One of the magnificent show pieces exhibited in the Schatzkammer of the Kunsthistorische Museum (Treasury of the Museum of Fine Arts in Vienna) is the mantle of Roger II of Sicily (rul. 1130 – 1154). This precious robe was made in the royal workshops of Palermo in 1133/1134. This date is given in Kufic script along the curved bottom border, stating the year 528 of the Muslim Calendar.
The outer side of this semi-circular mantle, held together with an enamel clasp, is made of red silk twill onto which golden thread embroidery was couched, and all motifs were outlined in pearls. The theme proper is mirror-symmetrical, a stylised palm tree with a lion riding on a camel on either side. Scholars have assumed that this represents an allusion to Norman domination over the Arabs but also constellations of the Zodiac have been suggested (see below).
In contrast to the large image on the outer side, the lining shows small motifs: the tree of life (arbor vitae) in multiple repetitions, vividly coloured human figures, dragons, birds, and ornaments appear on the golden basic fabric. This iconography probably goes back to Coptic-Arab textile art but related motifs appear also in early medieval Italian book painting and in the lapidary arts.
Common to both the outer and the hardly visible inner side of the mantle is the use of precious materials and of oriental motifs. Of great importance is the Kufic inscription on the bottom border. It demonstrates on the one hand the great appreciation of calligraphy in the Islamic world, and on the other hand it gives us valuable information about the date and provenance of this extraordinary garment. It was made for the Christian king Roger who integrated already before the later owner of the mantle Frederic II (rul. 1155-90) , emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Islamic aspects into his court culture.
The mantle of Roger demonstrates the claim to power of its bearer. In the following centuries it was an important element of the insignia of the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire.
Based on English text by Friederike Mayr
Bibliography
Bauer, Rotraud, Zur
Geschichte der sizilischen Gewänder, später Krönungsgewänder
der Könige und Kaiser des Heiligen Römischen Reiches, in: Seipel Wilfried
(Hg.), Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, AK, Nobiles Officinae, Die königlichen
Hofwerkstätten zu Palermo zur Zeit der Normannen und Staufer im 12. und 13.
Jahrhundert, Wien 2004, S. 85-95; 259-264.
Tronzo, William, The Cultures of His Kingdom. Roger II. and the Capella Palatina
in Palermo, Princeton, New Jesey, 1997.
Addition by the translation team.
Both the lions and the camels are presented in shapes clearly illustrating their Zodiac constellations. The respective stars are represented by precious stones (which explains the 11 kilos this robe weighs). The constellation of the lion is the same worldwide, while the camel does not have a sign in Western astronomy. The Arabs, however, used the constellation of the hydra which for them was a mythical animal of great importance and turned it into a camel as shown on the slides below.[1]
Roger, although a Catholic, was known for his magnanimous attitude towards the Arabs and was most favourably inclined towards Islam. This might explain the choice of the two motifs represented on the mantle: the mirror-symmetrical representation of constellations (to the left as seen in the firmament, to the right as shown on a globe) to demonstrate that a ruler carries part of the universe on his shoulders on the one hand, the need of a ruler to be carried through his realm in impressive and reliable fashion on the other.
How did this robe become part of the German Emperors´ treasury?
Roger II had a daughter Konstanze, who was married to Henry VI, son of Friedrich I,Barbarossa. As sole heir she took all her father´s treasures with her to Germany, where her son, Friedrich II inherited them and wore mantle at his coronation. Charles IV of Bohemia had the treasures transferred to Prague and subsequently, in 1424 Emperor Sigismund transferred them to Nuremberg where they remained for 372 years. During the Napoleonic wars they were moved to Regensburg, to Vienna, then to Hungary and in 1818 they were again in Vienna. During Second World War, Hitler ordered the entire treasury to be stored at Nuremberg from where the American forces eventually restored it to Vienna in 1946. [2]
Bibliography:
ﻋAbd ar-rahmān as-sūfī : Kitāb suwar al-kawākib (A book illustrating the stars), manuscript dating to the 10th century AD, published in Hyderabad 1954.
Nobilis Officinae: Die königlichen Hofwerkstätten zu Palermo zur Zeit der Normannen und Staufer im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert (Vienna and Milan, 2004).
[1] The images reproduced here were shown during the presentation of a paper on the history and meaning of the Coronation Mantle, given by Hatice Skarits at the Austrian Society of Astronomers on February 7th, 2009.
The couched lions are depicted looking away from each other but look at each other when the mantle is worn and closed.
The illustration of the hydra carrying a lion is taken from a Seleucidan slab with cuneiform writing – the motif preceding later representations of a ruler´s most favoured and becoming means of transport, when the hydra was replaced by the camel; translated into Arabic: al asad murākibun ءalā jamal (the lion carried on a camel), a symbolic allusion to the king riding in style, a fairly popular motif at the time. The original slab is exhibited at Ghent University.
[2] Nobilis Officinae , pp. 85-98.