Cultural and Religious Studies, November 2016, Vol. 4, No. 11, 682-709 doi: 10.17265/2328-2177/2016.11.004 D DAVID PUBLISHING The Labors of the Months and the Zodiac Signs in the Cathedral of Otranto: An Iconographical Interpretation of the Symbols of Labor and Time Liana De Girolami Cheney SIEALE, University of Coruna, Spain In 1163, Archbishop Gionata, Abbot of the Monastery of San Nicola of Casole in Puglia (Apulia), commissioned Pantaleone, a learned monk and artist from the monastery, to decorate the pavement of the cathedral of Otranto with mosaics. This Italian Romanesque cathedral was dedicated to Santa Maria Annunziata or Saint Mary of The Annunciation. In the interior, the floor design in the shape of a tree contains an elaborate biblical program. The encyclopedic narrative of the mosaic symbolically unveils the meaning of the Tree of Life. The iconography of the pavement’s program combines biblical and pagan narratives evolving from a natural realm into a heavenly realm. The natural realm begins at the church’s entrance with the symbolism of the earth-the roots of a tree-expanding through the nave and transept via the tree’s trunk and its branches, culminating in the apse, at the end of the church, with the foliage of the top of the tree. This natural realm meets with the heavenly realm in two ways: at the crossing of the church or at the sacrificial altar, and at the apse of the church. Before reaching the altar or holy area, between the natural realm and the heavenly realm, the zodiac signs with the labors of the months are depicted. Keywords: Tree of Life, labors of the months, zodiac signs, constellations, symbolism Introduction This study provides an interpretation of the significance of the placement of the zodiac sign in front of the sacrificial altar and what is meant by their symbolic astral depictions, which are combined with the earthly labors of the months (Figure 1).1 Thus, human vices are transformed by astral intervention into virtues. This study consists of three parts: (1) a history of the commission, (2) a description of the cathedral and the complex design of the mosaic pavement, and (3) an iconographical analysis of a selected part of the mosaic, the theme of 2 labors of the months with the zodiac signs. Liana De Girolami Cheney, Ph.D., Visiting Scholar in Art History, SIEALE, University of Coruna, Spain. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Liana De Girolami Cheney. 1 This research was presented at the International Conference on Astronomy and Art of the Sophia in Bath, UK, June 27-30, 2015. The author wants to extend her gratitude for Dr. Donato Mansueto for his comments, Archbishop Donato Negro of the Cathedral of Otranto and church’s staff for their invaluable suggestions and photographic permission. 2 This research, in particular, benefited from the writings of Carl Arnold Willemsen, L’Enigma di Otranto: Il mosaico pavimentale del presbitero, Pantaleone nella Cattedrale (Galatina, Puglia: Mario Congedo, 1983, 2002); Grazio Gianfreda, Il Mosaico di Otranto, Anima per L'Europa (Naples: Edizioni del Grifo, 2005/08); and Grazio Gianfreda, I mesi del mosaic di Otranto: Oroscopo o tempo di Dio e lavoro del’ uomo? (Naples: Edizione del Grifo, 2004). See also Chiara Settis Frugoni, “Per una lettura del mosaico pavimentale della cattedrale di Otranto”, in Bullettino dell’Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo e Archivio Muratoriano LXXX (1968): pp. 213-256; Chiara Settis Frugoni, ed., “Il mosaico di Otranto: modelli culturali e scelte THE LABORS OF THE MONTHS AND THE ZODIAC SIGNS 683 Figure 1. Saint Mary of The Annunciation, Cathedral of Otranto, 1163, exterior. Otranto. Photo credit: Liana De Girolami Cheney. History of the Commission The city of Otranto is on the Adriatic Sea, located at the tip of the heel of Italy. Originally, it was a province of Greece, later inherited by the Romans as a significant harbor for commerce and cultural exchanges between the east and the west. In the Middle Ages, because of its strategic setting, Otranto became a stopping place for the crusaders and Norman pilgrims traveling to and from the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. In 1071, after the Norman conquest of southern Italy from the Byzantine Empire, Otranto further enhanced its political position, establishing important intercultural connections with the classical, Hebraic and Byzantine civilizations now amalgamated under the Norman reign. Thus, the inhabitants of Otranto formed a complex ethnic group whose religion was predominantly Christian, but with pagan and Hebraic nuances. The Norman ruler of French and Greek ancestry, Roger Bosso I (1031-1101), Duke of Apulia and Calabria, promoted religious culture and learning in two important ways. Between 1080 and 1088, he founded the iconografiche,” Bullettino dell’Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo e Archivio Muratoriano LXXXII (1970): pp. 243-270; C.A. Willemsen, L’enigma di Otranto (Galatina: Maco Congedo, 2002 [1983]); G. Gianfreda, “Il mosaico di Otranto”, Biblioteca medioevale in immagini 6, revised ed. (Naples: Edizioni del Grifo 1998), np; Chiara Frugoni, “Chiesa e lavoro agricolo nei testi e nelle immagini dall’età tardoantica all’età romanica”, in Medioevo rurale. Sulle tracce della civiltà contadina, ed. V. Fumagalli and G. Rossetti (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1980), pp. 321-341; P. Mane, Calendriers et techniques agricoles. France-Italie, XIIe-XIIIe siècles (Paris: Le Sycomore, 1983); J. Le Goff, “Il tempo del lavoro. Agricoltura e segni dello zodiaco nei calendari medievali”, in Storia e Dossier (1988), np; C.D. Fonseca, ‘Lavoro agricolo e tempo liturgico’, Uomo e ambiente nel Mezzogiorno normanno-svevo, Atti delle ottave giornate normanno-svevo, Bari, 20-23 Ottobre 1987 (Bari: Laterza, 1989), pp. 67-87; L. Canetti, Tempo, lavoro e liturgia. Alle radici del calendario medievale (Parma: Artegrafica Silva, 1999), also online at http://rm.univr.it/biblioteca/–scaffale/c.htm#Luigi%20Canetti [accessed 24 April 2015]; J. Le Goff, “L’Occidente medievale e il tempo”, in I riti, il tempo, il riso: Cinque saggi di storia medievale (Bari: Laterza, 2001), pp. 115-138; and W. Sauerländer, “Tempi vuoti e tempi pieni”, in Tempi Spazi Istituzioni [Arte e Storia nel Medioevo I] (Turin: Einaudi, 2002), pp. 121-170. 684 THE LABORS OF THE MONTHS AND THE ZODIAC SIGNS monastery of San Nicola at Casole. This renowned Basilian monastery, overseen by Abbot Nicetas, functioned as a place of prayer as well as a scriptorium and library for the study ancient texts. The monastery followed the rules of San Basilio The Great. During the same years, Duke Roger Bosso commissioned the building of the cathedral of Otranto, which was consecrated in 1088 as Santa Maria Annunziata under the Roman pontificate of Urban II (active 1088-1099). The papal delegate, Archbishop Roffredo, performed the ceremony in the presence of distinguished dignitaries from the region; Guglielmo, Archbishop of Otranto, and Guglielmo, the Duke of Sicily, with an additional four representatives of the neighboring cities: the Archbishop of Benevento, Urso of Bari, Andrea of Taranto, and Godino of Brindisi. During both the Renaissance and in modern times the cathedral went through many architectural additions and restorations, but through the centuries it always remained a place of Christian worship. The Cathedral and Its Pavement The cathedral of Otranto is an Italian Romanesque edifice constructed of local stone. The simple exterior façade originally contained only two lateral small windows framing a rose window (Figure 1). In 1481, the façade of the church was expanded and restored with an elaborate Gothic rose window in the pedimental area, and an entrance supported by classical columns with the coat of arms of the archdioceses or of the Aragonese rulers. In the extensive hypostyle crypt, an Ossuary chapel was added in memory of those faithful who died in the massacre of the Ottoman Empire in 1480.3 The interior follows the shape of a basilica plan: a central nave with two lateral aisles, with the nave ending in an apse. The lofty, tripartite elevation of the cathedral contains a nave arcade, with classical columns supporting round arches, a plain triforium, and a clear story with small round arch windows. The classical columns may be retentions from an existing ancient classical temple in situ dedicated to Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom, or transported from a demolished classical temple nearby (Figure 2). 3 See Gianfreda, “Il Mosaico di Otranto”, pp. 25-26. THE LABORS OF THE MONTHS AND THE ZODIAC SIGNS 685 Figure 2. Saint Mary of The Annunciation, Cathedral of Otranto, 1163-1166, interior. Otranto. Photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY ART207270. In 1163, Pantaleone, who was residing in the monastery of San Nicola of Casole, initiated the opus tessellatum, the decoration in mosaics of the pavement in the religious edifice at Otranto. He completed this in 1166, as noted in the Latin inscription and signature at the entrance of the cathedral, which has suffered great damage through the vicissitudes of time but still visible are two Latin lines: Exionath donis per dexteram Pantaleonis/Hoc opus insigne est superans impendia digne (“By the means of Pantaleone’s hand/This distinguished work worthily overcomes the expense” [see Figures 3a and 3b]).4 For historian Pietro Marino, the pavement of the Cathedral of Otranto is a “lavishly decorated carpet of colorful stones”.5 It is one of the largest surviving mosaics in Europe, with the mosaic decoration covering approximately 700 square feet. It extends from the nave to the presbytery, ending at the apse in a horizontal line, and bifurcating in two adjacent aisles (Figure 3a). 4 See Willemsen, L’Enigma di Otranto, pp. 35-39 and 149, for a careful study of the other inscriptions throughout the floor mosaic. 5 See Pietro Marino, 2015, http://www.bridgepugliausa.it/articolo.asp?id_sez=1&id_cat=28&id_art=3389&lingua=en.