Knight of the Crusade — Print & Oil Painting

A red cross has been painted directly onto the sky. It is enormous, roughly brushed, its arms fading out into a field of gold and cream, and it sits so precisely above the central figure that the knight appears to be standing in front of a banner the size of the weather.

Below it the picture is nearly symmetrical. He faces us square on, sword held point down in both hands, a white surcoat with a smaller red cross over the breastplate, a red cloak falling behind. Two ranks of other knights recede to left and right with their swords raised, painted progressively looser until they are only grey suggestions.

One thing rewards a second look. The red cross on white was the Templar device, granted in the twelfth century, but the harness underneath it is fully articulated plate of a kind that appears well over a hundred years after the last crusader states in the Holy Land had fallen. The painting is a composite of two centuries and wears both without embarrassment.

The handling is thick and dry, the white of the surcoat laid on in slabs, the sky scumbled so the canvas grain shows through. Colour is limited to four notes: cream, gold, red and iron grey.

Part of our Knight & Crusade collection. Set it against the winter charge, where the same cross is carried on real banners by men who are moving.