The Seven Ancient Wonders in the Early Modern World

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World have had a lasting impact upon the intellectual landscape of the post-classical world. As well as provoking historical debate and reflection, they have proved an enduring yardstick by which succeeding generations have measured the architectural and cultural accomplishments of their own eras. Focusing particularly upon the Renaissance and Baroque periods, this book looks at how the Wonders of the World were represented in art, architecture and sculpture, and the ways that European courts could evoke them as a useful image of power. Within this artistic culture, special attention is paid to the recreations and constructions generated between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries in the sphere of ephemeral art, especially those linked to court celebrations in the principal European states. This approach provides a framework to analyse and evaluate the claims of other European Renaissance and Baroque architecture to Wonder status, an approach bolstered by the use of the Palace of El Escorial as a case study of a modern ‘Eighth Wonder’.

Author Biography

Inmaculada Rodríguez-Moya is Assistant Professor in the University Jaume I, Spain. Her research has followed four lines of investigation: Iconography of Power, Colonial Art, Emblem Studies and Urbanism History. That research has been published in the form of two peer-reviewed and awarded monographs: La Mirada del virrey (2003) and El retrato del poder en México, 1781–1867 (2006), seven co-authored monographs, including Himeneo en la corte (2013), along with edited volumes, articles and contributions.

Víctor Mínguez is Full Professor in the University Jaume I, Spain. His research has followed three main lines of investigation: Images of Power, Emblematic Art and Latin American Art. His main research monographs are: Los reyes distantes (1995), Los reyes solares (2001) and La invención de Carlos II (2013); and, with Inmaculada Rodríguez-Moya, Himeneo en la Corte (2013) and Napoleón y el espejo de la Antigüedad (2014).