University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations May 2021 Power Through Patronage: Examining Margaret of Navarre's Political Influence Through Sicily's Cathedral of Monreale Emmaleigh Anita Huston University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the History Commons, and the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Recommended Citation Huston, Emmaleigh Anita, "Power Through Patronage: Examining Margaret of Navarre's Political Influence Through Sicily's Cathedral of Monreale" (2021). Theses and Dissertations. 2675. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/2675 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. POWER THROUGH PATRONAGE: EXAMINING MARGARET OF NAVARRE’S POLITICAL INFLUENCE THROUGH SICILY’S CATHEDRAL OF MONREALE by Emmaleigh Anita Huston A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Art History at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee May 2021 ABSTRACT POWER THROUGH PATRONAGE: EXAMINING MARGARET OF NAVARRE’S POLITICAL INFLUENCE THROUGH SICILY’S CATHEDRAL OF MONREALE by Emmaleigh Anita Huston The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2021 Under the Supervision of Professor Richard Leson This paper considers evidence for Queen Margaret of Sicily’s role in the construction and decoration of the Cathedral of Monreale, a royal foundation initiated c. 1172. For Margaret, support of Monreale was a means to counter the political ambitions of Walter Ophamil, Archbishop of Palermo. Medieval chroniclers name Margaret’s son, William II, as primary patron, and afford her only a minor role in the building campaign. However, the furnishing and decoration of the cathedral’s northern transept—a privileged space typically reserved for kings in royal Sicilian cathedrals and chapels yet at Monreale serves as the site of Margaret’s tomb— points to the queen’s active role at the Cathedral. An ensemble of six early-Christian female saints unique to Monreale appears opposite Margaret’s tomb. This research posits that these images functioned as a monumental devotional icon tailored to the interests of the queen. The vitae of each saint is read against the life of the queen, and, in the case of two of the six holy women, a strategic donation to Monreale made by the queen herself. ii © Copyright by Emmaleigh Huston, 2021 All Rights Reserved iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ ii List of Figures ...............................................................................................................................v Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... viii Introduction ...................................................................................................................................1 Chapter I Historiography ..............................................................................................................6 Chapter II Margaret’s Sicily: A Historical Context ....................................................................21 Chapter III Monreale: A Strategic Commission .........................................................................37 Chapter IV Funerary Arrangement and Six Female Saints ........................................................48 Epilogue ......................................................................................................................................85 Figures.........................................................................................................................................88 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................112 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 0.1 Reliquary Pendant with Queen Margaret of Sicily Blessed by Bishop Reginald of Bath (1174-77). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY .........................................88 Figure 0.2 Photograph of the western entrance of the Cathedral of Monreale in Palermo, Sicily .....................................................................................................................................................88 Figure 0.3 Plan of the Cathedral of Monreale with circled northern transept. Image from Duncan-Flower’ dissertation, “The Mosaics of Monreale: A Study in their Monastic and Funerary Contexts” (1994) .........................................................................................................89 Figure 2.1 Christ Crowning King Roger II. Mosaic located in the narthex at Martorana (Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio) in Palermo, Sicily, dated c.1150s ........................................................90 Figure 2.2 Tombstone for Anne, Mother of Grisandus (Cleric of Roger II). This tombstone, dated to 1149, is an excellent visual expression of the multicultural state of Roger II’s Sicily. The tombstone includes inscriptions in Judeo-Arabic, Greek, Latin, and Arabic. Image from the Sarah MacAllan’s (University of Adelaide) article in the ANU Historical Journal II, Number 1 titled “Object study—The Tombstone of Anne: A study on multilingualism in twelfth century Sicily” (2019) ....................................................................................................90 Figure 3.1 Photograph of the western entrance of the Cathedral of Monreale in Palermo, Sicily .....................................................................................................................................................91 Figure 3.2 Google Earth image showing proximity between Palermo and Monreale ................91 Figure 3.3 Photograph of Santa Maria de Maniace (today known as Il Castello di Nelson)......92 Figure 3.4 Google Earth image showing the location of Maniace relative to Palermo ..............92 Figure 4.1 Image showing Margaret’s tomb in the context of the northern transept. Image from Wolfgang Krönig’s The Cathedral of Monreale and the Norman Architecture in Sicily (1965) .....................................................................................................................................................93 Figure 4.2 Photograph of Margaret’s tomb.................................................................................94 Figure 4.3 Plate depicting the northern wall of the northern transept. Image accessed via Borsook’s Messages in Mosaics (1990) .....................................................................................94 v Figure 4.4 Photograph of the western entrance of the Cathedral of Cefalù, Cefalù, Sicily ........95 Figure 4.5 Plan of the Cappella Palatina (Palermo, Sicily) that distinguishes the location of the northern transept’s “royal box.” Image accessed from Mathilde Sauquet’s Roger II, King of Heaven and Earth: An Iconological and Architectural Analysis of the Cappella Palatina in the Context of Medieval Sicily (2018)...............................................................................................95 Figure 4.6 Holy Women, Image from Duncan-Flower’ dissertation, “The Mosaics of Monreale: A Study in their Monastic and Funerary Contexts” (1994) ........................................................96 Figure 4.7 Holy Women (figure 4.6) superimposed with photographs of each saint/pair of saints .....................................................................................................................................................97 Figure 4.8 Sinai Icon, Six Saints (c. 1187). Image accessed from Weitzman’s Icon Painting in the Crusader Kingdom (1166) ....................................................................................................98 Figure 4.9 Plan of Monreale’s northern transept with circled numbers showing the placements of female saints. Image accessed via Borsook’s Messages in Mosaics (1990) ..........................99 Figure 4.10 Mosaic of Saint Margaret. Northern transept, Cathedral of Monreale. Image from Sulamith Brodbeck’s “Les Saints De La Cathédrale De Monreale En Sicilie: Iconographie, Hagiographie Et Pouvoir Royal à Fin Du XIIe Siècle” (2010). ...............................................100 Figure 4.11 Mosaic of Saint Margaret. Cappella Palatina. Image from Sulamith Brodbeck’s “Les Saints De La Cathédrale De Monreale En Sicilie: Iconographie, Hagiographie Et Pouvoir Royal à Fin Du XIIe Siècle” (2010) .........................................................................................101 Figure 4.12 Mosaic of Saint Radegonde. North transept, Cathedral of Monreale. 16th c. restoration. Image from Sulamith Brodbeck’s “Les Saints De La Cathédrale De Monreale En Sicilie: Iconographie, Hagiographie Et Pouvoir Royal à Fin Du XIIe Siècle” (2010) .............102 Figure 4.13 Empress Zoe Mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, ca. 1142 ............................103 Figure 4.14 Empress Helen in Byzantine dress, Hermitage of Saint Neophyte, Cyprus, ca. 1192 ...................................................................................................................................................103 Figure 4.15 Saint Radegund, Cappella Palatina, Palermo, ca. 1140. Image from Sulamith Brodbeck’s