Mazzarino, 1974.
In continuity with his artistic research related to Sicily and its popular traditions, Domenico Pellegrino presents and revives, through the art of illuminations, the ancient legend of the “dark-haired”.
The legend is set in 1100 when the Moors lived in Sicily.
One day one of them, walking through the Kalsa neighborhood, came upon a beautiful woman who spent her time taking care of the plants in her garden.
The Moor, kidnapped by the girl’s charm, without hesitation, enters the garden to declare her love for her.
The woman, amazed by so much audacity, is taken
by an uncontrollable passion for man.
For days they loved each other until she comes to discover that her lover plans a return to his land where his bride and children await him.
Mad of love, the girl then decides to preserve their bond for eternity, beheading the Moor during the night to turn his head into a vase of basil that will grow lusher, watered every day with the tears of the lover who cries her beloved.
Meanwhile, the neighbors, envious of the verdant plant, adorn their balconies with moor’s head vases that are often represented in pairs, joining the young woman’s head with the moor one.
