From the Piazza San Domenico the Via Monteleone leads to the N.W. to the Piazza dell’ Olivella, where an old monastery on the right contains the—
Museo Nazionale (Pl. D, 3; week-days 10–3, 1 fr.; Sun. 11–3, free, but not fully shown; closed on high festivals, on the last three days of the Carnival, and in Holy Week).
Ground Floor. From the Primo Cortile, containing mediæval and Renaissance portals, sculptures, and inscriptions, we enter the Secondo Cortile (once the cloisters), where ancient sculptures and inscriptions are exhibited, on the left Sicilian, on the right those of foreign or uncertain origin.
From the vestibule, beyond the cloisters, we pass through a small room, containing two Phœnician sarcophagi found near Palermo, to the Sala di Panormo, with mosaics and inscriptions from Panormus, and opposite to it the Sala del Fauno, so named from the fine satyr in the style of Praxiteles which it contains.
The adjoining Sala di Selinunte contains the celebrated *Metopes of Selinus (p. [154]). On the left, between parts of the ponderous entablature of the oldest temple, are three rude and primitive metopes of the beginning of the 6th cent. B. C. (quadriga, beheading of Medusa, Hercules and the Cercopes); then the lower halves of two metopes, dating from about the middle of the 6th cent. (battle of the gods and the giants); on the back-wall four metopes of the early 5th cent., a period just before the prime of Greek art (Hercules slaying the queen of the Amazons, Hera unveiling herself before Zeus, Actæon torn to pieces by the dogs of Artemis, Athene slaying a giant).
The stairs in the forecourt ascend to the—
First Floor. The steps to the left lead to the Sala Arăba, which contains Arabian and Arab-Norman antiquities found in Sicily (door-frame from the Martorana monastery, earthenware vase from Mazzara) and early Arabian objects from Cairo. The Corridoio di Ponente contains painted female figures (4th–3rd cent. B. C.), similar to the terracottas of Tanagra. Beyond the cloisters is the room of the ancient bronzes, among which we note a fountain-group of Hercules and the Cerynæan hind, from Pompeii, and a ram marvellously lifelike. Next come two rooms on the left with Greek vases. From the corridor on the opposite side we enter the Gabinetto di Numismatica, an admirable collection of the ancient coins of Sicily and of antique trinkets. The last room contains gorgeous church vestments.
On the Second Floor is the Gallery of Pictures, chiefly by Sicilian masters (Pietro Novelli and others); a small winged altar-piece by Jan Mabuse (1501?), a gem of Netherlandish art, should, however, be noted.
From the Museum the Via della Bara leads to the W. to the Piazza Giuseppe Verdi (Pl. D, 3), in which rises the Teatro Massimo or Vittorio Emanuele, the largest in Italy.—At the N. end of the Via Maqueda (p. [149]) is the old Porta Maqueda (Pl. D, E, 3), whence the Via Ruggiero Settimo leads into the broad—
Via della Libertà (Pl. F, G, 3, 2), a fashionable evening promenade, ending at the pretty Giardino Inglese (Pl. G, H, 2).