Nature

===Aesthetics and beauty===
[[File:Cyclamen coum (d.j.b.) 02.jpg|thumb|Aesthetically pleasing flowers]]
Beauty in nature has historically been a prevalent theme in art and books, filling large sections of libraries and bookstores. That nature has been depicted and celebrated by so much art, photography, poetry, and other literature shows the strength with which many people associate nature and beauty. Reasons why this association exists, and what the association consists of, are studied by the branch of philosophy called [[aesthetics]]. Beyond certain basic characteristics that many philosophers agree about to explain what is seen as beautiful, the opinions are virtually endless.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/Beauty_Quotes.cfm |title=On the Beauty of Nature |publisher=The Wilderness Society |access-date=September 29, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060909220214/http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/Beauty_Quotes.cfm |archive-date=September 9, 2006 }}</ref> Nature and wildness have been important subjects in various eras of world history. An early tradition of [[landscape art]] began in China during the [[Tang Dynasty art|Tang Dynasty]] (618–907). The tradition of representing nature ''as it is'' became one of the aims of [[Chinese painting]] and was a significant influence in Asian art.

Although natural wonders are celebrated in the [[Psalms]] and the [[Book of Job]], [[wilderness]] portrayals in art became more prevalent in the 1800s, especially in the works of the [[Romantic movement]]. [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] artists [[John Constable]] and [[J. M. W. Turner]] turned their attention to capturing the beauty of the natural world in their paintings. Before that, paintings had been primarily of religious scenes or of human beings. [[William Wordsworth]]'s poetry described the wonder of the natural world, which had formerly been viewed as a threatening place. Increasingly the valuing of nature became an aspect of Western culture.<ref name=History>[http://www.spacesfornature.org/greatspaces/conservation.html History of Conservation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060708005819/http://www.spacesfornature.org/greatspaces/conservation.html |date=July 8, 2006 }} BC Spaces for Nature. Accessed: May 20, 2006.</ref> This artistic movement also coincided with the [[Transcendentalism|Transcendentalist movement]] in the Western world. A common classical idea of beautiful art involves the word [[mimesis]], the imitation of nature. Also in the realm of ideas about beauty in nature is that the perfect is implied through perfect mathematical [[Substantial form|forms]] and more generally by [[patterns in nature]]. As David Rothenburg writes, "The beautiful is the root of science and the goal of art, the highest possibility that humanity can ever hope to see".<ref>{{cite book | title=Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science and Evolution | publisher=Bloomsbury | author=Rothenberg, David | isbn=978-1-60819-216-8 | date=2011 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/survivalofbeauti0000roth }}</ref>{{rp|281}}