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Cattedrale di Palermo

Paintings Straw threads
Single artwork

800,00

Description by the artist

I come from Castronovo, inland Sicily and I grew up with the colors of grain: from the green mountains of spring to the golden yellow ocean of summer. And from the ears of grain I invented my art. Artwork made with  straw threads  (grain and oats). Unique technique in the world. Straw threads glued on light blue or blue cardboard, background made by hand in watercolor. The shading and depths are made using the same straw with lighter and darker shades and gradations.

Details and dimensions

Materials: Straw threads
Handcrafted in Sicily

The artwork in the Sicilian culture

By the Governance of Sicilian Artisan Foundation

241 BC, Sicily was conquered by the Romans who replaced the Greeks by making Zeus, Jupiter, and so on for the other gods of Olympus. For Catone the Censor the island was “the granary of Rome“. Sicily alone exported about 3 million quintals per year to the capital. Even today, especially the center of the island, is an endless expanse of grain, as if it were sea, which makes it particularly characteristic landscape: deep green in winter and spring, and blinding yellow in the summer months.

The Cathedral of Palermo, a few hundred meters beyond the Norman Palace (seat of temporal power during the millennial history of Palermo) is an example of this mixture. Its origin is lost in the mists of time and its current appearance is the result of 3000 years of renovations, whose principle perhaps dates back to a Phoenician place of worship (eighth century BC). Superbly Arab-Norman in appearance on the outside, it changes its face completely after the entrance door, as if an invisible time machine took us to another era, Aragonese, Renaissance, Art Nouveau. The Cathedral houses the tombs of two of the greatest men of all time, Kings of Sicily: Roger II the Norman and Frederick II of Swabia, the Stupor Mundi. A little further on you can see the dome of the church of San Salvatore (XI century) from whose loggia you can enjoy an extraordinary view of the city.

(photo)Palermo, Cathedral, portal and façade on the south side from the square, 1865-1870

The Governance also suggests

The objective of the Governance is both to safeguard the traditions and ancient crafts of the people of Sicily, and to sustain economically the Artisans and the Artists, both the real ethno-anthropologists of the country.
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