ABSTRACT
The triumph, ubiquitous across Europe in the Renaissance, was a blessing to both monarchs and artists. The use of the past in the present for erecting triumphal monuments in the Renaissance was rendered comparatively easy by the immense number of sources available to poets and architects. Triumph-makers did not hide their sources. On the contrary, proud of their classical heritage, they boasted their deep knowledge, listing a vast array of ancient authors, often obscure. Although they claimed that in their new creations they were explicitly imitating Roman triumphs, they probably gleaned most of their information from the compendia on ancient pomp and ceremonies which had appeared from the middle of the sixteenth century. Triumphal forms in France in the sixteenth century and early part of the seventeenth century revealed a continuity of style and decoration such that, notwithstanding their erudite pretensions, artists and writers could rely on the readers' and spectators' familiarity with them.
