Topia:Landscape before Linear Perspective

Abstract

Landscape is commonly deemed to be a western European Renaissance invention linked to the theorization of linear perspective as a distinctively “modern” way of looking at the world. Prompted by a resurging interest in premodern geographies, this article takes a step back and interrogates nonlinear perceptions and graphic representations of the environment in Roman antiquity (the so-called topia) and their development in the Byzantine world. Since the times of Alexander von Humboldt, these representations have been generally dismissed as “artificial” and “disregardful of perspective.” I propose a rereading of this perceived “lack of technique,” or “disinterest in nature” as a different “way of seeing” and making sense of the world, emphasizing the visual energheia and memorability of singular elements (or places) over their modern linear integration. Tracing the complex etymological and visual history of topia sheds light not only on “ways of seeing” and geographical traditions understudied in our discipline but also on a further aspect of landscape: that of a container of symbolic memory places.

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