Andrews, M. (1999)
Landscape and Western Art
Oxford University Press, Oxford (review)

This book provides a survey of Western landscape art, following the genre's development in parallel with the European and later American relationship to the land. It also deals more generally with the appearance of landscapes in works of Western art that might not be classified specifically as "Landscape Art". The book is intelligently illustrated, permitting the reader to follow the discussion without the need for a large folio volume. Nevertheless, the small format of this book did make some of the images a little too tiny for a detailed examination.

As I'm not an expert in Landscape art, for me this book provided a helpful introduction. In particular I enjoyed discovering how the European view of the landscape changed across the periods spanning Ancient Rome to Medieval and on to Renaissance Italy. I also found interesting the discussions concerning the differences between the formal European Gardens of France and Italy, and their more free-flowing English counterparts. I read this text from cover to cover and would recommend it.

Alan Dorin, 7 Mar 06