Cappella Palatina

This building is a mixture of Byzantine, Norman and Fatimid architectural styles, showing the tricultural state of Sicily during the 12th century after Roger I and Robert Guiscard conquered the island.

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.

The muqarnas ceiling of the nave and the chapel's rectilinear form show the Fatimid influence in the building's construction.

The mosaics of the Palatine Chapel are of unparalleled elegance as concerns elongated proportions and streaming draperies of figures.

The shimmering mosaics of the transept, presumably dating from the 1140s and attributed to Byzantine artists, with an illustrated scene, along the north wall, of St. John in the desert and a landscape of Agnus Dei.

Basil, and St. John Chrysostom, are the Three Great Orthodox Church Fathers referred to as the Three Hierarchs, which originated fifty years earlier.

The rest of the mosaics, dated to the 1160s or the 1170s, are executed in a cruder manner and feature Latin (rather than Greek) inscriptions.

The intricate and striking muqarnas that still exist in Italy are all in Palermo, mostly in the Zisa Palace and Capella Palatina.

Scholars are not confident about where this art derives from, but theories range from North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Persia or even locally.

Some call upon the similarities between Zirid architecture fragments from the Qal’a Beni Hammad in Algeria and the Cappella Palatina roofs as examples of North African roots.

There was potentially a period of unrest in Cairo and a lack of patronage for the arts, prompting Fatimid artists to flee to Sicily.

The ceiling represents the cultural diversity of Roger II’s kingdom and his ability to unify the land around him.

The art is related to the Islamic vision of eternal paradise, implying that the Norman Kings were the most eminent representatives of heaven on earth.

[8] In addition, the muqarnas celebrate battles, hunts, and all sorts of animals including elephants, deer, ibexes, gazelles, and antelopes.

The ceiling is supported by horizontal cavetto wood moldings that touch the upper part of the windows and has longitudinal and transverse symmetry.

[10] The main features of the ceiling are 20 eight-pointed stars which are formed by overlaying two squares rotated at 45-degree angles.

[6] There is an interplay of spatial volumes and planes with bold structural outlines that bend and manipulate light.

The chapel combines harmoniously a variety of styles: the Norman architecture and door decor, the Arabic arches and ceiling designs and script adorning the roof, the Byzantine dome and mosaics.

For instance, clusters of four eight-pointed stars, typical for Muslim design, are arranged on the ceiling so as to form a Christian cross.

According to European historians, Roger II made the decision to make the throne room and chapel equal in the main part of the Cappella Palatina in order to send a message to the papacy and other rulers of Europe that he was going to stay in Sicily, and there was nothing they could do about it.