ABSTRACT
The female Hospitallers’ convent at Sigena and its famous chapter-house (where the wall-paintings were largely destroyed in 1936) are discussed from the point of view of the Hospital’s leaders in the 1180s. The European mission of Heraclius, patriarch of Jerusalem, in 1184/5 and the role of the knights in the mission are also discussed. Various candidates are mentioned as possible intermediaries in relation to the painter or painters who, as is well known, figure among the later artists of the Winchester Bible. The personal and political connections between England and the Hospital could explain the presence of a leading ‘English’ painter in Aragon in the 1180s.
