2IO TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



its own sake begins, by common consent, about 

 the time of Giotto, that is to say, early in the 

 fourteenth century. Until the seventeenth 

 century, landscape is rarely rendered except as 

 a setting for figures ; but even though put to 

 this subordinate use alone, the feeling for its 

 interest and beauty, for the beauty, that is, of all 

 the objects in a scene in relation to each other, 

 steadily grows both in range and intensity ; and 

 the record becomes both more subtle and more 

 accurate. 



Here, on the threshold of modern painting, 

 and, in particular, of the modern painting of 

 trees, it may be well for us to have in mind, in 

 general terms, what has been attained up to 

 the present time in their representation. What 

 are the facts that our landscape painters now 

 observe and record ? It may easily be possible 

 to add something to the following list; but 

 even if it be not complete it will suffice for our 

 immediate purpose. 



The modern artist who, in the way described 

 by Ruskin in the imaginary visit to an Old 

 Water Colour Society's Exhibition, paints a 

 landscape for its own sake, and not as a mere 

 setting for figures, pictures trees of their correct, 



