ABSTRACT
Mat Immerzeel's study reviews the larger context of the crusader icons more fully, by focusing on the imagery of the mounted soldier saint in fresco painting in Syria and the Lebanon by Syrian Orthodox, Syrian Melchite, Syrian Jacobite and Maronite, as well as Greek Orthodox painters. Mat Immerzeel's study also focuses attention on the style and iconography of the warrior saints imagery in the thirteenth century which is related to the crusader icons. One prevalent style can be described as a Veneto-Byzantine crusader style seen in the Sinai bilateral icon with Sts Sergios and Bacchos on the reverse, and the small devotional Sinai icon of St Sergios with a kneeling female donor. The iconographic features vary from icon to icon, but collectively they include the following aspects: red or black haloes decorated with pearls, jewelled diadems, torques or pearled necklaces, jewelled cuffs and fibulae for their cloaks, long tunics, and spurs on their boots.
