Islamic Paradise in a Christian Context: The Ceiling of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo, Sicily

This paper considers the ceiling of the 12th-century Cappella Palatina in Palermo, Sicily. Since I began research on the Cappella Palatina two questions have interested me. First, what is the provenance of the artists who constructed and painted this spectacular ceiling? Second, what does this ceiling represent? In essence, the ceiling is a visual representation of Islamic lyric poetry that unveils multiple levels of meaning, which are dealt with in the article.