Sicily presents to the ordinary tourist attractions which in number ...

134 ANTIQUITIES IN THE MUSEUM AT PALERMO.
hand, succeeding races have deeply impressed their mark
on Sicilian architecture. It is indebted to Byzantium for
its magnificent mosaics, displaying the conventional forms
adopted under the Lower Empire; it derived from Saracen
invaders pointed arches, honey-combed ceilings, and inscriptions
that blend harmoniously with arabesques
lastly, it received from the Normans an admixture of
novel elements—the chevron, dog-tooth, billet-moulding,
and grotesque figures. 2 However, I must not expatiate
on so wide a field, which others have often traversed ;
confining my remarks within narrow limits, I shall invite
attention to some objects in the Museum at Palermo,
which, with a single exception, have been altogether
omitted by English writers or noticed very imperfectly.
It is only right to state, in limine, that the following
notes have little claim to originality. I am indebted for
most of them to the publications of the local antiquaries,
especially Professors Salinas and Basile, but I do not in
all cases accept the conclusions at which they have arrived.
I. Some of the antiquities at Palermo are already wellknown.
Amongst· them the most conspicuous are the
Selinuntine Metopes ; though individual figures are surpassed
by others, as a series extending from the rudest
1 Near Palermo we have in the Palaces
Cuba and Zisa the best examples of the
Saracenic style. Swinburne, vol. ii. p.
222, gives an engraving of "La Torre
Zizza," but his description of the arches
is incorrect. A more accurate account of
these buildings is supplied by Mr. Sydney
Smirke's " Observations on the Origin
of the Pointed Arch in Architecture,"
Archceologia, vol. xxi, pp. 521—533, see
especially pp. 523-529, and at p. 524,
Plate xxiv, " The Kooba near Palermo,"
Plate xxv, " Specimen of the enriched
corbelling at the Kooba." The former
plate shows " Arabic inscriptions, which
form a kind of frieze over the cornice
along the whole front." There is a
striking resemblance between the pendent
ornaments in this palace and the stalactite
work iu the minarets at Constantinople.
The Cuba and Zisa are not far apart, and
at a little distance from the Porta Nuova,
by which the traveller proceeds to Monreale;
they are marked in Baedeker's
Map I Contorni di Palermo, " Guide for
Southern Italy and Sicily," p. 249. It
is worthy of remark that the modern
name of the city is derived from the
Mahometan Bulirma, just as Pamplona
comes from Bambilonah.
We may at first be surprised to find so
few traces of Moorish rule in Sicily, as
compared with the monuments of the
same people in Spain ; but the difference
is easily explained. The Arabs met with
no formidable resistance from the Byzantine
Greeks, and during their three
hundred years' occupation of the island,
they were as unsettled as the robberstates
of Africa ; in the latter case they
had to encounter an established and wellordered
monarchy, their energies were
roused by the contest, and they founded
a kingdom w r hich was permanent as well
as flourishing ; Gregorovius, "Siciliana,"
pp. 99-101.
2 Gaily Knight, quoted by Dennis,
"Handbook for Sicily," Introduction,
p. xxviii. Mr. Fergusson, " History of
Architecture," vol ii, p. 270, says there is
hardly anything in Sicilian architecture,
indicative of purely Norman teste or
feelings. I think that those who have
made a special study of the subject will
not be inclined to agree with this opinion.