The pavings of the Norman churches of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio (la Martorana) and San Cataldo

Symbolic of the status of their prestigious patrons, the Norman pavings of Palermo — Palatine Chapel, Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio, San Cataldo — are characterised by the quadrichromy of the marbles used (white, porphyry, serpentine, Giallo Antico[1]). Their varied design includes bands which are alternately white and made up of mosaics, linked to sectile elements (above all circles and otctagons) and tesselatum elements. If this technique shares a Byzantine origin with the so-called “cosmatesque” production of central southern Italy, it differs from it in the specific characteristic of the geometric schemes of its composition and by the mosaic designs.

The paving of la Martorana is made up of eleven panels where eight distinct geometric motifs arranged around the central quincunx under the cupola take up a traditional Byzantine scheme. We find the same matrix in the panels ornamented with rotae linked to each other and a lozenge, with adjoined designs which have become characteristic of Islamic figurative culture, such as eight-point stars and an original reinterpretation of the quincunx. In Sicily we do not encounter figured designs in mosaics, but the lozenge panel depicts two dog heads while the central panel displays chalice-shaped vases with trees of life, lions and peacocks facing each other, and even, in both cases, an acrobat, the most unusual and emblematic figure on the paving. The latter decorative element, to be amply found in France, in particular in Provence, has an island precedent, on a capital of the Cefalù cloister.

The same mix of motifs can be found in San Cataldo, where the link between architecture and organisation of the panels is greater. The varied marble carpet, made up of fourteen panels which use seven distinct motifs reinterprets the design of the edifice as a whole. In the central quincunx central, pivotal to the entire composition, the designs range from circle to octagon, echoing the three cupolas on the octagonal tambour. Rectangles linked by circles, quincunxes linked to each other and a star motif surrounded by hexagons with triangular projections cover the floor of the nave, while the space between the rows is filled with an interlacing of alternating circles and lozenges. In all the panels, the recurrence of identical designs in the mosaics and similar measurements for the bands both sectile and tesselatum created a unified project, put in place by a workshop capable of covering themes  borrowed from Islamic and Byzantine traditions in an original and equal manner.

The multiplicity of themes and elements which figure on these pavings suggests that the workshops who took part in the large Palermo constructions in the reign of Roger II directly incorporated the experience of a Sicilian workshop, either directly or from drawings used as models. This original interpretation of motifs means we may not attribute a unique origin to these creations, whether it be Rome, Constantinople or the Islamic world or even continental Europe. The synthesis of these different inspirations must have occurred locally via masters who, if they are unoriginal from the point of view of the elements employed, blended themes and shapes in an altogether singular manner.