The Byzantine mosaics of Sicily are an example of Byzantine art in Italy. Although the Byzantines had occupied Sicily from 535 until the Islamic invasion of the island in 827 (although the last stronghold Rometta capitulated only in 965), were the Norman princes, which consolidated the conquest of Sicily and proclaimed in 1130 the Kingdom of Sicily, they took advantage of Byzantine (or Byzantine school) workers, for their palaces and churches.
It is indeed with Roger II, and first king, that the churches of Palermo began to be covered with mosaics, and not existing in situ, they resorted, as for many other events in the center at that time more resonant prestige, and with the which interchange relations existed: that is, the mosaicists of Constantinople.
The oldest mosaics in Sicily
The Byzantine art, in its most dignified forms, is documented – as well as in the mosaics re-emerged in Santa Sofia, in the decorations of the peripheral churches and in the miniatures – in the most ancient nucleus of mosaics in the Sicilian churches: in the most ancient part (dome and presbytery)) of the mosaics of the Palatine Chapel and in those that cover the church of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio of Palermo; in those that decorate the apse of the cathedral of Cefalù (the most classic among the Sicilian mosaics), on which later those of the apse of the cathedral of Monreale were later exemplary; finally in the walls (those of the ceiling are later) of the “Sala di Re Ruggero” in the Palazzo dei Normanni, and in those that decorate the cross vault on the bema in the cathedral of Cefalù.
The decoration of Monreale was realized between 1180 and 1190, although iconographically it appears to be largely foreshadowed by the decoration of the aisles of the Palatine Chapel started in the time of William I, when, in connection with what happened in architecture, for mediation of the culture of Campania, western thoughts and ways began to undermine the eastern (Arabian and Byzantine) fabric of Sicilian art. It is thus witness of a new influx of Byzantine workers in Sicily linked to the tour of culture developed in late- comnena age. The easy comparison between the analogous scenes of two corresponding cycles (those, for example, taken from the Old Testament), proves that from the mosaics of the Palatine Chapel to those of the cathedral of Monreale there is no passage; and yet it is absolutely impossible to postulate, as Kissinger rightly noted, a continuity in the development of stylistic modes.
In comparison to the still aulic and classical ways, even in the narrative accents, of the mosaics of the nave of the Palatine Chapel, to their ornamental staticity, so efficaciously secondary to the melodic play of the lines, the scenes of Monreale are characterized by a rapid and animated movement, served from the continuous fragmentation of the line, from the prominence of the colors no longer laid down in static and circumscribed local areas; for a more organic inclusion in the vast architectural scores, so that the latter seem designed to accommodate the mosaic decoration and be enhanced by mosaic layouts, and the decoration to be inserted into the architecture, and from the latter to the maximum valued and made evident.
These ways, from the formal point of view, are unprecedented in Sicily, but have them in the Greek East, where everything – says Kitzinger – ” a vast group of frescoes and mosaics scattered in various parts of the Byzantine world and along the its borders “(Macedonia, Bulgaria, Cappadocia…), presents substantially similar stylistic phenomena. These manifestations, to appear simultaneously in a vast area – as far as the main lunettes of Sant’Angelo in Formis and the mosaics of Monreale- can only be explained as the irradiation of metropolitan moods. Such humors, in the monreale mosaics, are welded with those of the Campanian culture, also validating for this aspect the phenomenon that is felt in the architecture, in a moment in which in the court of Palermo had prominent positions such as Romualdo Salernitano and Matteo Aiello, formed in the Catania area of southern Italy.
In fact, with the completion of the cathedral of Monreale, architecture has witnessed the decline of the ancient forms of Eastern, Arab or Byzantine ancestry, and the influence of Campanian forms, which manifest themselves not only in the recovery of the Latin plants. but also, and above all, in the showy colored decoration (intertwining arches, colored discs, bronze doors, liturgical furnishings, etc…), which decribes and transfigures the ancient architectures composed on modules of speculated geometry, giving a new, more ornate and enlivened, the structure of new buildings.
Chronological limits of the most ancient mosaics of Sicily
The activity of the Byzantine masters in Sicilyit is reduced in two moments: the oldest one is included in the short turn of just over a decade. In fact, the inscription of the mosaic band that frames at the base of the dome of the Palatine Chapel testifies that its decoration was completed in 1143; while the underlying mosaics and the ones that – with the exception of the apses – adorn the presbytery do not override Ruggero’s death date, February 1154. This is derived from two texts of fundamental importance. The much-discussed homily of the pseudo Theophanes Cerameo – certainly recited in the presence of the king, on the occasion of the solemn feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, to whom the chapel was dedicated – ascertains the presence on the walls of the church of Ruggerian mosaics. The Chronicon pass Romualdo Salernitano allows us, albeit indirectly, to set the limit of this decoration.
In the homily, in fact, not only is the ceiling ” shining with gold in every part “, but also the walls and their marble and mosaic covering. Since it must be admitted that the mosaic decoration of the time of the first Guglielmo is that of the walls of the central nave and of the lateral ships it follows that the mosaics mentioned in the homily are those of the presbytery, and that for the occasion the walls of the church were ornate of precious drapes and fabrics.
In the same 1143, stopped in the inscription of the mosaic band that frames at the base the drum of the dome of the Palatine, was also completed or almost the decoration of the church of Admiral, as written in a diploma of that year of its founder George of Antioch.
The mosaics of the apse of Cefalù, according to the inscription that runs at the base of the last figurative register, were executed in 1148: There is no reason to doubt this date, because as Di Stefano has now declared, the decoration musiva is part of that phase of construction, the second, which saw particularly busy Ruggero to make that of Cefalù, following the example of Saint Denis, the representative church of the Norman monarchy in Sicily.
Later in time, but still in Ruggerian age, the mosaics of one of the cross-ribbed vaults of the bema seem to be in Cefalù, whether they, with the Schwartz, are considered constructively tied to the apse, or that with Di Stefano they consider themselves executed around 1150, when abandoned the project of the grandiose construction, the insertion of the vaults, exemplary on French models, could be a compensation for the renunciation of the completion of the apse.
The complex of the Sicilian mosaics is thus included in two well-concluded moments in their chronological limits. The oldest group, that of the Ruggerian age, has its epilogue in some areas of the mosaics of the presbytery of the Palatina and in those of the vault of Cefalù. The second group, however, started during the reign of the first William, has its largest manifestation in the mosaics of the cathedral of Monreale. The characters of the two groups are different, but in their difference they find a point of passage in the mosaics of the central nave of the Palatine Chapel, for the accents that still recall the oldest ones and for the structure that, particularly on the iconographic plane, is a prelude to those more advanced.
The mosaics of the “Sala di Re Ruggero” are very likely to belong in this period, in which scholars such as Muratoff and Bettini see a reflection of the ” Bisanzio palace shops “, but the decorations of the metropolis disappeared. it is the only work left to document the profane and courteous aspect of Byzantine art, imbued with moods and Muslim motifs.
For what touches the reasons of style, the mosaics of the “Hall of King Roger” (the speech naturally goes to those of the walls) seem to fit in the line from the panels of the “parties” of the presbytery of the Palatine Chapel leads to scenes taken from the Old Testament in the central nave: some of them reiterate the linear accents, with an even more static sense, for the recovery of the archaic frontal compositions and for the exclusion of any spatial indication, so that the figures come to be collected in the initials araldically refined profiles, pushed up to the preciousness of the arabesque, while the trees, stylized in geometric appearances, acquire a character of fabulous fixity.
The mosaic band of the Zisa is re-attached to them, and the rather snappy and animated tone of the complex leads one to believe it is more advanced. In other words, it can be said that between the mosaics of the Sala di Re Ruggero and those of the Zisa the same relationship exists between the mosaics of the central nave of the Palatina and those of the central nave of Monreale. And it can not be ruled out that they belong at the same time as the decoration of the famous cathedral.
The arrangement of mosaics
The first and most important part of the mosaic decoration of the Sicilian churches was therefore carried out between 1140 and 1154. It was often worked in different churches at the same time, and several masters and different workers were employed, even if both of them accuse similar aspects and appear to be linked to the same cultural environment, to the same center of art and civilization. However, if different were the masters and the workers, the only criterion was that – apart from the adaptation to the different type of constructions, now centric, now basilic – it served as a guide to the decoration, always limited, at least in this first phase, to the area of the sanctuary and that of the portico – where both the Palatina and the Admiral church and Cefalù- the votive or dedicatory figures, that is the extraliturgical figures, found their place.
The decoration of the small church, built by Giorgio d ‘ Antiochia, is the most homogeneous example, even if not the most complex and tall one of the oldest. Dominating the dome of the dome, within a golden disc, the Pantocrator blessing, represented not half-length as in the Palatine but, according to a more archaic, full-figure; and in the cap bow adoring four figures of angels. In the octagonal drum of the dome, right at the corners, are the figures of the prophets (David, Isaiah, Zechariah, Moses, Jeremiah, Elijah, Elisha,Daniele) with the right raised in the classic gesture of the oratories and the left in the act of showing the scroll of the prophecies; in the vaults, flanking the drum of the dome transversely, they are instead two-by-two aligned and faced, in even more impressive forms, the figures of the apostles: Peter and Andrew, James and Paul, Thomas and Philip, Simon and Bartholomew. The series of the apostles, from which Giacomo Maggiore and Mattia are excluded, is completed, in Byzantine fashion, by the curved evangelists in the angular niches of the link.
Of the cycle of “parties” we can not see but four scenes: the Nativity and the Dormitio Virginis, facing each other in the west vault: the Annunciation and the Presentation to the Temple, figured as in the Palatine on the fronts of the large arches supporting the dome. Diehl thinks that the four scenes shown are the only ones left or the only ones executed throughout the cycle. But, to consider the limited proportions of the church, it can also be supposed that of the twelve scenes of the cycle, who conceived the plan of decoration, chose only those in more immediate relationship with the life of the Virgin, to whom the church was dedicated.
The decoration is completed with the Saints warriors and the Holy Bishops, within medallions, in the arches, and with the mosaics of the apses: in the central one the Virgin was represented assisted by the archangels Gabriel and Michael, who are still seen in the corresponding band of the bema; in the lateral apses, in a San Gioacchino, in the other Sant’Anna.
In the Palatine Chapel the representation of the “parties” turns into a real Christological cycle. Twelve scenes grouped into ten compartments (Annunciation, Nativity and Adoration of the Magi, Dream of Joseph and Fugue in Egypt, Presentation in the Temple, Baptism, Transfiguration, Resurrection of Lazarus, Entrance to Jerusalem, Ascension, Pentecost) recall the story of Christ that part that best connects with its otherworldly nature and the divine triumph in eternity. Missing scenes related to the Passion, the human counterpart of the Christology affair, but they, at least according to the opinion of Kitzinger, should have found a place in the northern side, then occupied by the tribune for the royal throne. The presence of it would explain, according to the Demus, some iconographic peculiarities, such as the location in the left aisidiola, instead of the central one, of Hodigitria, and its arrangement, slightly off-centered on the right side of the basin (the image in this way he could well see himself from the throne); and according to the Kronig, it would complicate, with a surplus of symbolic meaning,
In any case, even if the liturgical significance assumes a politico-religious implication, and the same iconography is enriched by new connections and subtle implications, it can not be said that the iconographic arrangement of the Palatina presbytery is overwhelming in the traditional scheme. For it, as in the church of the Martorana and later in the apse of the cathedral of Cefalù, from the representation of the celestial Church, symbolized by the Pantocrator – isolated in the most dominant point: the top of the dome, or the apse – and its angelic cortege, we move to the representation of the earthly Church, and in this passage, which implies a hierarchy of symbols, each scene and each figure have a precise function, made evident by the same preordained collocation. From heaven we pass step by step to the earth, where eternity reveals itself as a immaculate paradigm of perfection, and to the human affair adumbrated by Etymasia(the symbolic throne with the insignia of Christ) is proposed, as a ladder to reach heaven, the exemplarity of the earthly Church, established by the earthly and celestial vicissitudes of Christ, witnessed by the lives of the saints and comforted by the doctrine of the Fathers. In this way, not a historical event is the basis of the iconographic order, to stimulate the imagination of the artist, but the theocratic fixity of the dogma and of the liturgy.
Precedents and development of the iconographic order
The iconographic order just mentioned appears, to what is known, in the mosaics of the ” Nea ” – the ” new church ” par excellence – founded in the second half of the ninth century by Basil I, and of which there is news for the description made from the patriarch Photius in one of his ” Sermons “. Equally destroyed are the mosaics that adorned the church of the SS. Apostles, re-enacted by the descriptions of Constantine Rodio and Nicola Mesarite; so that the most ancient monument in which the new system is based is nowadays constituted by the mosaics of the church of San Luca in Focide, as is generally believed in the first half of the 9th century (around 1035). But if you want an example that the Sicilians are not only close to the iconographic arrangement, but because of the way it is interpreted, and for the resumption of the classical models, we must turn to the decoration of the Dormition church in Daphni in the Attica, which we tend to believe carried out at the beginning of the ninth century.
The group of mosaics of the Sicilian churches, apart from the generic similarities of the iconographic arrangement, has very little in common with the tradition to which the mosaics of San Luca are linked, which is traditionally delayed and provincial in many respects, even when he asserts in metropolitan or metropolitan monuments, such as the mosaics of St. Sophia and St. Michael in Kiev. The orientation to which the Sicilian mosaics more directly re-attach is the one defined as “aulic”, and it is precisely the orientation echoed by the mosaics of Daphni. Many of the passages that exist between San Luca and Daphni and from these to the Sicilian mosaics are unknown, and yet of the Greek mosaics, both on the iconographic and on the stylistic level, it is not possible to make a previous record of the Sicilian ones. Their arrangement, supported by the same conformation of the building, is still that of San Luca, but in comparison one gets the impression of being in the presence of a new world, more abstract and motionless and above all more harmonious and worldly.
In iconographic invention, the only element of oriental derivation is constituted by the solemn and inaccessible figure of the Pantocrator; the other figures and the other scenes have a less detached tone and, on the vast range of gold, are, from the modulated variety of the chromatic accents, registered with nobility of ancient mold. The liturgical arrangement is subordinated to the color rhythm, in which it is transfigured: the various figures and the various scenes are still arranged within the limits of the architectural compartments, but their ritual and hierarchical isolation is overcome by the continuous attracting and responding of colors, and more from the relationship of mutual exaltation that, especially in some areas (the drum of the dome, for example, scenographically dilated by the succession of the Prophets,
In Sicilian churches, the iconographic order corresponds exactly, at least in the directive principles, to the criteria presented, but where it appears to be more coherent in the church of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio in Palermo, and then, with perfect adaptation to the basilica plant, in the cathedral of Cefalù and in the apse of the cathedral of Monreale. In Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio the decoration, though following, following Daphni’s example, the development of architectural structures, is articulated with greater freedom on the vast golden fields. A punctual desaturation can be indicated in the rhythmic succession of the prophets on the octagonal faces of the dome drum, but the point of most intimate concordance is in the revival of classical motifs and in the renewed balance between liturgical conveniences and the unfolding of the visual effect.
In the apse of the cathedral of Cefalù and in that of the cathedral of Monreale, derived from it, the decoration harmonizes the integrity of the dogmatic signification with the basilical trend of the buildings, and is in relationship with the architectural structure that explains the recovery of the premaperone type, and of iconic derivation, of the stern figure of the Pantocrator, which is grandiose in the basins of the two apses. In Cefalù the theory of the eight Apostles, under the band in the center of the praying Virgin, symbolizes the earthly church and the sacrament of the Eucharist together.
This iconographic conception is also present in the plan of the decoration of the Palatine Chapel: here, however, it goes well beyond the only goal of Daphni, but also of the most advanced examples of the Admiral church and the cathedral of Cefalù. The decoration, in particular that of the area below the dome’s drum, is already dissolved by the rhythm of the architectural scores, and covers the structures and walls “like a golden, beautifully flowered carpet of color. It certainly maintains its internal logic in such an unfolding, but it does not always coincide with that of architecture, so that the sense of surfaces and their development in the rhythm of the centric organism can not be grasped with the stinging underlined immediacy, to refer to the nearest example, in the church of Admiral. This autonomy towards the known models, which probably can not be done with the suggestion of the Arabic decoration of the adjoining halls of the building (admitted – which is hard to believe – that it had already been done), as well as in the arrangement of the whole, it also captures the engrossing of quite a few scenes, including those relating to the Christological cycle:Daphni is only one stage of its development – it is not for nothing that this artist is the most gifted among those who work in Sicily at the moment – even more brilliant and learned, and yet freer and more worldly.
Stylistic analysis
Among the various mosaic cycles of Sicily it is easy to grasp significant points of contact. This is especially true of the mosaics of the Palatine Chapel and of the Admiral’s church, about which it may also be useful to note that the analogies run, in a certain sense, parallel to the corresponding groups. Even in the context of a common orientation, the affinities become more marked between the corresponding decorations of the two domes, between the decoration of the areas under the domes and finally in the episodes of the “parties”.
The decoration of the dome, with the Pantocrator at its center, is the most ancient part of the mosaics of the Palatine Chapel, and almost at the same time the same part of the decoration of the Admiral’s church was executed. The reference is not accidental because between the two figures of the Pantocrator, despite being that of the Church of the Admiral inspired by a more archaic scheme, many affinities exist: both the one and the other figure detach from the impalpable golden background as from an uneven surface and they come together, matching the tondo that contains them, within the perspicuous contour line, with sharp clarity, served by the meticulous completeness of the design and the clear color that, especially in the figure of the Admiral church, shines on bottom surface. THE’ inaccessible serenity of these remote images is supported by the wisdom of those who can rely on the data acquired from a long experience and the wisdom that accompanies each academic. In the underlying mosaics, including those on the faces of the arches, the relationship between the Palatine Chapel and the Admiral’s church becomes more accentuated, but the tone – especially in relation to the sumptuous ring with the angels, “purified reverberation of the courtly ceremonial and of the splendor of the Byzantine court “, and of a” supreme pictorial quality… in the color… multiplied by the ornamentation on the robes, by the iris of the unexplored wings “- is more italic, and wider are the restorations and reconstructions.
The highest part of the Palatine is the Christological cycle. The unknown mosaicist draws from the contemporary miniature, as the Kondakoff had already observed, the terms of his well-convinced poetics. Hence the lengthening of the proportions of the figures, and the undulating rhythms of the contours, of a splendid purity; hence the increasing number of figures in the compositions, and the contained narrative vivacity that replaces the statuary isolation of the images; hence the elimination in the line of each drawing implied and the color of the colors, of a clear intonation and an Argentinian stamp, in flat and circumscribed areas, so that the scenes appear recorded in a singer and united tone, cold and bright. Also in these mosaics the sign is supported by a graphicism of academic commitment,Egypt decanted, on the golden background, by the same light of the clear colors, in the manner of a precious illuminated page; now she pours herself amused in the witty freshness of the episodes, as in the Entrance of Jesus to Jerusalem, whose festivity is accentuated by the silver clearness of the mountainous rise, which enhances the brightness of the colors. Precisely this scene – but the exemplification could widen – to repeat approximately the invasion of that of Daphni, can make measure, despite the similarities, perhaps too accentuated by Muratoff, the separation between the two artists. Few figures to Daphni, and a sign otherwise well resentful and tightened in the binding relationship of the composition. The relaxed and gay rhythm of the composition of the Palatine is therefore more severe, and is served by a vibrant plot of chromatic passages, unknown to the mosaicist of the Palermo scene, which instead makes the color shine in its purity – hence the different system of placement of the cards – and places it in zones joined on the plane.
To the mosaicist of the “parties” belongs also the Pantocrator of the lunette at the top of the diaconic: a masterpiece of equilibrium and refinement and, of course, the highest image of the whole complex. The comparison with that of the dome serves to highlight clearly the diversity of the manner as the chosen quality: the levity of the linear fabric, which all raises the figure and includes it, with a wonderfully harmonious relationship, within the sixth rise of the bezel, and the color that shines high, sealing the image like a translucent veil.
The mosaics that decorate the interior of the Admiral’s church present a more homogeneous and linked character, but it is not doubtful that various artists have worked here too. It is not for example those who do not see the difference between the figure of the Pantocrator and scenes like the Annunciation or the Presentation in the Temple. What is defined is the first figure, equally moved and contrasted, in the resentful and tight knotting and unfolding of the drapery, in the play of lights and shadows, are, as in the Palatine Chapel, the other figures, and how much movement resolves into a continuous chiaroscuro accentuation, so the figures detach from the background with an illusion of relief.
A master of higher possibilities, but always in connection with that of the sumptuous figurations of the Palatine, had to provide the cartoons for the angels who bow in the cup-shaped cap, for the archangels of the vault on the bema; for the prophets of the drum and for the evangelists of angular niches; and it is probably the master who conceived, in the Admiral church, the two compartments with the Nativity and the Dormitio Virginia. The comparison with the similar scenes of the Palatina is instructive to understand – even among the undeniable affinities – the different way of feeling of the two masters. The compositions are no longer spread out on the surface but, more in keeping with tradition, focus on themselves, collecting themselves in more severe and synthetic lines, avoiding any rambling dispersal. S ‘ look, for example, in the Nativity the profile of the cave, articulated in a simple and grandiose line, without, at the summit, that jagged ornament of which, on the contrary, it pleases itself and on which the mosaicist of the Palatine stands. But overall this is a simpler and more static scene.
The two major groups of mosaics of the Admiral’s church – that is, the one that includes the prophets of the dome drum and the two scenes of the Nativity and Death of the Virgin and the one with the figures of the Apostles, in which the tone becomes more sustained and the relief draws a surprising illusory – they are proposed in this way as “the purest and direct continuation of Dafni ” (Bettini).
This reference obviously goes beyond the analogous arrangement, in one or the other monument, of the figures of the prophets around the dome’s drum, and touches the same quality of style, in relation to which the word “continuation” must be understood as overcoming the “illusionistic” legacy that surrounds the figures of Daphni in a continuous vibration of colors and makes them stand out, with extreme softness of passages, on the golden background, from where the figures of the small church of Palermo may appear stiffer and static, more abstract and detached.
The mosaics of the apse of the cathedral of Cefalù undoubtedly belong to the activity of a single artist, who, judging from the drier modeling, availed himself of some help only for the realization of the figure of the Pantocrator. On the whole, the well preserved work is the noblest, if not the most brilliant, among those in Sicily that are due to the direct activity of Byzantine artists. And it is only in this sense that the judgments of Millet, Wulff and others must be ascertained, taken up and reiterated by Lasareff. Only the Muratoff has trod the hand on these mosaics and, even if he did not fail to detect the ” great skill and technical accuracy of the execution “, he judged them ” frigidly official”; which is true, but only in part, that is, only if we consider the mosaics of the walls and not those of the apse, the only vice versa mentioned by him. In fact, the schematicity of the symmetrical correspondences within which it seems to resolve, – as then, on a similar foundation, in the classical figures of the Apostles of the superb frescoes adorning the apse of the Pieve di Bagnacavallo – the rhythmic principle of Byzantine composition, is here intimately fused with the relaxed solemnity of the whole, and to achieve this effect, together with the wide and rhythmic spacing, the grandeur of the figures, of a classical legacy, and the quiet radiance of happy colors. Moreover, in the rigidity of the scheme, the figures, even in the equivalences imposed by perfect balancing, disengage with full autonomy, and if the Pantocrator and the Virgin encamp in frontal poses, the other figures are turned on themselves and, as in the same Rimini, two by two coupled by the vivacity of the gestures and the rhythm of the movements. To the hieratic imprint that enhances the calm size of the figures of the taller bands, it reflects the mobility that winds through the figures of the two lower areas. Thus we repeat, on an intimately expressive level, the contrast symbolized by the iconographic order, between eternity without changes of the celestial sphere and the temporal changeability of the earthly sphere. Hieratic imprint that enhances the calmness of the figures of the highest bands is reflected in the mobility that winds through the figures of the two lower areas. Thus we repeat, on an intimately expressive level, the contrast symbolized by the iconographic order, between eternity without changes of the celestial sphere and the temporal changeability of the earthly sphere. Hieratic imprint that enhances the calmness of the figures of the highest bands is reflected in the mobility that winds through the figures of the two lower areas. Thus we repeat, on an intimately expressive level, the contrast symbolized by the iconographic order, between eternity without changes of the celestial sphere and the temporal changeability of the earthly sphere.
If from the rhythm that associates the figures in the composition we pass to the ways that singularly they are realized, it is easy to notice that the solemnity of the whole finds a perfect confirmation in their sustainingness, of still classical ancestry; a character whose organic or statuary sense is, no less impressive but otherwise animated, of the Apostles of the Admiral’s church. An analogous intonation characterizes the solemn and pathetic figure of the Pantocrator, so finely commensurate with the development of the apsidal basin and so soft – even if here and there stiffened by the intervention of aid – for the subtle texture of the chromatic passages. To ascertain it is enough to compare it with that of the apse of the cathedral of Monreale. Apart from the emphatic tone, also due to the dilation of the proportions, the classic amplitude of the drapes is dispersed in the insistent jagging of the lines: the essentiality of the superb figure of Cefalù and its balanced receding of the apse surface are thus lost, and the same grandeur – as also noted by Kokandoff, referring however to the whole decoration complex – is represented by the maternity of proportions and the jagged shapes.
The diversity of movements that, even in the context of a homogeneous orientation of culture and often of style, must be noted in the mosaics of Sicilian churches, leaves somewhat perplexed on the judgment that, mainly on the data offered by the dogmatic and however impassable liturgical order, stiffens the Byzantine painting in a glacial linguistic immolation. According to this judgment, the limit set by theological and theocratic requirements and liturgical conveniences would make this art ” unlimitedly assertive “, transforming its language into ” esoteric jargon “, into ” scriptural automatism “, into ” ideological and symbolic writing “, that finds its anchor of salvation in an ” absolute hedonism”. Certainly, compared to Western art, and particularly to that of Romance, Byzantine painting seems devoid of that imprudent spirit, of that human sympathy, which is the counterpart of a non-dogmatic and contemplative morality, but free and active; a morality that allows us to look at the heavens through the contrast of earthly interests, curious and dismayed by the things of the world, of which it seeks precisely to clarify the mystery. However, even looking at the earth from the sky, the Byzantine painters always found, as seen through the mosaics of the Sicilian churches, to affirm their personality, to a sign perhaps not touched either by the poets or by their literati contemporaries. It is therefore possible, and indeed could not be otherwise, their qualification on the plain or concrete of “values”.
Source from Wikipedia