ABSTRACT
Depictions of knights – a typical iconographic subject matter of the Latin West – were transplanted into the art of the Eastern Mediterranean in the aftermath of the Crusades and the formation of the military orders. 1 These depictions can be traced in a few extant wall paintings and portable icons, which constitute votive offerings of Hospitallers and feudal knights to Latin or Orthodox churches on Rhodes and Cyprus, where a new and different political and social regime emerged, following the establishment of the Hospitallers (1309-1522) 2 and the Lusignan kings (1192-1489) 3 respectively. This chapter aims to examine the artistic framework of the compositions of knights, the degree to which they comply with the iconographic programme of the churches and the ideological messages they convey.
