The visual representation of land between the 16th and 17th centuries : an introduction to the early modern preoccupation with land in European societies

Abstract

The subject of this essay was prompted by questions that persistently surfaced during lectures in Baroque Studies at the University of Malta. The lectures treated diverse humanistic subjects, proposed within the historical context of the late sixteenth century up to the early eighteenth century. At seemingly random moments each field of interest manifested some connection with forms of appropriation of land. Whether 'in political terms, in economic or capitalistic terms, or simply in the manner in which land was occupied and urbanised, each form of appropriation seemed to suggest its visual, painterly counterpart. The first question that prompted itself was whether landscape art was an early indication of a Modem preoccupation with Land, between the early-sixteenth and mid seventeenth century?