Essays showing how the stuff of Norman Sicily, its mosaics, frescoes, art and architecture, was used to construct its history. Material culture played a crucial role in developing the cultural narrative of Norman Sicily. The essays in this book consider how images, designs, artifacts, structures and objects were used to help create the story of the medieval kingdom, and what they reveal about the complex political and social dynamics that underpinned the so-called "multicultural" state. Arguing that a visual language developed in medieval Sicily and southern Italy in this period, the contributions journey through both familiar and unexplored aspects of Siculo-Norman art, in particular those areas which have only been made possible with recent advances in technology and international academic collaboration. Topics addressed include manuscripts and mosaics, textile diplomacy, the drama of coins and trade, new readings of old buildings, and the insights of archaeological excavations into everyday life. All of the ideas presented in this volume converge on the central theme of how material culture helped to develop story and society in the medieval kingdom of Sicily.
Author(s): Emily A. Winkler, Liam Fitzgerald, Andrew Small (eds.)
Series: Boydell Studies in Medieval Art and Architecture, 18
Publisher: The Boydell Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 256
City: Woodbridge
List of Illustrations vii
List of Contributors xv
Acknowledgements xviii
Introduction: The Story of Designing Norman Sicily / Emily A. Winkler and Liam Fitzgerald 1
1. Roger II and Medieval Visual Culture / Lisa Reilly 23
2. The Interplay of Media: Textile, Sculpture and Mosaic / William Tronzo 47
3. ‘The True Nature of His Lands’: Strategic Information on Sicily in the 'Book of Roger' / Katherine Jacka 60
4. Patronage and Tradition in Textile Exchange and Use in the Early Norman South / Emma Edwards 89
5. Imperial Iconography on the Silver Ducalis: Cultural Appropriation in the Construction and Consolidation of Norman Royal Power / Liam Fitzgerald 114
6. Sicily and England: Norman Transitions Compared / Martin Carver and Alessandra Molinari 133
7. Beyond ‘Plan bénédictin’: Reconsidering Sicilian and / Calabrian Cathedrals in the Age of the Norman County / Margherita Tabanelli 166
8. Designing a Visual Language in Norman Sicily: The Creation Sequence in the Mosaics of Palermo and Monreale / Fabio Scirea 184
9. Remembering, Illustrating, and Forgetting in the Register of Peter the Deacon / Sarah Whitten 207
Index 222
