Italiano
DeutschSicilian symbols and traditions are often at the center of of artist Alessandro Siviglia’s works, as in these two paintings made with acrylic colors and spray paint on 70×70 cm canvas, each one showing one of the so called “Moor’s Heads”: King and Queen.
The Moor’s heads, also known as “Graste” in Sicilian dialect, have been part of Sicilian culture for centuries and are used as highly sought-after furnishing items that lend liveliness and class to any environment.
An ancient legend tells that around 1100 AD, during the domination of the Muslims, also called Moors, in Sicily there lived a beautiful girl in the Arabic quarter of Palermo who spent her days at home alone taking care of the plants on her balcony, the only way she had to watch the world outside the gilded cage she was locked in.
One day a young Moor who passed by and saw her, fell madly in love right away and did not hesitate to declare his love for her.
The girl, who had never had the experience of love, got convinced by the man’s promises and allowed him to enter her house, not knowing that he had a wife and children waiting for him in the Orient. When she learned about him having a family that he would return to soon, she was seized by such anger and jealousy that at the end of the last night spent together she slayed him and cut off his head. She took the head and made a sort of vase where she grew Basil – considered the Royal Herb.
Every day the girl watered the plant with her tears, making it grow beautiful and lush. Her neighbors started to become envious and wanted to have similar pots so they ordered reproductions made with terracotta, ignoring the fact that the girl’s pot was a real human head.
Siviglia, in his very personal representation of the Moor’s Heads, used a black background to assert the strong contrasts and to intensify the brilliant colors. The paintings have been created to be exhibit together.
In addition to the Heads, who wear the traditional crown to remember the basil that was planted there, we find typical Sicilian products such as grapes, prickle-pears and citrus fruits.
Due to their small size, they are a perfect fit to decorate even smaller rooms like guest rooms or studios and the bright colors would complete and enhance any type of furniture, from the most classic to the most modern and contemporary.
They are the perfect gift all Sicily and Italy lovers, but also a subtle warning for all husbands: “Never betray a woman, especially if she is Sicilian”.
They fit nicely in any kitchen, they decorate your weekend cottage by the sea or enrich a Sicilian restaurant, a bar or a typical Sicilian gourmet food store.
