Representing Place; Landscape Painting and Maps

By Edward S. Casey.
University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN 2002
392 pages; 16 color photos, 38 halftones, 14 illustrations.
$82.95 Cloth / $29.95 Paper
ISBN: 0-8166-3714-8 / 0-8166-3715-6

By Amy Ione
PO Box 12748, Berkley,
CA 94712 USA

ione@diatrope.com

Representing Place: Landscape Painting and Maps is the third volume of Edward S. Casey's project of reinterpreting evolving conceptions of space in world thought. In this third volume Casey, who is a philosophy professor at State University of New York, Stony Brook, argues that place in visual works should be judged in terms that reconnect us to the earth and the world. He presents his case by skillfully integrating nineteenth century American and British Landscape painting, Northern Sung landscape painting, prehistoric petroglyphs and medieval portolan charts, convergences in seventeenth century Dutch painting and mapmaking, and various other representations. I found myself in awe of the breadth of his research. Equally impressive is the way Casey weaves cross-cultural history, philosophy, art, and cartography into his discussion of how representation and space speak to the power of place. Well-chosen, descriptive images add clarity and there is much to learn from a close reading of this copious book. It is not a book one can read quickly.

Overall Casey deserves high marks for this study, particularly his seamless integration of cross-cultural examples. Painting with this broad brush allows Casey to effectively argue that visual works should be judged in terms of how they connect us with an earth and world that is not merely the content of mind or language. Still, although the book is a splendid accomplishment, it is disappointing to find the author gives limited attention to scientific influences and how science/technology combinations re-configure representations. Ultimately, this produces a book that speaks of the appreciation of the power of place in a way that favors tradition and history. Thus, despite the high caliber of the book, I found Casey's conclusion that a fuller understanding of the space/place relationship will renew our appreciation of the power of place too ensconced in the past and the humanities. His focus on tradition and history is perhaps most striking when he presents his views of the imagination, for Casey's perspective effectively excludes contemporary landscapes. Virtuality, the post-biological, and the imaginative, technologically driven work that has re-configured our relationship to space and place in the last twenty years are far beyond the scope of this study. Instead imaginative landscapes are defined in terms of the kinds of landscape paintings Hieronymous Bosch and Joan Miro contrived. Descriptive characterizations similarly are in line with traditional visual representations and terms such as the sublime and verisimilitude.

This is not to suggest the book's impressive range simply plods along charted paths. It is quite the contrary. For example, Casey's chapter on Northern Sung landscape painting was particularly compelling and is a useful addition to the literature. In this chapter Casey begins by showing some commonalities between the Western and Chinese approach to the landscape historically. Proceeding, then, to explain the differences between Western and Chinese views of nature, Casey effectively illustrates that Chinese philosophical assumptions about nature differ from the defining Western view. His discussion conveys that the West developed a transcendent dimension, which was a logical extension of the idea of an Almighty Creator God. The Chinese, on the other hand, saw relationships as the governing factor. In a relational environment, where nature and society are co-created, as Casey explains, heaven and earth, like yin and yang, are place specific terms. Since space is connected to place, place is accorded great respect and the artist endeavors to connect with the landscape. Thus, according to Casey: "The crux of the matter is whether the artist wishes to transmit the formal likeness of a place – 'verisimilitude,' as is said in the West, as if to mock the original sense of this term . . . or the spirit of that place. For the ancient Chinese, the answer is unequivocal: the task of the painter is to transmit this spirit by re-implacing it into his painting" (p. 115).

The ideas within this chapter develop the author's thesis, but I couldn't help but think of the larger picture. I wondered, for example, how Casey would address a major criticism that later scholars directed at the Sung period. Briefly, in the seventeenth century, longstanding philosophical assumptions about regularity, place, and symmetry were challenged in China, as in the West, by scientific evidence showing that the movements of the heavenly bodies are asymmetrical and uneven. This led later landscape painters to highlight asymmetry, irregularity, and to bring some measure of incompleteness to their work. How place and space connected was similarly re-configured, as was the body's place in the scheme of things. While the older views continued to persist, cracks emerged as the scientific reformation of cosmological relationships challenged earlier philosophical assumptions.

In conclusion, this well researched book will be indispensable to those who study representations and historical relationships between space and place. Its value is increased by a useful glossary, an index, and extensive footnotes. The attention given to the book's academic usefulness is, however, undermined by the book's lack of a bibliographic list of the sources referenced throughout the work. Inexplicably and like his earlier books, there is no bibliography per se that is easy to access after the reading. Instead reference information is scattered throughout the footnote section, making it difficult to find particular source information at a later date. I would have also liked more information on the demonstrated ways philosophical questions, scientific research, and applied techniques often work together to change how we enter the landscape as well as how we 'know' place and space. Finally, I believe many Leonardo readers will be disappointed to discover that Casey's focus is limited to the historical. He omits all mention of how contemporary mapping techniques have redefined our knowledge of the landscape, particularly those domains that require technological instruments since they are invisible to the naked eye. For example, there is no hint of infrared technologies and computer-driven cartographic techniques that now allow us to indirectly map geographic landscapes we cannot inhabit in a bodily sense. Thus, as might be expected, the study offers no insight into the visual landscapes that technologically astute artists now create. Nor is there a place in this study for contemporary artists and the ways their works aid us in virtually inhabiting terrains. Similarly, there is little sense of the ways we now "visit" remote domains. Still, although not perfect, Representing Place does encourage the reader to closely reflect on how we represent and embody the places we know.