This week we would like to present you with the first lecture of a three-part series given by Tom Richards, Assistant Director of The Florence Academy of Art, focusing on various dualisms within the broad genre of “landscape.”

This first lecture “Symbols vs. Facts” introduces us to the series and begins with an invitation to consider how people have created art that reflects the world around them throughout time, from the cave paintings of Altamira, some of which are believed to be 20,000 years old, to 17th century drawings by Rembrandt.

Throughout this lecture we are shown drawings, sculptures, prints, and paintings of the natural world as well as the natural world refracted through human touch such as urban spaces, designed gardens, and architectural spaces imagined and real. Diving deep into the contextual relationship artists and their contemporaries had with nature Richards expertly guides us through both the symbolic and imaginative aspects of landscapes in art along with the representational and factual elements that together, create pieces that speak to the complex affair we all have with the natural world, even today! From fear, awe, or curiosity; a desire to understand, use, and domesticate; or a desire to rejoice in its beauty, landscapes in artwork reveal much about the people who made them.

If you would like to further research the works from the lecture we have selected details on artists and artworks below, in the order presented in the lecture!