Landscape.
A painting in which an expanse of natural scenery-possibly including some man-made structures-is the main subject. Paintings of landscape (from the Dutch landschap) originated in sixteenth and seventeenth century Italy, the Netherlands, and England. In late eighteenth-century England, landscape painting was part of a whole landscape culture that included books by writers like William Gilpin and Uvedale Price promoting sightseeing tours through the Lake District and other areas defined as "picturesque." In addition to the picturesque, two other important concepts in the English landscape tradition are the sublime and the beautiful. In eighteenth-century America, landscape painting was considered inferior to portrait and history painting. However, in the nineteenth century, American landscape painting gained in popularity and respect, as Americans began to identify themselves with the natural beauty of their vast, diverse, and expanding territory. Between the 1820s and the Civil War landscape was the central subject of American visual art. The major landscape painters of the period-Thomas Cole, Thomas Doughty, Asher B. Durand, and Frederic Edwin Church-were loosely identified as the Hudson River School, because many of their paintings depicted the Hudson River Valley in upstate New York.
Beautiful.
The term used in contrast to the sublime by Edmund Burke in his profoundly influential book Philosophical Inquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757-59). Burke said that the beautiful gives people harmonious and sociable feelings. It was associated with things that are small, weak, soft, pastel-colored, or sensually curved-and was generally associated with feminine qualities. For English and American artists the beautiful came to be associated with the Italian landscapes of the French painter Claude Lorraine.
Sublime.
An aesthetic term that arose in the eighteenth century, best defined by Edmund Burke in his profoundly influential book Philosophical Inquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757-59). Burke said that the sublime gives people harsh and antisocial feelings of "agreeable horror." It was associated with things or experiences that are powerful, threatening, vast or unclear, and was generally associated with masculine qualities. However, one could feel the sublime only from representations of such threatening things or situations (for example, in a painting or novel), not from direct experience (which would be too frightening to appreciate aesthetically). Burke defined the sublime in contrast to the beautiful. For English and American artists the beautiful came to be associated with the landscapes of the painter Salvator Rosa.
Picturesque.
A term influential in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and applied to both painted and real landscapes. It was associated with the pleasantly rough and irregular shapes of nature. It was also applied to certain objects in a landscape that would make it picturesque: for example, old barns, run-down architecture, poor farmers, and other rough features associated with the past and rural life.
風景畫： 這種畫作的主題是在描繪廣闊的自然景觀，但畫中或許也有些人為的建築。風景畫(這名稱源自荷蘭文的landschap)始於十六與十七世紀的義大利、荷蘭及英國。
英國在十六世紀晚期時，風景畫只是整個地景文化的一部份。地景文化也包括威廉．季平與維德．普萊斯等作家的作品。這二人大力提倡到大湖區與其他被視為「風景如畫」的地區遊賞。在英國風景藝術的傳統裡，除了景色如畫外，另外兩個重要的概念是莊嚴美與優美。
美國在十八世紀時，風景畫的地位遠不如肖像畫與歷史畫。但到了十九世紀時，美國人開始認同他們遼闊、多元、不斷擴展的領土裡的自然美，美國的風景畫同時也獲得肯定與重視。在1820年代與南北戰爭時期，風景成了美國視覺藝術的重要主題。這時期的主要風景畫家(像是湯瑪斯．柯爾，湯瑪斯．多提，艾雪．德藍以及弗德列克．艾文．邱吉等人)因為有許多畫作描繪的是北紐約州的哈德遜河谷，而被概括的稱之為哈德遜河流派。
優美： 這個辭彙在艾德蒙．柏克影響深遠的《人類對莊嚴美與優美認知起源的哲學探究》一書中，是用來與莊嚴美作對照的。柏克認為優美帶給人祥和易處的感覺。它常令人聯想起小巧的、柔弱的、粉色系的或觸感有曲線弧度的事物，且常令人聯想到女性陰柔的特質。對英、美的畫家而言，優美一詞後來與法國畫家克勞德．羅瑞的義大利風景畫作成為等號。
莊嚴美：在十八世紀興起的美學辭彙，最適切的定義見於艾德蒙．柏克影響深遠的《人類對莊嚴美與優美認知起源的哲學探究》一書 (1757-59)。 柏克認為莊嚴美予人一種「可接受的恐懼」的嚴厲、不易相處的感覺。它令人聯想起強烈的、威嚇的、巨大的、不明的事情或經驗，且常令人聯想到男性陽剛的特質。不過，人只有由具有威脅性的事物或情況(像是在繪畫或小說中)，才能感受到莊嚴美，而不能來自親身經驗(因為那會太過嚇人，而無法讓人有美學的體驗)。在柏克的定義中，莊嚴美與優美是對立的。對英、美藝術家來說，莊嚴美後來與畫家薩瓦多．羅沙的風景畫成為等號。
景色如畫：在十八世紀末、十九世紀初期，極具影響力的辭彙，且這辭彙同時適用於畫中與真實生活中的風景。它指的是自然界中悅人的崎嶇、不規則的形狀。它也適用於風景中可以讓景色如畫的一些特定景物，像是老舊的穀倉、殘破的建築、襤褸的農夫，以及一些其他與舊時農村生活有關的一些村野的景色。
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