The Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land, 1098–1187

This book examines the art and architecture produced for the Crusaders in Syria-Palestine during the first century of their quest to recapture Jerusalem. Commissioned by kings and queens, patriarchs and bishops, knights and merchants who came as pilgrims or settlers to the Holy Land, it is an art of manuscript illumination, fresco painting, mosaics, stone sculpture, metalwork, ivory carving, coins and seals by artists trained in the Latin West, and the Byzantine and Islamic East. Combining the stylistic and iconographic traditions of these regions, Crusader art defies easy categorisation: indeed, it is a unique phenomenon within the spectrum of medieval art. Based on years of research, The Art of the Crusades in the Holy Land, the first volume in a two-part survey, is the first comprehensive study of all the arts, which are considered together within their historical context. Charting stylistic evolution, this study also identifies the main phases of artistic development from its origins, through its flourishing era during the reigns of Queen Melisende (1131-1161) and King Amaury (1163-1174) to the final achievements before 1187.

Awards

• Winner of the Haskins Medal

Reviews & endorsements

'This is a landmark book in the scholarship of medieval art history … It is a production of great erudition.' Robin Cormack, Burlington Magazine

Customer reviews

Product details

• Date Published: December 1995
• format: Hardback
• isbn: 9780521453837
• length: 704 pages

• dimensions: 285 x 222 x 47 mm
• weight: 2.655kg
• contains: 700 b/w illus. 32 colour illus. 9 maps
• availability: Unavailable - out of print August 2006