Those who have been on a trip to Sicily, at least once in their life time, will have noticed the numerous Moorish heads found in various locations; hanging from balcony balustrades, inside traditional Sicilian Restaurants or even in the many pottery shops that exist.
The art of Majolica pottery was brought to Sicily by the Arabs who taught the Sicilian people how to create these wonderful objects, now considered real pieces of art.
In the thirteenth-century, the Spanish from Aragon were the first who referred to colored Sicilian ceramic objects as “Maiolica”, because of the techniques used to create these pieces were very much similar to those used in the Balearic Islands of Majorca, hence the name.
There are number of different items that can be crafted using these techniques, distinguished by their color, shape and design which is then painted on the pottery. But, undoubtedly the most popular and fascinating ceramic objects are the Moorish Heads known as the Teste di Moro.
As you explore the many narrow streets of Taormina, you may arrive in Via degli artisti, a beautiful street embellished by Sicilian Majolica ceramics, designed by local artists. More often then not, if you look above, you will find these beautiful ceramic head pots with blooming plants growing inside.
The legend of the Moorish head can be traced back to the XI century, during the Moors domination in Sicily.
One day, a beautiful and honorable young girl living in Kalsa, the Arabic district of Palermo, was tending to her plants and flowers on her balcony. Suddenly, a Moor merchant passing by fell in love with the beautiful girl who immediately declared his love and desire for her.
They fell in love but the fantasy didn’t last long. She discovered he already had a wife and children waiting for him in his native land. She suddenly became crazy and jealous and on one particular night, while he was sleeping, she thought of a way to make him stay with her forever!
She cut off his head and cleverly decided to use it as a vase to grow her beautiful basil plants.
People walking down the streets started noticing her flourishing plants of basil and became jealous of how well blossomed they were, so they began to create colorful clay head pots wishing to have the same magic green thumb.
Today there are several varieties of ceramic heads, but the traditional ones show a black man and a beautiful woman.
True or not, romantic or creepy, today these Teste di Moro represent the Sicilian ceramic art all around the world.
And, thanks to their legend, they have taught us all a very valuable lesson in life:
Never betray a Sicilian woman.
Ever.
Today, I went to the beachfront with my kids. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off topic but I had to tell someone!
Helpful information. Fortunate me I found your website accidentally, and I am stunned why this coincidence didn’t happened earlier! I bookmarked it.
What抯 Happening i am new to this, I stumbled upon this I have found It positively helpful and it has aided me out loads. I hope to contribute & assist other users like its aided me. Good job.
I抦 not sure where you are getting your info, but great topic. I needs to spend some time learning much more or understanding more. Thanks for magnificent information I was looking for this info for my mission.
Normally I do not read post on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very forced me to try and do so! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thanks, quite nice article.
Thanks for the points you have discussed here. Something else I would like to talk about is that personal computer memory requirements generally increase along with other improvements in the technological innovation. For instance, if new generations of cpus are made in the market, there is usually a matching increase in the size demands of both the personal computer memory as well as hard drive space. This is because software program operated by these processors will inevitably rise in power to take advantage of the new technology.
With havin so much content and articles do you ever run into any issues of plagorism or copyright infringement? My site has a lot of exclusive content I’ve either created myself or outsourced but it appears a lot of it is popping it up all over the internet without my authorization. Do you know any methods to help prevent content from being stolen? I’d certainly appreciate it.
Hi, Neat post. There’s a problem with your site in internet explorer, would check this?IE still is the market leader and a big portion of people will miss your fantastic writing because of this problem.
I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great. I don’t know who you are but definitely you are going to a famous blogger if you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!
you are really a good webmaster. The web site loading speed is amazing. It seems that you’re doing any unique trick. Furthermore, The contents are masterwork. you’ve done a fantastic job on this topic!
May I have information on the topic of your article? http://www.hairstylesvip.com
Your articles are extremely helpful to me. May I ask for more information? http://www.hairstylesvip.com
Thank you for being of assistance to me. I really loved this article. http://www.hairstylesvip.com