ABSTRACT
A good composition in relation to the pictorial form of the picturesque gives a feeling of satisfaction and pleasure for the viewer, resulting in the spectator’s having an experience of the beautiful. National or other identities may well find the “composition of the land” crucial in constructing its imaginary community. The invention of virtual computer landscapes and their use as viewer platforms in successful computer games, surely draws on the same classical logic of landscape aesthetics to seek composure and mastery of the thrills of terror. Landscape gardeners like Capability Brown were regarded as artists in their own right, able to command large fees to undertake monumental land work. “Landscape” is not all things to all people, but a highly differentiated mode of discourse that represents space. In the eighteenth century, a typical picturesque scene was “rustic”: an autumnal landscape with an old farmer, or parson and daughter by a cottage.
