On the Pastoral and the Sublime (A brief history on the appreciation of Nature)

"Over the course of the 18th century there was a remarkable change in attitudes toward nature, discoverable in all the arts, especially literature, painting and landscape architecture..... It marked a major change in the relationship of man to nature.....

The Sublime marks a much more radical change in attitudes toward nature. Wild nature was not widely appreciated at the beginning of the 18th century, and with good reason: it was really dangerous out there....

But over the course of the 18th century, attitudes changed remarkably. Travellers detoured specifically to visit the glaciers, and spoke in hushed tones of the towering cataracts and vast unpeopled reaches of the mountains. People were falling in love with terror! And though they could not photograph what they saw, noblemen developed the practice of including an artist in their party, to record their experiences...."


http://artid.com/members/peterbarnett/blog/post/2706-pastoral-and-sublime-the-two-faces-of-romantic-landscape