Finisterra - Revista Portuguesa de Geografia (Aug 2001)
Paisagem e geografia
Abstract
LANDSCAPE AND GEOGRAPHY – The word landscape was first applied to renaissance paintings, but the concept really emerged during the scientific revolution that replaced the theological explanation of the world and was part of the events that led to the making of the modern world. Landscape has a central place in classical geography because of the importance romantic aesthetics attached to nature in the early 19th century. It was then seen as a piece of land on the surface of the earth surface as well as its visible features.Although given little importance during mid-century positivism, interest in landscape grew again in the last quarter of the 20th century both in biogeography and human geography along with current criticism of positivism. However, while biogeography continues to view landscape as a piece of the earth’s surface, human geographers are more concerned with the subjective aspects of the relation between people and their environment. The main interest is not space but the way of seeing and perceiving it.