44C COSMOS. 



LANDSCAPE PAINTING IN ITS INFLUENCE ON THE STUDY 



OF NATURE GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION CF THE PHY- 



SIOGNOMY OF PLANTS THE CHARACTER AND ASPECT OF 

 VEGETATION IN DIFFERENT ZONES. 



LANDSCAPE painting, and fresh and vivid descriptions of 

 nature alike conduce to heighten the charm emanating from a 

 study of the external world, which is shown us in all its diver- 

 sity of form by both, while both are alike capable in a greater 

 or lesser degree, according to the success of the attempt, to 

 combine the visible and invisible in our contemplation of 

 nature. The effort to connect these several elements, forms 

 the last and noblest aim of deljneative art, but the present 

 pages, from the scientific object to which they are devoted, 

 must be restricted to a different point of view. Landscape 

 painting cannot therefore be noticed in any further relation 

 than that of its representation of the physiognomy and cha- 

 racter of different portions of the earth, and as it increases the 

 desire for the prosecution of distant travels, and thus incites 

 men in an equally instructive and charming manner to a free 

 communion with nature. 



In that portion of antiquity which we specially designate 

 as classical, landscape painting, as well as poetic delineations 

 of places, could not, from the direction of the Greek and 

 Roman mind, be regarded as an independent branch of art. 

 Both were considered merely as accessories ; landscape painting 

 being for a long time used only as the background of historical 

 compositions, or as an accidental decoration for painted walls. 

 In a similar manner, the epic poet delineated the locality of 

 some historical occurrence by a picturesque description of the 

 landscape, or of the background, I would say, if I may be per- 

 mitted here again to use the term, in front of which the 

 acting personages move. The history of art teaches us how 

 gradually the accessory parts have been converted into the 

 main subject of description, and how landscape painting has 

 been separated from historical painting, and gradually estab- 

 lished as a distinct form ; and lastly how human figures were 

 employed as mere secondary parts to some mountain or fores* 



