ART JOURNEY: The Palatin Chapel of Palermo – Italy
The Palatine Chapel is the royal chapel of the Norman kings of Sicily situated on the ground floor
at the center of the Palazzo Reale in Palermo, southern Italy.
Also referred to as a Palace church or Palace
chapel, it was commissioned by Roger II of Sicily in 1132 to be built upon
an older chapel (now the crypt) constructed around 1080. It took eight years to
build, receiving a royal charter the same year, with the mosaics being only
partially finished by 1143. The sanctuary, dedicated to Saint Peter, is
reminiscent of a domed basilica. It has three apses, as is usual in Byzantine
architecture, with six pointed arches (three on each side of the central nave)
resting on recycled classical columns.
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| The Ceiling |
Certainly, it bears the year 1143 inscription on the
base of the dome, which sets a coeval date to the mosaics on the presbytery. As
proved by the stylistic analysis, the mosaics that were left in the naves are
contemporary to the kingdom of William I.
It is the highest example, from an historic and
artistic point of view, of the coexistence between cultures, religions and ways
of thinking apparently irreconcilable. Byzantine, Muslim and Latin handcraft masters
were involved by the wisely managed power of Roger II. The Chapel arose to
synthesize the liturgical needs of both the Latin and Greek rituals. Proof of
this is the Latin plant divided in three naves and the presbytery (byzantine),
surmounted by a dome, made exactly according to the most classic byzantine
codes.
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| The Dome |
Interesting is the repetition of this element in the basin of the
central apse, where it has a communicative and mercifully effect to whom enters
the church. Among the ancient mosaics outstanding is the baptism of Christ,
stupendous work with the stylization of the waves.
Images of Saints and Fathers of the Church are present
on the pillars and on the soffits of the arches.
On the side naves, decorated under the kingdom of
William I are narrated episodes of the lives of Saint Peter and Saint Paul and
in the central nave the events of the Old Testament. The marble chandelier holds
the Easter candle, leaning on the ambo, an elegant sculpture made probably by
artists with ties to North of Italy.
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| The Baptism of the Christ Close-up |
The Arab handcraft masters manufactured the vault in muqarnas
(the Arabic word for stalactite vault) that dominate the
central nave, a unique example in the whole world of pictorial Islamic
decorations with human representations inside a worship place. A structure
entirely fabricated in wood, wisely elaborated in sections united by insertions,
with stalactite and concave elements, that remind us of a cave. There is
an inscription in Latin, Greek and Arab from 1142, in memory of the hydraulic
watch made by Roger II. It is testimony of the fusion of cultures in Norman
Palermo.
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| Muqarna Ceiling Depicted in Arabic Style |
This inscription is located in the Maqueda Courtyard on the left side
wall before entering the Chapel in direction to the stairs that conduct us to
the Fountain Courtyard and its byzantine translated version “Oh new wonder! The
strong Sir Roger having had the scepter from God, stop the course of the fluid
substance, distributing cognition free of error from the hours of time— In the
month of March fifth call and of our health the year 1142, and of his happy
kingdom the year XIII.”
The mosaics on the frontage at the entrance where
performed during the beginning of the XIX century by Santi Cardini and Pietro Casamassima
and represent the events of the life of Assalon, rebel son of King David. This
cycle was realized by will of Ferdinand III of Bourbon (present along with his
wife Maria Carolina in the medallion on the mosaic with the Genius of Palermo
crowned).
