Mediaeval Sicily, aspects of life and art in the middle ages . d the crafts-men sought work elsewhere, thus sending a waveof influence rippling out over the mainland, to addto those already in motion. There was evidentlya return wave in the thirteenth century, fromthe joyous, semi-pagan, neo-classical school ofsculpture, fostered, if not called into being, as somewriters have supposed—no art worth having wasever produced at the bidding of princes—by 231 MEDIiEVAL SICILY Frederic II., for his great building undertakingsat Castel del Monte, Capua, and elsewhere. It isto these workshops that the
Mediaeval Sicily, aspects of life and art in the middle ages . d the crafts-men sought work elsewhere, thus sending a waveof influence rippling out over the mainland, to addto those already in motion. There was evidentlya return wave in the thirteenth century, fromthe joyous, semi-pagan, neo-classical school ofsculpture, fostered, if not called into being, as somewriters have supposed—no art worth having wasever produced at the bidding of princes—by 231 MEDIiEVAL SICILY Frederic II., for his great building undertakingsat Castel del Monte, Capua, and elsewhere. It isto these workshops that the neo-classical capitalsof Monreale are due,* also the finest and mostrefined of the carved shafts at the angles, and theball or knob carved with the dancing women atthe top of the famous fountain. To this school belongs, further, the top of theCappella Palatina candlestick and a baptismal fontwith charming representations of the Months, thathas found its way to Lentini on the east coast. * Cf. the closely allied work at Sta. Reparata in Naples. a-za XLIII. CLOISTER, MONREALE p. 232 CHAPTER XI FREDERIC II. AND SICILIAN GOTHIC The influence of Frederic II. on Palermitan art isby no means so great as one might infer from hisbrilHant eclecticism, his art-loving disposition andthe fame of his oft-described poetic and learnedcourt in Palermo. Probably this is so by virtue ofthis very eclecticism, of which we catch suchamusing glimpses in Arabic accounts of his visitto Jerusalem as a keenly curious and reverentialsightseer. When night falls and the evening callto prayer is not heard, he is greatly disappointed,and, turning to the Caid, asks for an Caid replies that he had given orders tosuppress it for that night only out of regard forhim, the emperor ; whereupon this precursor of theintelligent modern tourist answers—after gentlyobserving that in his countries the Caid would hearit observed—that he makes a mistake, by Allah !—the main reason why he, the emper
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