Plaque in Enamelled Copper ‘St Nicolas Crowning Roger II of Sicily’

The enamelled plaque representing Roger II being crowned by St Nicholas is held in the Treasury of the Basilica di San Nicola. It was originally on the facing beam of the church’s ciborium. The political message was very clear in the era of Roger II of Sicily (reigned 1095–1154), who was crowned in 1130 with the backing of the antipope Anaclet II: not only had Roger triumphed from the coalition led by Innocent II (until 1139), but he also placed himself under the protection of St Nicholas, one of Christianity’s greatest saints, venerated both in the East and the West and whose relics have been held in the Basilica of Bari since 1087.

The names and functions of the figures are inscribed in Latin above their heads, in four vertical syllables for Roger (‘RO/GE/RIUS/REX’) and in a line for St Nicholas (‘SCS NICOLAUS’).

The two figures are equal in size and are represented standing and facing the viewer. Their position is almost symmetrical: in his right hand, Roger is holding the labarum (originally, a military standard bearing the Christian symbol and the cross adopted from the era of Constantine I by the Roman emperors) and St Nicholas is holding a staff in his left hand. Their gestures correspond: Roger is holding the orb in his left hand, extended toward St Nicholas, while the latter, with his arm raised and extended, is placing a crown on Roger’s head. This harmony of gestures underlines the exceptional artistic mastery of this work and its aesthetic aspects. King Roger’s attributes (globe, labarum and loros, and a large embroidered scarf wrapped around the body, part of which is draped over the left hand) correspond to the imperial Byzantine repertoire, while St Nicholas’ staff belongs to the Latin tradition.

Only Roger’s feet are decorated with the blue enamel, while St Nicolas is dressed in blue and has a white halo; the cross at the bottom of the pallium (a small woollen stole worn by the Pope and some Church dignitaries), the linen, and the staff are also white. The lower part of the pallium and the back of the cloak are in engraved copper; the traits are finely hatched, in contrast with the enamel work. The faces have been rendered very finely: the wrinkles can be seen on the forehead of St Nicolas and around Roger’s mouth; the King’s bifid beard is flowing, as is his hair. The folds of Roger’s robe are flowing under his right arm and angular under the other arm, which gives the figure a very three-dimensional aspect. The details are also very finely worked, like Roger’s crown and the representation of the precious stones that adorn it, and the  pattern that adorns Roger’s loros. The contrast between the coloured enamel and the engraving gives the coronation scene a dynamic aspect.

The exceptional technique of this copper enamelled plaque poses the problem of the place of production in relation with the date c.1139. Without this date the work could be attributed to the workshops of Limoges where the technique of champlevé enamel on copper was perfected (the cells were no longer added but contained in the thickness of the copper plate). However, Limoges only became a major production centre at the end of the thirteenth century. This enamelled copper plate with its original iconography may have been made in the royal workshop of Palermo, by masters who came from the West and the East, as the Arabs and the Byzantines also had extensive knowledge of enamelling techniques.