Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Showing posts with label Monreale cathedral. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monreale cathedral. Show all posts

Wednesday, 15 January 2025

Restoring Monreale

  
Just before Christmas the BBC News website reported on thealerestoration work that has been undertaken on the late twelfth century mosaics that decorate the interior of the cathedral at Monreale in Sicily. This has involved auto cleaning but also conserving and restoring the spectacular series which cover the whole interior of the building.


The restoration project is also covered in slightly more detail on the Medievalists.net site at Medieval Cathedral Transformed with Stunning New Lighting


Wikipedia has a history and description of the cathedral at Monreale Cathedral and a separate article about the mosaics, which are the especial glory of the building, can be seen at Monreale Cathedral mosaics

The cathedral started as an abbey founded by King William II following a dream or vision in which the Virgin Mary appeared to him and suggested he should found the church. It was rapidly promoted to being a cathedral with an Archbishop, and was to be the burial place of the King and of his father.

Cathedrals with monastic chapters were rare on the continent, but quite frequently to be found in medieval England. The fact that the King’s consort, Joanna, was a daughter of King Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine may have influenced the decision, as may the known presence in Sicily of English clergy and administrators.

A further link to England is the prominent figure amongst them mosaic saints of St Thomas of Canterbury, who had been martyred only a very few years before the establishment of the monastery at Monreale.


Tuesday, 29 September 2015

St Michael the Archangel in art



John Dillon posted as follows on the Medieval Religion discussion group for today's feast of St Michael:

A few further period-pertinent images of St. Michael the Archangel (with some corresponding images of fellow archangels):

a) as portrayed in relief on an earlier sixth-century ivory panel (c. 525-550) from a dismembered diptych of Constantinopolitan origin in the British Museum, London:
http://tinyurl.com/nuv22op

b) as depicted (at right; at left, the Theotokos) in an enameled plaque in the central portion of the upper cover of the mid-tenth-century Limburger Staurothek (betw. 945 and 959; reliquary of the True Cross) in the Domschatz- und Diözesanmuseum in Limburg an der Lahn:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28433765@N07/3767872473
In a corresponding plaque on the other side of the cover's central figure of the Pantocrator, Gabriel is at left and John the Forerunner is at right:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28433765@N07/3767872589
The upper cover as a whole:
http://tinyurl.com/nqskjxl

c) as depicted in a later tenth- or earlier eleventh-century portable icon (fourteenth- and nineteenth-century reworking and restorations) in the treasury of the basilica cattedrale patriarcale di San Marco in Venice:



d) as portrayed in an earlier eleventh-century bronze gilt ex-voto in the Lapidarium e Museo devozionale di San Michele arcangelo at Monte Sant'Angelo (FG) in Apulia:



e) as depicted (at left) in an earlier eleventh-century vault mosaic (restored between 1953 and 1962) in the narthex of the church of the Theotokos in the monastery of Hosios Loukas near Distomo in Phokis:
http://tinyurl.com/pfxhxc4
Detail view (Michael):
http://tinyurl.com/ne5c6cy
The angel in the vault field opposite Michael is the archangel Gabriel. A detail view: http://tinyurl.com/p2ajxuj

f) as depicted (at left, sharing a labarum with an Emperor Michael at right) on the reverse of an earlier eleventh-century histamenon (early 1040s) struck by either Emperor Michael IV or Emperor Michael V:
http://tinyurl.com/n9g9xe2

g) as depicted in an earlier to mid-eleventh-century fresco (1040s or 1050s) in the cathedral of St. Sophia in Kyiv / Kiev:

The Archangel Michael


h) as depicted (at right) in the presentation illumination of a later eleventh-century copy of Constantinopolitan origin of the sermons of St. John Chrysostom (Paris, BnF, ms. Coislin 79, fol. 2b):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8470047d/f10.image

i) as depicted in the later eleventh-century apse fresco (between 1058 and 1073; restoration work in the 1980s) in the basilica di Sant'Angelo in Formis on Monte Tifata in today's Capua:



j) as depicted in a twelfth-century portable icon in the Holy Monastery of the God-trodden Mount Sinai, St. Catherine (South Sinai governorate), Egypt:
http://www.touregypt.net/images/touregypt/cart23.jpg

k) as depicted in a twelfth-century fresco (photographed before 1974) in the katholikon of the Antiphonitis monastery near Kalogrea (Girne [Kyrenia] dist.) in Turkish-dominated northern Cyprus:



Archangel Gabriel in another twelfth-century fresco (also photographed before 1974) in the same church:



Frescoes in this church, including that of Michael linked to above, have since been defaced, with others plundered outright.

l) as depicted in an early twelfth-century enamelled plaque (between 1102 and 1118) on the lower portion of the Pala d'oro in the basilica cattedrale patriarcale di San Marco in Venice:



m) as depicted (lower register at left; at right, the archangel Gabriel) in the mid-twelfth-century apse mosaics (betw. 1145 and 1148) in the basilica cattedrale della Trasfigurazione in Cefalù:





Detail view (Michael):



Detail view (Gabriel):


Not appearing in those views, and barely visible here, are the archangels Raphael (at far left) and Uriel (at far right):



n) as depicted in a mid-twelfth-century mosaic (between 1146 and 1151) on an intrados in the chiesa di Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio (a.k.a. chiesa della Martorana) in Palermo:
http://tinyurl.com/ph2pzsm

A detail view in better light:

[St_Michael_La_Martorana_Palermo_2008-08-27.jpg]

The archangel Gabriel on the same intrados:



o) as depicted (at upper left) in a mid-twelfth-century dome mosaic (between 1146 and 1151) in the chiesa di Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio (a.k.a. chiesa della Martorana) in Palermo:



The other angels in this circle are the archangels Raphael (upper right), Uriel (lower right), and Gabriel (lower left).

p) as depicted (third from left, wearing a loros) in the mid- to slightly later twelfth-century mosaics in the Cappella Palatina in Palermo:





Detail view (Michael):



The other angels holding orbs are, from left to right, are Michael's fellow archangels Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel.

Detail view (Raphael):
http://tinyurl.com/qykndf7

Detail view (Michael, Gabriel and, in part, Uriel):



q) as depicted in a later twelfth-century fresco (between 1176 and 1200) in St. George's Church, Staraya Ladoga in Russia:
http://tinyurl.com/5txqyse

r) as depicted (at centre left, flanking the BVM; at centre right, the archangel Gabriel) in the late twelfth-century frescoes (1180s) of the central apse in the basilica cattedrale di Santa Maria nuova in Monreale (image greatly expandable):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/iharsten/15496966194

In different light:



s) as depicted in a late twelfth-century fresco (1191) in the church of St. George at Kurbinovo (Resen municipality) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://www.icon-art.info/hires.php?lng=en&type=1&id=3678

t) as depicted in a late twelfth-century fresco (1199; damaged in World War II) in the church of the Transfiguration of the Saviour on Nereditsa near Veliky Novgorod:
http://www.icon-art.info/masterpiece.php?lng=en&mst_id=4544



u) as depicted in a thirteenth-century Yaroslavl School icon in the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow:
http://tinyurl.com/6zqgqya

v) as portrayed in a later thirteenth-century marble capital (between 1250 and 1300) from Constantinople in the Metropolitan Museum of art, New York:
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/466108
http://tinyurl.com/nodftyw

w) as depicted in a later thirteenth-century fresco (between 1250 and 1300) in the rupestrian chiesa di Santa Lucia alle Malve in Matera:
http://tinyurl.com/nbb245h

x) as portrayed (seated, holding an image of the Crucifixion) by Nicola Pisano in a statue placed just below the Last Judgment panel on his later thirteenth-century pulpit (1257-1260) in the baptistery of Pisa:
http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/foto/160000/142400/142128.jpg



y) as depicted in the later thirteenth-century frescoes (either ca. 1263-1270 or slightly later) of the monastery church of the Holy Trinity at Sopoćani (Raška dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/3u5euyk
http://tinyurl.com/3v5gemc

z) as depicted in a late thirteenth- or very early fourteenth-century Yaroslavl School icon in the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow:
http://www.icon-art.info/masterpiece.php?lng=en&mst_id=414

aa) as depicted in a late thirteenth- or earlier fourteenth-century fresco in the rupestrian chiesa di Santa Margherita in Melfi:



bb) as depicted in a fourteenth-century icon of Constantinopolitan origin in the Byzantine and Christian Museum, Athens:
http://tinyurl.com/oxevut9

cc) as depicted (at left, flanking the Theotokos; at right, the archangel Gabriel) in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (between c. 1311 and c. 1322) in the church of St. Nicholas Orphanos in Thessaloniki:
http://tinyurl.com/q7hc7aq

dd) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (between 1313 and 1318; conservation work in 1968) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. George in Staro Nagoričane in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/pgzkzgo

ee) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (between c. 1314 and c. 1320) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. Nikita at Čučer in today's Čučer-Sandevo in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/o55cpcm

ff) as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century fresco (between 1315 and 1321) on an intrados in the parecclesion of the Chora church (Kariye Camii) in Istanbul:



gg) as depicted (at left, flanking the Theotokos; at right the archangel Gabriel) in an earlier fourteenth-century fresco (1330s) in the calotte of the apse in the church of the Hodegetria in the Patriarchate of Peć:



Detail view (Michael):


Detail view (Gabriel):
http://tinyurl.com/puepcn8

hh) as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century fresco (1330s) in the diakonikon of the church of the Hodegetria in the Patriarchate of Peć:
http://tinyurl.com/yac98xz
The matching figure of the archangel Gabriel at the other end of the same wall is better preserved:
http://tinyurl.com/y9vdgrp

ii) as depicted (at right; at left, and slightly larger, the despotes Jovan Oliver with a model of the church) in the mid-fourteenth-century frescoes (1340s) of the monastery church of St. Michael the Archangel at Lesnovo (Probištip municipality) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:



jj) as depicted in an earlier fifteenth-century Tver School icon in the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow:
http://www.icon-art.info/masterpiece.php?lng=en&mst_id=1464

kk) as depicted in an early fifteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1408; previously attributed to Andrej Rublev) from the iconostasis of the Dormition cathedral in Vladimir and now in the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow:
http://tinyurl.com/pzhykxo
The matching painting of the archangel Gabriel (also in the Tretyakov):
http://tinyurl.com/opkyabe

ll) as depicted by Andrej Rublev (attrib.) in an early fifteenth-century panel painting (early 1410s) from the Deesis range in the Dormition cathedral in Zvenigorod and now in the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow:
http://tinyurl.com/q3e6vcd

mm) as depicted by Dionisy and sons in the early sixteenth-century frescoes (1502) in the Virgin Nativity cathedral of the St. Ferapont Belozero (Ferapontov Belozersky) monastery at Ferapontovo in Russia's Vologda oblast:
http://www.dionisy.com/eng/museum/1028/1443/index.shtml
The corresponding depiction of the archangel Gabriel:
http://www.dionisy.com/eng/museum/1028/1444/index.shtml
The corresponding depiction of the archangel Uriel:
http://www.dionisy.com/eng/museum/1028/1448/index.shtml


Thursday, 29 December 2011

St Thomas of Canterbury in Monreale and Soria


Here is another depiction of St Thomas made soon after his death. It is part of the decoration of the apse of the cathedral at Monreale in Sicily.

He is shown standing between Pope St Sylvester I and St Lawrence. The association of themes and ideas appears clear - St Sylvester was believed to be the recipient of the Donation of Constantine, with all that was taken to imply for Papal and ecclesial authority, and St Lawrence had been martyred in 258 for refusing to compromise and hand over the Church's wealth, and thereby its independence, to the Imperial authorities. St Thomas is therefore presented as being in good company in respect of Church-State relations.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3164/2575093180_0101779142_b.jpg

Image: John Dillon posting on Medieval religion discussion group 29/12/2009

The historical and cultural context of the creation of the mosaic and the cathedral are discussed in John Julius Norwich's splendid and evocative The Kingdom in the Sun, the successor volume to the equally compelling The Normans in the South. Both books make you yearn to travel to Sicily and the rest of the Regno to visit the places he describes.

St Thomas's murder as depicted in a late twelfth-century wall painting in the church of San Nicolás in Soria (Castilla y León). The painting, exceptional in that its shows the Archbishop being stabbed in the back rather than struck in the head, is discussed in two articles here and here. There is a brief BBC film clip showing more of the painting here.

Just as St Thomas's early depiction in the apse mosaics at Monreale has been ascribed to the influence of one of King Henry II's daughters, Joanna/Giovanna, Queen of Sicily, so this painting has been ascribed to the influence of another daughter, Eleanor/Leonor, Queen of Castille.