see the landscape with an artist’s eye: I begin to
form a picture of it. I have now entered into a new realm, not the
realm of living things but of “living forms.” No longer in the immedi-
ate reality of things, I now live in the rhythm of spatial forms, in the
harmony and contrast of colours, in the balance of light and shadow.
The aesthetic experience consists of this being absorbed in the dy-
namic aspect of form.
Ernst Cassirer, An Essay on Man, 151–2
This book is a study, a meditation, on the feeling for and the
idea of the landscape, something that continues to exist despite
the loss of its true source, namely nature, from which we have
become sadly and appallingly separated because of a tragic des-
tiny. Perhaps the book is a hope linked to the vain attempt to
preserve the memory of the wonder and beauty of nature of-
fered to us in so many centuries. In any case, hope and disen-
chantment have accompanied me, marking an inner conflict. In
every book there hides an idea to which the author remains