Pageantry as opposed to simplicity
Can an artistic predominance, such as the Baroque in Sicily, also allow room for simplicity?
We are used to recognizing our Island as an icon of the baroque, with important historical centers such as those of Catania, Modica, Ortigia, Noto or Ragusa Ibla. The strong connotation of all these places is very much linked, especially in the southeastern area, to the Greek rule that made our land more opulent, between 600′ and the 700′.
To what is this pageantry in Sicilian architecture due?
Sicily is a historically important land, for some even a paradise. It was colonized by multiple dominations such as Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, barbarians, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Swabians, Angevins, Aragonese, Spanish, Savoy, and Bourbons.
From 1200 B.C. until 1860 A.D., Trinacria was shaped by different cultures. Together they contaminated themselves giving pomposity to our way of being Sicilian: from traditions, to manners, all the way to food rich in flavor and color.
What underwent a huge change was precisely the architecture. In a Land with no shortage of wealth, the goal of the Sicilian people was to show more and more. By the 1600s, churches, balconies, or palaces were adorned with important and well-arched wall structures or decorations. This manifested a majesty that was not unsympathetic, leaving passersby or tourists of the old era stunned.
Thinking of Baroque immediately brings to mind the Cathedral of San Nicolò in Noto. The latter was designed by Rosario Gagliardi and Vincenzo Sinatra and completed in 1776. Located in the center of the Syracuse village and named a World Heritage Site.. Unesco, attracts and impresses tourists from all over the world.
The simple Sicilian hidden soul
But after so many dominations there also arose the need for the essential, which would not necessarily detract from the pomposity of our way of appearing, but would likely enriched.
In fact, today on the island it is possible to enjoy wonderful tours dedicated to the Sicilian Baroque
and at the same time remain fascinated in front of the simplicity of timeless places such as the
Theater of Andromedain the Agrigento area.
But not only that, for decades now to grow is precisely contemporary art. As in the case of Fiumara D’Arte, an artistic site nestled between the Nebrodi Park and the Madonie Park, which allows visitors to immerse themselves in parallel realities through multiple incredible works, including the Monument for a Dead Poet
And Ariadne’s Labyrinth. The latter, a perfect place for those seeking the essential and the deep contact between man, art and nature.
Ariadne’s Labyrinth
Just the Ariadne’s Labyrinth, in the vicinity of Castel Di Lucio in the Nebrodi Mountains, is defined as a’ascent toward purity. Referring to the myth of Ariadne and Theseus, was built in 1990.
Characterized by huge circles, it leads the person to the center, creating a sense of bewilderment. It will be a olive tree placed at the end of the labyrinth to give a sense of the “sense of the whole.” Opening the path is a door representing the female genital organ, As a symbol of the beginning of life. Path in which each individual gets lost and finds himself, in the end, simply in the essentiality of a tree.
All this affirms that this land through the Baroque shows a very rich cover of a book that, inside, conceals a simplicity all to be discovered.
Luca Russo
Credits top photo: Filippo Barbaria