Two worlds combined: Arab – Norman Art | Culturforum

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Two worlds combined: Arab – Norman Art

Norman Sicily: cultural richness and religious tolerance. Masterpieces like the Palatine Chapel, witnesses of a timeless era of cultural fusion.

The Norman era created in Sicily a period of cultural opulence and political and religious tolerance which made possible a cultural fusion, whose testament can be seen in the Cappella Palatina in Palermo and the cathedrals of Cefalu and Monreale, timeless monuments capable of arousing great awe and emotion even after almost a thousand years.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe, who mainly appreciated its ancient remains but also understood the dynamic of its critical thought, wrote that "Without Sicily, Italy creates no image in the soul: here is the key to everything". A century later Guy de Maupassant described the Cappella Palatina as "the most beautiful in the world, the most precious religious jewel dreamt up in the human mind and executed by the hand of an artist."

Together we will explore these important works of the Arab-Norman period – and other masterpieces still unsurpassed today.

 

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Culturforum | Scuola di Lingua Italiana a Palermo