The Landscape as Union between Art and Science. The Legacy of Alexander von Humboldt and Ernst Haeckel

In 2019 the 250th anniversary of the birth of Alexander von Humboldt and the 100th anniversary of the death of Ernst Haeckel offered the opportunity to reconsider their contribution to the natural sciences, to cosmopolitan vision, to a transdisciplinary approach, and to the discovery of interconnected systems. The concepts of what von Humboldt called “Naturgemälde” and Haeckel referred to as “Ecology” imply global links between biotic and abiotic realms, and the pandemic somehow amplified the seriousness of those studies. The imaginative glance of the two men also attests to the value of keeping scientific, humanistic, and artistic thinking together, a significant line for landscape design. The book collects 16 essays of eminent scholars and 4 interviews to landscape architects.