Tag: palatine chapel

Postcard from Palermo, Sicily: Byzantine mosaics and Moorish muqarnas

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Adam and Eve, 10th-century mosaic in the Palatine Chapel inside the Norman Palace

The Palatine Chapel is the most beautiful in the world, the most surprising religious jewel ever evolved up by the human mind and executed by the hand of an artist…. where the harshness of the Gothic style brought here by the Normans is tempered by the wonderful art of Byzantine ornamentation and decoration.”

Guy de Maupassant, “La Vie Errante,” 1901

The facade of the immense Norman Palace is so cold and boring, I could not bear to take a photo of it. The original stark building was built to serve as the residence of kings installed after the Norman conquest in 1072. But one should never judge a book by its cover….

Proclaimed the King of Sicily by papal bull in 1130, Roger II (1095-1154) had been exposed to the various architectural influences that had ebbed and flowed with invasions of the island for centuries. For the eight-year construction of the royal chapel within the palace, he recycled some rather wild Corinthian columns and tapped both the talents of Moorish builders to craft the honey-combed muqarnas of the vaulted ceilings and Byzantine artists for the exquisitely detailed mosaics of the transept. The mosaics of the nave, a little bit cruder but still stunning, were commissioned from local artisans by William I (1120-1166), known as William the Bad; and William II (1153-1189), known as William the Good.

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Postcard from Naples, Italy: The Egg and the New Castle

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Castel dell’Ovo

Castel dell’Ovo stands astride the small island of Megaride that originally was settled by Greek colonists in the 6th century B.C. Five centuries later, a Roman patrician built his villa on the site, now attached to the mainland. Its name, the Egg Castle, arises from a legend that the poet and magician Virgil (70-19 B.C.) placed an egg into the foundation of the fortress to support it. If the magical egg were ever to be broken, disaster would befall Naples.

Appointed Roman Emperor in 475, Flavius Romulus Augustus ruled for but a year before being overthrown and imprisoned in the castle, possibly until the end of his life. A monastery was founded on the castle site shortly before the year 500. Emperor Valentinian III (419-455) added fortifications to the site toward the end of his reign, but those fortifications were of little help to the crumbling Roman Empire. Valentinian III was assassinated in Rome, and Rome was soon sacked by the Vandals, whose destructive invasion contributed the word vandalism to our vocabulary.

Most of the early fortifications were demolished to prevent use by invading forces. Perhaps the magical egg was broken, because the piece of prime real estate on the bay captured the attention of Roger the Norman (1095-1154) who conquered Naples in 1140. He set up his headquarters there in a new castle.

These bronze doors dating from 1475 were originally at the entrance of the New Castle. One has an iron cannon ball embedded in it.
Castel Nuovo
Castel Nuovo
Castel Nuovo
detail of “Crucifixion,” Antonio Stabile, 1300s
Santa Barbara reliquary, Lelio Giliberto, 1607
Castel Nuovo
Castel Nuovo
detail of the marble triumphal arch at the entrance of Castel Nuovo
detail of reliquary of San Gennaro
Santa Barbara reliquary, Lelio Giliberto, 1607
“Crucifixion,” Antonio Stabile, 1300s
Castel dell’Ovo
Castel Nuovo
Triumphal Arch at the entrance of Castel Nuovo
detail of a painting in the Civic Museum in Castel Nuovo
detail of a painting in the Civic Museum in Castel Nuovo

But this Egg Castle was relegated to the role of an old one, one well-suited to serve as a prison. Normanesque was not the style of Charles of Anjou (1226-1285), King of Sicily, and a son of King Louis VIII of France (1187-1226). A little farther around the Bay of Naples, Castel Nuovo, or Maschio Angioino, was designed as a more palatial fortification. It served as the royal seat for rulers from off and on 1279 until 1815. The most notorious of, and the end of, the line of Anjou royals there was Queen Joanna II (1371-1435). During her tumultuous reign she was known for her several marriages and numerous lovers. Rumors swirled that she disposed of her lovers by unceremoniously dumping them via a secret trap door into a well in the castle’s dungeons where they were consumed by a resident crocodile.

King Alfonso V of Aragon (1396-1458) remodeled the palace in a Catalan-Majorcan-Gothic style. The impressive marble entryway added in 1470 commemorates his entry into Naples in 1442. The royals associated with the House of Bourbon found the New Castle not sumptuous enough for their tastes and added several luxurious new palaces in and around Naples beginning in the mid-1700s.

Unfortunately, the Palatine Chapel with its Giotto frescoes and several other portions of the Castel Nuovo were closed off during our visit, but the Civic Museum was open.