Saladin and Guy de Lusignan — Print & Oil Painting

Start at the carpet. A patterned rug has been laid over bare ground in front of a red pavilion, and a crusader in a white surcoat is bending across it to set his sword down on the edge of the dais. A man placing a weapon out of his own hand: that gesture is the event this painting exists to record.

The scene is the aftermath of Hattin. On 4 July 1187 the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was destroyed by Saladin's forces on a hill above the Sea of Galilee, and Guy de Lusignan, its king, was brought into the sultan's tent with his surviving barons. Saladin had cold water carried to him, and the chroniclers dwell on that cup because it decided who lived: Raynald of Chatillon drank from it uninvited and was executed, while Guy was spared and eventually released.

The composition is built in horizontal bands. Massed banners in green, red and gold fill the upper third, each shape given real attention. Below them stand ranks of spearmen in turbans and mail, then the pavilion with its calligraphic valance and the seated figures inside, then the open foreground where the captives wait their turn.

What lies scattered on the earth at the bottom is the other half of the story: swords, a kite shield, a plumed helmet, a mace, all dropped where they were surrendered. The colour there falls to dust and iron while the tent above burns crimson.

It is the most populated and most literal picture in our Knight & Crusade collection. For the cavalry that won the day, painted as movement rather than ceremony, see the charging horsemen in green and gold.