Sicilian Cart: stories and traditions

For a long time the Sicilian Cart has been an essential working tool for street vendors. To draw attention to their products, they harnessed transport vehicles and horses with leather patches, gilt nails, mirrors, plumes and bells, and also engraved the sides of the carts, decorating them with stories of heroes and saints. Stories that still tell the fascinating journey through the identity of a land.

To fully immerse yourself in the spirit of Sicily, do not miss MUSCÀ – Museum of Sicilian Cart, dedicated to the Sicilian Cart and Opera dei Pupi. The exhibition, organized by Associazione Carretti Siciliani Trecastagni in collaboration with the City of Taormina, will be held at the Convention Centre of the city from May 15 to July 31, and will be open every day from 10 am to 10 pm. Tickets: full € 5, reduced € 3.

These are five aspects of the Sicilian Cart to know to prepare for the exhibition.

HISTORY OF THE CART

The Sicilian Cart (carrettu) was used in all over the island from the nineteenth century until the second half of the twentieth century: the first dates back to 1830 and had very colorful images. Gradually the iconography was enriched, passing from religious themes with a protective function to those mythological and more decorative. The Sicilian carts became famous throughout the world during the National Exhibition of Milan in 1881 and soon spread throughout Sicily, thanks to the improvement of the road system and of the general living conditions. The French writer Guy de Maupassant in 1885 landed at Palermo, and the first thing that struck him was just a Sicilian Cart, that he called “a walking puzzle”.

 

 

 

PALERMO vs.CATANIA

The two main Sicilian cities have different traditions.
In Palermo, the cart has trapezoidal sides, yellow background colors and geometric decorations, themes represented on chess vary between chivalry and religious and are manufactured in basic tones of red, green, yellow and blue, with shades reduced to essentials.
In Catania the banks are rectangular, the tint of the bottom is red as the lava of Etna and decorations and carvings are more refined and with many nuances and chiaroscuro.
There are, actually, other two typological variants of the cart: the one from Castelvetrano, spread in the hinterland of the province of Trapani; and the one from Trapani, typical of the city, notable for its large wheels and the horizontal bar.

THE MAIN CHARACTERS

There are many professionals working to realize a Sicilian Cart. The first phase is in charge of the carradore (or carter), which builds the cart, carves the friezes and deals with the shoeing of the wheel: he works inside a workshop equipped with tools similar to those of the carpenter and the blacksmith, where he made all the parts of the wagon:ƒonnu ri coscia, masciddari, puteddu, chiave d’arreri and finally the wheel, made up of 12 ammozzi (or rays). Then intervenes the blacksmith, who forges the metal parts and finally, after its completion, intervenes the painter, which fills the cart of colors, representing the chivalrous, mythological, and historical deeds.

 

 

 

 

THE STORIES

Originally the paintings had mostly religious subjects, but later the repertoire increased with chivalry stories. The decorators of the carts were inspired by the Opera dei Pupi and popular scenes and even the French travelers were surprised to find that the Carolingian stories were more widespread in Sicily than in their homeland. The paintings helped to put the cart under divine protection, but they were also useful to protect the wood against the atmospheric agents and to attract customers. Among the most popular stories, the wars of Napoleon, the Cavalleria Rusticana, the Crusades and the Sicilian Vespers, while over time the religious subjects were confined in the most secret part, where there was usually the image the patron saint.

THE MASTERS

The undisputed home of the Sicilian cart is Aci Sant’Antonio (CT) which has some of the most famous masters, as Domenico di Mauro [Photo credits: Maria Aloisi / Zone3], Raimondo Russo, Nerina Chiarenza, Antonio Zappalà, Alice Valenti, Salvo Nicolosi and the painter Gaetano Di Guardo. In Giarre, however, operates the young master painter Damiano Rotella, which safeguards the painting in the Catania-Etna Ionic variant. In Santa Teresa di Riva (ME) there is the master painter Giovanni Remato, versatile artist of Messina school. Barrafranca (EN) is homeland of Roberto Caputo, while in Ragusa works Biagio Castilletti that, in addition to painter is also bardatore, like the other famous Catanese master Francesco Giustolisi.