Siculo-Arabic Ivories in the Museo Cristiano

1 Studies in the Art of the Museo Cristiano of the Vatican Library (VIII), edited by C. R. Morey and E. Baldwin Smith.

Abstract

The Mohammedan element in the art of Sicily as an important factor in the development of mediaeval art in Italy as well as in France has received little attention from art historians in comparison with the study that it deserves. Bertaux² attempted to trace many of the Arabic or Saracenic elements in the Romanesque monuments of Southern Italy to the influence of the arts of Sicily under the Normans, and Émile Mâle in an article published several years ago³ accomplished a somewhat similar task, although on a much smaller scale, with regard to the monuments of the Romanesque period in France—the source of the influence being, in this instance, traced to Spain. In recent years, however, all too little has been done in connection with the art of Sicily, particularly of the twelfth century, and this lack of consideration may perhaps account for the obscurity in which the sources of the Southern Italian style are veiled.