LANDSCAPE

The scenery presented to the eye in the country; as also, in its more common acceptation, a picture representing such scenery. A landscape in the latter sense may, however, become allegorical and historical, in the meaning applied by artists to those terms. The chief study of the landscape painter is the vegetable world, air, water, rocks, and buildings. To these he may impart an ideal beauty, and thus elevate his art above mere topographical painting; which may be applied to his work, if he merely copies without refinement what is presented to his eye. [s. 654]