The Otranto mosaic: Alexander, King Arthur and the tree of life
Between 1163 and 1165 the priest Pantaleone covered the floor of Otranto Cathedral with an encyclopaedic mosaic: its history and its figures.
The floor of Otranto Cathedral is an immense carpet of stone. Along the nave rises a gigantic tree resting on the backs of two elephants, whose branches host animals, monsters, heroes, patriarchs, months and zodiac signs. It is one of the largest medieval mosaics in Europe, and even today it leaves the visitor unsure whether he is looking at an illustrated Bible, an encyclopaedia or a dream.
A signed and dated work
Unlike many medieval works, the Otranto mosaic has an author and a date. The inscriptions record the priest Pantaleone, who made it between 1163 and 1165 at the wish of Archbishop Jonathan, during the Norman reign of William I. Otranto was then a port open towards the Byzantine East, and the culture reflected in the mosaic blends Latin, Greek and perhaps also Arabic sources.
Pantaleone was probably linked to the nearby monastery of San Nicola di Casole, famous for its library of Greek manuscripts and for its school, attended by scholars from the whole region. This proximity explains the wealth of literary references in the work, which is not limited to biblical scenes but takes in romances, bestiaries, calendars and legends, as in a great illustrated encyclopaedia of the knowledge of the time.
From the tree to the tower of Babel
The tree of life organises the entire composition. Around the trunk appear Adam and Eve, the expulsion from Paradise, Cain and Abel, Noah's ark and the tower of Babel: the history of humanity from its origins to the scattering of peoples. Higher up, twelve medallions present the months of the year with their agricultural labours and the corresponding signs of the zodiac, following a scheme widespread in Romanesque art.
Beside these scenes appears Alexander the Great rising to the sky in a basket lifted by two griffins, an episode from the famous Alexander Romance widely read in the Middle Ages. The Macedonian king, a symbol of human ambition seeking to go beyond its limits, converses with the tower of Babel, another image of pride punished.
King Arthur on the floor
One of the most surprising figures is a king riding an animal resembling a goat, accompanied by the inscription Rex Arturus. It is one of the oldest known depictions of King Arthur, and it is found in Apulia, far from the lands where the Breton legends were born. Its presence shows that Arthurian tales were already circulating in southern Italy in the twelfth century, perhaps brought by the Normans.
Beside Arthur appears a feline that threatens him, and the scene has been linked to an episode of the legends in which the king fights a monstrous cat. The mosaic also welcomes centaurs, twin-tailed sirens, an elephant, unicorns and creatures from the bestiaries, each carrying moral meanings in medieval culture.
To read the Otranto mosaic is to accept that no single interpretation will be found. It is probably a great mirror of the world, in which sacred history, myth, calendar and fantasy live together under the sign of the tree. Whoever walks down the nave, from the entrance towards the altar, thus makes a journey through the whole knowledge of his age, from the fall of Adam to the hope of redemption.