A landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including physical elements such as landforms, living
elements of flora and fauna, abstract elements such as lighting and weather conditions, and human elements, for
instance human activity or the built environment. Landscape may also signify the objects around one in a building.
The word landscape comes from the Dutch word landschap, from land (patch or area that comes from the Basquish word
landa meaning labored earth) and the suffix -schap, corresponding to the English suffix "-ship".
Landscape, first recorded in 1598, was borrowed as a painters' term from Dutch during the 16th century, when Dutch
artists were on the verge of becoming masters of the landscape genre. The Dutch word landschap had earlier meant
simply 'region, tract of land' but had acquired the artistic sense, which it brought over into English, of 'a picture depicting
scenery on land'.
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