Incredible work tracing how Heemskerck's engravings basically froze the canon in 1572! The fact that ancient sources listed up to 22 diferent monuments but we settled on seven becuase of one artist's drawings really underscores how contingent our historical narratives are. What's especially intresting is that Heemskerck never visited most of these sites, so our collective visual memory of ancient wonders is built partly on educated guesses and Renaissance imagination rather than direct observation.
Incredible work tracing how Heemskerck's engravings basically froze the canon in 1572! The fact that ancient sources listed up to 22 diferent monuments but we settled on seven becuase of one artist's drawings really underscores how contingent our historical narratives are. What's especially intresting is that Heemskerck never visited most of these sites, so our collective visual memory of ancient wonders is built partly on educated guesses and Renaissance imagination rather than direct observation.
I would say that our understanding of ancient wonders have a lot of Renaissance imagination and quite little educated guesses.
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