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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protection ; severeedicts are issued later, ordering the restitution ofrunaway serfs, or of lands wrongfully laid hands on.We even find papal bulls exhorting the monks tokeep the peace, or bishops to do as they are told.In 1211, however, Frederic II. proceeds to set hisSicilian house in order. He seems to have suc-ceeded by 1220. These dates, again, are of someimportance for the history of art. The Cathedral of Monreale belongs, with Cefaluand Palermo, to the group that has been claimed asshowing Norman influence on the strength of thetwo sturdy western towers. Undeniably Latin,these towers are not, however, incorporated withthe building as they are in Normandy. Internallythere is no transept, the east end still retains theGreek elongated sanctuary with the solea, thoughthe dome over it has been replaced by a timberroof It is significant, also, that the mosaics corre-spond to the iconographical conceptions of theGreek liturgy. The exterior of the apse is all a rich embroidery208 XXXV
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EXTERIOR OF APSE, CATHEDRAL, MONREALE 209 THE CATHEDRAL OF MONREALE of precious shafts, interlacing arches and lava inlays,toned golden by time ; a little over-ripe and profuse,but very Eastern and effective in the Sicilian sun-light, when seen from below, rising up among theclustered houses of the hill-side town surroundedby the glorious mountain ranges. This decoration is repeated round the windowsof the clerestory and thewest front. The northporch is Renaissance, with some old capitals. Thewest door has a very fine carved doorway whichmight be called Sicilian in style if it were not theonly one in existence—now ; it is not impossiblethat the Cathedral of Palermo had a similar door-way. There is a certain affinity with Cefalu, notin style but in the general lines of the arrangement;a pentagonal gable, enclosing one of the usualround-arched doorways, framed in flat bands ofcarved ornament, without a tympanum, with afine transverse band of capitals between the roundarches and the co

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