Landscape painting is the depiction in art of landscapes (such as mountains and valleys, trees, rivers and forests), with its elements inside coherent composition. The history of Roman painting is essentially a history of wall paintings on plaster, and it is thanks to the ancient Roman city of Pompeii that we can trace the history of Roman wall painting. Until the early mid-sixteenth century, landscape was included in pictures purely as a setting for human activity (with an historical or religious message, for which the scenery was merely background). Arriving at Sixteenth Century, certain Northern artists (like Joachim Patenier, Albrecht Altdorfer, Albrecht Durer and Pieter Bruegel the Elder), they began painting landscapes in different way. The Seventeenth Century it’s famous for the Dutch and Flemish schools (Aelbert Cuyp, Jacob Van Ruisdael and Rubens), and in the Eighteenth Century all continued to develop with Richard Wilson, Jean-Honore Fragonard and Giovanni Canaletto. Looking the 19th Century English School, you can admire John Crom and John Constable, but only with William Turner (that in his treatment of colour and light, he anticipated the Impressionism, with stunning views of the city and poignant images of the Roman countryside), each picture become something special, that captured the imagination of each traveler or painter.
