Mediaeval Sicily, aspects of life and art in the middle ages . ned sumptuous artsof the Arabo-Norman period to which also weshall return. Above all there is the indirect evidence, whichperhaps we may be allowed to discuss here, offeredby the ceiling of the Cappella Palatina. It is nowgenerally accepted as belonging to Saracenic art,and indeed the finest of its kind in its superb com-bination of carving, gilding, ornamental arid figurepainting. In design it is thoroughly Saracenic, andmay be compared with similar ceilings, purelyornamental however, in Cairo, showing a networkof stars enclosing
Mediaeval Sicily, aspects of life and art in the middle ages . ned sumptuous artsof the Arabo-Norman period to which also weshall return. Above all there is the indirect evidence, whichperhaps we may be allowed to discuss here, offeredby the ceiling of the Cappella Palatina. It is nowgenerally accepted as belonging to Saracenic art,and indeed the finest of its kind in its superb com-bination of carving, gilding, ornamental arid figurepainting. In design it is thoroughly Saracenic, andmay be compared with similar ceilings, purelyornamental however, in Cairo, showing a networkof stars enclosing sunk panels and supported on abroad cornice of honeycomb or stalactite bracket-ing. There was a very fine one in the great mosqueof Damascus seen and described in 1184 by ibnJubair. The pictorial and ornamental style showsPersian influence, it is said ; the genre subjectscertainly recall those on the inlaid copper bossesfrom Mossoul—though these happen to be laterin date. Now if we accept this ceiling as thework of Arabo-Sicilian craftsmen, and waive as 24. SARACENIC COLUMN, MUSEUM, PALERMO A 24 THE ARABS IN SICILY impertinent the supposition that Roger II. calledin Persian painter-joiners from Egypt as he calledin mosaicists from Greece, it is evident, surely,that there must have been a flourishing school ofpainting in Arabic Sicily, and a goodly number ofsimilar ceilings in the Saracen cities, castles andpalaces, built with marvellous art destroyed byCount Roger, as he boasts in one of his artistic tradition here manifest must have beenvery firmly established in Saracen Sicily, if theafterglow^—beginning after the sun of Arabiccivilisation had set—shows art of this investigations tend to show, moreover, thatthis tradition drew its inspiration from the foun-tain head, the miraculous source of inspiration inthe Middle East. The light in the nave being dim, it was notreally known to scholars until early in the nineties,when Pavlovski, a Russ
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectart, bookyear1910
