File:Mediaeval Sicily, aspects of life and art in the middle ages (1910) (14778463742).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:
-NORMAN PALACES : THE SUMPTUOUS ARTS There is no doubt about the luxurious Eastern typepresented by the pleasure palaces of the NormanKings. It is so unmistakable and suggestive thatit used to be taken for granted, during the earlierromantic period of Sicilian archaeology, that theydated from the time of the Emirs, these tall mys-terious buildings, crowned aloft with enigmaticinscriptions in recondite Arabic lettering and con-taining halls—now opening directly on to publicif deserted squares in quiet garden quarters—likethose of the Zisa outside Palermo, with its stalactiteceiling, its walls panelled with precious marbles andgorgeous golden mosaics, the little tinkling rill ofwater, kept cool in the Oriental way by runningdown over a carved slab, flanked by inlaid stepswhich once glittered in gold and ruby beside themoving veil of water. This opinion was at one time held by Giraultdc Prangey, the finest and most gifted art criticthat has studied these palaces, and was by him putno
Text Appearing After Image:
AKABO-NORMAN PALACES forward in his fine standard work— Essai surIarchitecture des Arabes et des Mores en Espagne,en Sicile et en Barbarie, published in 1841. But it is a far cry in archaBology from 1841 to191 o. For the Cuba all doubts were solved as soonas Amari, then a political exile in Paris, had read theinscription (at first from paper squeezings obtainedby two enthusiastic young archceologists, Patricoloand Salinas, at the peril of their lives), which refersto William II., and gives the date of 1180. For theZisa likewise, with the progress of photography . . .and the fall of the Bourbons. These palaces are notArab; they are Arabo-Norman, like some featuresof the Norman administration, like the life at courtand in these halls, like the poems sung in praise ofthem. ... As for the Favarah, or Castello di MareDolce, it is possible that it is built on the site ofa pre-existing villa of the Emirs, as suggested byAmari, who sees a reference to the Emir Gafar inthe name of Kasr Gafar

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