April's Monthly Newsletter
As I mentioned in my last post, last month found me on a foray southwards on a bespoke Grand Tour de nos jours for clients of Bellini Travel, who organised the logistics with characteristic panache.
Along the way we followed a Roman theme, and one of the various threads we followed was mosaic art. Pompeii, Piazza Armerina (about which this post with lots more photos) and Palermo all offered spectacular examples of the genre.
Geometric and figurative ancient examples culminated in the glorious gilding of Norman Palermo. A riot of cultural (and indeed cultual) cross-pollination, the art of mosaic filtered through Byzantium to be employed in the service of kings in a Christian key beneath ceilings carved by Arab craftsmen.
We visited Monreale at dusk, and had the Cathedral to ourselves as an organist played in the gloaming (sound in the video above).
We visited the Palatine Chapel where Joan of England, daughter of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, married William II to become Queen of Sicily.
And we went to one of my absolute favourites: the spectacular and tiny Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio, dedicated by George of Antioch, admiral of Roger II.
Roger is shown, on what was once the facade of the church, being crowned by Christ Himself, for there was surely no greater mandate. The distant descendant of Rollo the Viking, whose longboats had once rowed up the Seine, is shown in the garb of a Byzantine Emperor, his Latin title Rogerius Rex spelled out in the Greek alphabet.
On the other side of the nave his Admiral, bowed by humility to a near chrysalis, lies prostrate at the feet of the Virgin, to whom the church is dedicated.
When I returned to Rome Spring was fully sprung, the fleeting wisteria in bloom and poppies billowing in the breeze.
Saluti from Rome, Agnes
This day last year I arrived in Rome and the wisteria were in full bloom. Even the torrential rainstorms we had did not spoil the impact completely!
Spectacular photos-- really breathtaking.