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Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition.

In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still form an important part of the work.

Sky is almost always included in the view, and weather is often an element of the composition.

Detailed landscapes as a distinct subject are not found in all artistic traditions, and develop when there is already a sophisticated tradition of representing other subjects

Landscape backgrounds for various types of painting became increasingly prominent and skilful during the century.

The period around the end of the 15th century saw pure landscape drawings and watercolours from Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, Fra Bartolomeo and others.

But pure landscape subjects in painting and printmaking, still small, were first produced by Albrecht Altdorfer and others of the German Danube School in the early 16th century.

At the same time Joachim Patinir in the Netherlands developed a style of panoramic landscapes with a high aerial viewpoint that remained influential for a century, being used, for example, by Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

The Italian development of a thorough system of graphical perspective was now known all over Europe, which allowed large and complex views to be painted very effectively