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Article: Fighting knights and sirens: the cloister, Monreale. (Monreale, Sicily)
- Article from:
- History Today
- Article date:
- February 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 History Today Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Sicilian town of Monreale boasts today a splendid cathedral founded in the 1170s as a testament to the religious zeal of Sicily's Norman king - William II. The conquest of an island of mixed Greek, Arab and Latin peoples by the Normans produced an exotic hybrid of art which is reflected in the body of Monreale cathedral, with its nearly 8,000 square metres of mosaic alone. But what is the meaning of the images and carvings that decorate the cloister that Monreale's monks produced? Lorna Walker discusses these and unravels the iconography and debate about social order that it contains.
The cloister at Monreale is dated to c. 1175-89. Grandiose in design and ...
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