ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book demonstrates the permanent interest and relevance of festival iconography by reading a key passage from the Bulgaro-Austrian writer Elias Canetti's Crowds and Power as 'an analysis of the origin of triumphal entries'. Iconography can be sensitive, against familiar assumptions, to the micro politics of personal relationships. Thus the iconography of power could be transformed, Canova-Green shows, into an iconography of peace-after-conflict, in response to the politics of the moment and the practical circumstances of the spectators. The language of iconography has also displayed, as a remarkable resilience, being sufficiently enduring to embrace the fortunes of few female rulers, or consorts, separated by almost five centuries, and equally by revolutions in taste, politics and social structures. The book traces the close alignment of festive militarism, pageants, triumphal arches, obelisks and paintings, but also manuscripts, miniatures, drawings and tapestries.
