Talk:Landscape art

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] copyvio

The bulk of this article as of Jan. 8, 2006 is copied from http://www.rolandlee.com/articles81.html. Sparkit 00:14, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Fixed it. Sparkit 01:11, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Landscape art vs. landscape photography

It seems clear to anyone reading this page that it deals with art, as in paintings, rather than with photography, as in photos. While it is correct to say that photography can require art in its successful execution, photography itself requires no artistic talent and no one would be convinced that common snapshots are anything like art. As a consequence,please place landscape photos under "Photography,landscape" and not on this page, which deals primarily with paintings and related hand-painted art. Jack Bethune 12:57, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

"photography itself requires no artistic talent". Highly disputable. DB, 06.02.2007. (Cambridge).

[edit] "Earth" vs. "earth"?

As now written, this sentence appears in the accompanying article: "Traditionally, landscape art depicts the surface of the earth, but there are other sorts of landscapes, such as moonscapes, for example."

To justify his reverting Earth back to earth, as the term now stands, WP contributor MarylandArtLover makes this assertion: "When preceded by 'the', the word 'earth' should not be capitalized. Check any dictionary."

That “should not be capitalized” sounded very much like a rule, one that presumably could be backed up by some authoritative source. So, a number of dictionaries were consulted, both online and printed. The result is that no evidence of such a rule could be found. Instead, it quickly became apparent that dictionaries provide a variety of usage guidelines concerning the proper spelling and use of “Earth” vs. “earth.”

The majority of online dictionaries confirm that the term refers to the planet on which we live and is "often capitalized." For example: Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster Online’’, and American Heritage Dictionary In all these definitions, no exception was apparent regarding the presence of “the” in guiding capitalization.

On the other hand, some dictionaries take a contrary position and say that the term “earth” is commonly left lowercase, even when listed among other capitalized planets.

The conclusion an online researcher might justifiably reach is that, according to a sampling of standard dictionaries, some English users capitalize the term while others do not.

More to the point, NO dictionary was found that makes any recommendation about lowercasing “earth” when preceded by the word “the.” Nor was any such distinction apparent in the wording of any dictionary text.

If this “rule” exists somewhere, it couldn't be found in just “any dictionary.” Perhaps MarylandArtLover would be kind enough to provide some dictionary links supporting his claim that “When preceded by 'the', the word 'earth' should not be capitalized.”  :) Jack Bethune 03:08, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps I oversimplified when I said that the word 'the' was a simple disqualifier. But Wikipedia certainly agrees with me as to the commonest, most standard usage. Allow me to quote the Wikipedia article on earth.

After acknowledging that there is no hard and fast rule ("the name can be capitalized or spelled in lowercase interchangeably") the article nevertheless goes on to state what is usual:

Oxford Spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, with the capitalized form as a variant of it. Another convention that is very common is to spell the name with a capital when occurring absolutely (e.g. Earth's atmosphere) and lowercase when preceded by "the" (e.g. the atmosphere of the earth). The term almost exclusively exists in lowercase when appearing in common phrases, even without "the" preceding it...

Now, remember that this began with your presuming to 'correct' the lower case spelling, changing it to upper case. I think that the burden must be on you, having presumed to 'correct' someone else, to show that your spelling is better or more standard usage. I think it's clear that the lower case is in fact the better and more standard usage in this context - even though there is no hard 'rule'. MdArtLover 14:29, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

MarylandArtLover, I fully concede that my "correction" was ill-informed, especially after researching the subject and reporting on it as I did. I now fully agree with you that the lower-case version is widely used and even the most common. Since it appears that both forms are correct, and you've withdrawn your "rule," I withdraw my "correction" and thank you for contributing to an interesting lesson on English usage. Best regards, Jack Bethune 18:49, 11 December 2006 (UTC)