Eliciting Wonder

"Ephemeral ornamentation has a crucial role as a display of the rhetoric of power and as a medium of political and religious messages, but in the quest for an immersive experience for which the early-modern festivals and ceremonies aim, did these emblems provoke admiration and wonder in the audience? How did they capture the attention of the audience? Did they form part of a performance? By case studies from throughout Europe, this book offers a glimpse of the irresistible attraction of emblems as displayed in the profuse ornaments of festival machinery."--