File:Mediaeval Sicily, aspects of life and art in the middle ages (1910) (14775676051).jpg

Identifier: cu31924081258430 (find matches)
Title: Mediaeval Sicily, aspects of life and art in the middle ages
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Waern, Cecilia, 1853-
Subjects: Art Art, Medieval
Publisher: London, Duckworth & co
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image:
ing the pious and humblesentiments of the founder Giorgios. Over one otthe side doors the restorer has set up a carvedmarble lintel (found, I believe, inside), representingan Oriental archer and two nondescript beasties,enclosed in an elegant acanthus scroll ; one of themany instances of the widespread influence andromantic Far Eastern origins of sea-borneByzantine. It evidently hails from Apulia andis a copy in marble on a larger scale of one ofthese Byzantine (Syrian) ivory panels repro-ducing Sassanian motives that set the imaginationof the Western craftsman at work when thesculptors art began to reawaken. The interior shows us a cruciform church, withthe four spaces between the arms of the crossoccupied by intersecting vaults, lower than therest of the roof, and three apses (originally ; themain apse is gone). The dome over the centreis set on an octagon, obtained by cutting off theangles of the square below by means of recessedniches, and abutted by cylindrical vaults bent to XVI
Text Appearing After Image:
Incorfora, Palermo THE MARTORANA, PALERMORestoration begun but not completed. / ISO THE MARTORANA follow the lines of the arches ; two in the sideaisles, two spanning the nave. Round the bottomof the dome there runs another inscription dis-covered during the restoration ; this one in Arabic,painted on wood, in handsome Cufic lettering inwhite with a floral spray on a black background.(There is a copy in the Museum.) The words aretaken from a beautiful, very old Greek Christianhymn. Was there then a large proportion of theChristian population of Palermo that only under-stood Arabic ? Or does this border, which setsoff the mosaics so well, denote a mere fashion indecoration, such as is undeniably met with else-where, especially later, making use of the effectiveplay of line of this extremely decorative lettering ?Or must we conclude, with Amari, that this inscrip-tion proves the stonemasons to have been Arabs ?The use of the pointed arch, which is of thevariety then prevailing in Sarace

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