Misadventures in Sicily: Mosaics

A few weeks ago, my family took me to the cathedral of Monreale, for a concert. The cathedral has a feature called "Sacred Music of Monreale", and while I was there they had an orchestra, a choir, and some solo singers. The music was really nice, and it reminded me of my band geek days, but what I really want to talk about is the cathedral. It was built by the Normans in the 12th century, and is absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately it was too late for a full tour, so I saw the inside of the main cathedral and one part of the outside, so that's all I can comment on. The best way to describe this, I feel, would be as a conversation between one of the designers and Igor, the main contractor, in Restaurant Makeover:

Designer: Here's what I'm thinking: a really grand church. Like, really really grand.

Igor: Sounds good, it'll be a challenge, but still doable.

Designer: And I want it to be nice on the inside.

Igor: Sure, that's a great idea. We could do some columns, perhaps a bit of nice stone.

Designer: Yes, yes, all that, but also, how 'bout some scenes from the bible?

Igor: Well, it'll put us on a tight schedule, but we can probably get some extra painters in, and do some scenes that way.

Designer: Paint is so.... average. I said grand!! Grand, people! Not some boring paint. I'm thinking... mosaics

Igor: I guess we could do a few small ones...

Designer: No! These will cover the entirety of the inside walls. And I want gold. And some stone. And columns.

Igor: No. It can't be done. You will be way over budget. There isn't enough time. Or enough people. It can't be done. Think of something else.

Designer: Please! Please please please!

Igor: Fine! But the outside gets nothing! It will be left plain!!

OK, maybe that wasn't as funny as it sounded in my head, but here's some pics, just so you get some sense of just how many tiny pieces of glass went into this.

The outside, where I saw it. As you can see, not a lot of decoration here, though apparently in another area there are some incredibly detailed columns.

Then, BAM, you get this.

And this.

Here's the choir and orchestra.

Photos do not do it justice.

On Monday, the three exchange students in Palermo went to the palace, for a tour. I got the feeling that we got special treatment, because we knew someone there, so it was just six of in our tour, while I saw other tours with twenty or more. It was all in Italian, but my host sister translated it for me, as I simply don't know enough words to get much out of it. I would understand things like "This was built by the ... in the ... century", but not understand why, or the meaning, so it was good to have some help. The history of Sicily is somewhat confusing, and that is reflected in the art and architecture. It's called "Palazzo dei Normanni", and was originally built by Normans, but was altered, and added to by the Spanish. It also has Byzantine and Arab influences. For these reasons, buildings can have a mismatched appearance, and the architectural style can differ between the wings of the building. Some of the rooms we saw had once been covered in mosaics, but had been torn down by the next conquerors, as they didn't have any religious significance. The palace also has a church within it, one our guide said was far more beautiful than Monreale. I could kind of see this. It had a very similar style to Monreale, but was smaller, finer and more detailed. The mosaic work was so fine that it didn't look like pieces of something, it looked like smooth painting. The detail made me dizzy.

The outside. You can see the two different styles side by side.

Sorry it's so dark. This is a hunting scene, made out of (wait for it...) tiny pieces of glass.

Not sure why I'm posting this picture. I think this might have been one of the areas that had all of the mosaic torn off because it wasn't religious enough.