Stones of Palermo: Cultures of Marble at the Mediterranean Crossroads

Sicily’s ‘entrails’, writes the eighteenth-century Palermitan canon Antonino Mongitore, are ‘rich with mines of porphyry, jasper and the most valuable stones’. This material wealth and its architectural and decorative applications have, at a crossroads of Mediterranean artistic and artisanal traditions, made an indelible contribution to the artistic and cultural identity of the city of Palermo. From imperial splendour to Byzantine refinement, from Siculo-Norman geometric intricacies to lavish baroque intarsia, from revivalist reinterpretations to a severe rationalist or indeed fascist rhetoric, the use of marble has formed a persistent cultural factor in the city. Beyond the whiteness and ideals of purity that have accompanied the artistic fortune of Carrara marble, the rich polychromatic qualities of Sicilian marbles and decorative stones tell another story, a story of contaminations and exchanges, of technical and cultural transfers.

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15.07.2022 H18:00-19:30

Palazzo Butera

Via Butera 8, Palermo

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