Formations of Identity

Book excerpt: The physical landscape has been appropriated by artists throughout temporal and spatial history to represent (or present) political, social, and national identities. Artists have long imbued the landscape with personal and public ideologies. Indeed, landscapes can be more than simple representations of scenic beauty, when artists use the genre to convey or reflect upon various political and social concerns important in different periods. This collection of essays brings together the perspectives of scholars from a variety of backgrounds. Subjects range from Venetian Renaissance waterscapes to the rolling farm hills of Grant Wood, and from native Botswana imagery to ecosensitive Florida portraits. These examinations of landscapes consider the rich ideology and iconography that define and redefine peoples and places.