The Imagery of Noah's Ark in the Mosaic Decoration of Monreale

Home , Monreale, Monreale Cathedral, Palermo Cathedral

Chapter 9 The Imagery of Noah’s Ark in the Mosaic Decoration of Monreale Cathedral

Mika Takiguchi

Monreale Cathedral is a basilica situated on a hill, 310 meters above sea level, overlooking Palermo in Sicily. It was founded by King William ii of Sicily (1154– 89) and building work had begun by 1174.1 The church is decorated with 7500 square meters of mosaic, the largest surviving such ensemble in Italy. William intended the cathedral to become a royal mausoleum, and the scale of construction surpassed the churches of other Norman kings, even competing with the great power of the archbishop of Palermo.2 The mosaics at Monreale ex- panded upon a comparable cycle in the Cappella Palatina in Palermo, but some aspects of the decoration in Monreale were unique to the cathedral and may thus be read as intended to convey messages specific to this site. The pur- pose of this essay is to examine the potential messages of one part of the mosaic cycle: the scenes of Noah’s ark. To achieve this, first a brief survey of the social situation around the time of the cathedral’s construction is given, focus- ing on the relation between the popes, archbishops and Norman kings. Sec- ondly, previous studies on the mosaic decoration are examined. Thirdly, com- parisons with late twelfth- and early thirteenth-century manuscripts are used to help to explain the remarkable iconography. Monreale Cathedral was first founded as a Benedictine monastery. A papal bull in 1174 refers to the monastery as being under construction, and states that it is exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, and only subordinate to the papacy. However, the king retained the right to approve the choice of the abbot. After its foundation, the pope constituted the monastery as a metropolitan see and it became a cathedral in 1183. Thus the abbot of the monastery was simultane- ously an archbishop. Scholars generally agree that the intention of the king

1 M. Kauffmann and C.D. Sheppard, “Monreale Cathedral,” Grove Art Online https://doi .org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T059193 (accessed 21.2.19). 2 Ibid.; T. Dittelbach, Rex Imago Christi. Der Dom von Monreale. Bildsprachen und Zeremoniell in Mosaikkunst und Architektur (Wiesbaden, 2003). This is a massive and painstaking work, accompanied by a bibliography that contains more than 300 books and articles. This book will be the basis of any future studies of the cathedral.

126 Takiguchi was to make a new bishopric in Monreale, so as to gain independence from Palermo cathedral.3 The basilica is 102 meters long and 40 meters wide. The main apse and the side apses are vaulted, while the nave and the aisles are covered by a timber roof. The mosaic program begins in the nave with a Genesis cycle. The story commences in the upper register of the east end on the southern wall and pro- ceeds towards the west, then continues from the west to the east of the north- ern wall. The narrative then resumes on the lower register of the same walls, again reading from the east to the west and back again. Another cycle that de- picts the life of Christ unfolds in the aisles, the crossing and the transepts. In the two side apses and chapels the lives of Peter and Paul are represented, in- cluding their martyrdom. On the piers of the crossing are two scenes: Christ crowning King William ii, and William offering the church to its patron, the Virgin. The Normans settled in southern Italy at the beginning of the eleventh century. Their rulers sometimes allied with the popes and sometimes rebelled against them, and the papal attitude towards them changed accordingly.4 Hav- ing first tried to suppress the Normans, they then made alliances with them when they needed to utilize their military power. In times of conflict, the papacy raised objections to the legitimacy of the Norman kings. Thus when King Roger ii, the grandfather of William ii, endeavored to found a new bishopric in Cefalù, intending to construct a cathedral that would serve as a royal mausoleum, the plan was opposed by the pope. On Roger’s death in 1154, his body was buried in Palermo cathedral, because Cefalù had not yet been consecrated by the pope. The death of William ii’s brother in 1172 reopened the question of where the royal family should be buried. The king tried to settle the long dis- pute over the royal burial by constructing a new cathedral in Monreale.5 Eve Borsook scrutinized the relationship between William ii and the archbishop of Palermo.6 William succeeded to the throne in 1166, although he was then a small child. Two advisers were appointed for the young king, Matthew of Ajello and Walter Ophamil. The latter was deacon of Agrigento and became archbishop of Palermo in 1168 despite the objection of the king’s mother,

3 Kauffmann and Sheppard, “Monreale Cathedral.” 4 J. Huré, Histoire de la Sicile (Paris, 1957); D. Matthew, The Norman Kingdom of Sicily (Cam- bridge, 1992), 197–206. 5 Matthew, The Norman Kingdom, 203. 6 E. Borsook, Messages in Mosaic: the Royal Programmes of Norman Sicily (1130–1187) (Oxford, 1990), 51–2.