Cappella Palatina, Palermo (oil on canvas)

Leighton's early trips to Sicily in the 1840s led eventually to the construction of an Arab Hall inside his house in Kensington in 1877, inspired by the unique fusion of Muslim and Christian styles of the 12th Century Norman buildings he found in Palermo like the Palace of La Zisa, and the Cappella Palatina - the Royal chapel of the Norman Kings of Sicily. The light in this extraordinary chapel reflects from the shimmering Byzantine mosaics in the dome and filters down to a cool blue/green/white inlaid marble floor, and across a 'muqarnas' ceiling in the nave (honeycombed wooden vaulting, subdividing and cascading like wooden stalactites). In this study, Leighton glitters the busy interior with edges of sunlight.