As an everyday fact and an object of artistic design, landscape is a central category of human experience. Political, social, cartographic, and economic, but also philosophical and aesthetic references define historically changing concepts of landscape, which are considered here from both a Western and Asian perspective. Nature is staged as a space of experience in artworks, and the "memorial landscapes" thus created are examined based on examples of Asian, European, and American painting from the Middle Ages to the modern age. A look is thus taken at aspects of the formation of national and cultural identity, the transnational transfer of concepts of landscape, and political, religious, and legal, as well as medical references.

Uwe Fleckner, Universität Hamburg; Yih-Fen Hua, National Taiwan University; Shai-Shu Tzeng, National Taiwan Normal University.