Crusader Art in The Holy Land: From the Third Crusade to the Fall of Acre, 1187-1291 (review)

Jaroslav Folda's monumental book is another link in his life's work that has been dedicated to the research of crusader art. Besides his numerous articles on the subject, his books show systematic development, from his Crusader Manuscript Ilumination at Saint-Jean d'Acre, 1275-1291 (Princeton Univer-sity Press, 1976), through The Art of the Crusades in the Holy Land 1098-1187 (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and up to the current comprehensive volume, which will be a basic resource to any researcher of the crusaders. The need for such a book was evident for a considerable period of time, since only parts of the relevant period have been investigated, and no all-embracing view on the subject existed.

In his book, Folda examines the art created for the crusaders by various social classes and ethnic groups, from Western merchants to Muslims in the Orient. But more than that, the book provides significant new contributions to a number of aspects and concepts in the research of crusader art.

Unlike any previous work, Folda places art itself, in its various forms, in a primary position, and raises the discussion on the essence of crusader art of the thirteenth century to a theoretical level, thus creating and setting it as a significant chapter in art history. This is a major innovation.

Unlike many art historians, Folda discusses historical events in the Holy Land, which he considers relevant to his research. It is my belief that this meticulous discussion contributes to the interpretation of the conditions of artistic creation in the following chapters.

In the introduction to his book, Folda informs the reader of his work process and the significance he accords to each chapter. The first chapter, dedicated to the historiography of crusader art history, is of the utmost significance. Here, Folda not only reviews the contribution of the various scholars of the Latin Orient since the nineteenth century, but also examines the efforts and perceptions of those who shaped the field in the twentieth century. Thus, he presents a progressive process of the development of research, in all artistic media, discussing, for example, the work of two of the leading art historians, Camille Enlart and Paul Deschamps, whose works paved the way for future scholarship and are still in use today. In an extensive and accurate analysis, Folda shows Enlart's positions, specifically the parallels Enlart draws between crusader architecture and the contemporaneous architecture in France and his constant desire to view crusader architecture as part of French architecture; Folda also points to the relative absence of observations in Enlart's work regarding local elements that do not fit his theory.

After a meticulous review of researchers like Lucy-Anne Hunt and Doula Mouriki, Folda discusses the definition of the essence of crusader art. He shows that there is a great development in the perception of the unique essence of crusader art, particularly in the study of icon paintings, as both Mouriki and Hunt begin to discuss Syrian artists, unlike their predecessor, Kurt Weitzmann, who discussed artists who came from Southern Italy. Furthermore, in this chapter not only does Folda remember every researcher who dealt with problems of crusader art, but he also presents the views of these researchers. I must note that I view this as a perfect example of how historiography should be written, particularly now, when many researchers quote selectively.

At the end of this chapter, Folda presents his credo: "Our study of the art of the crusaders in the Holy Land during the period 1187-1291 is a fresh attempt to discover, analyze, interpret and characterize the nature and development of this art and architecture in a particularly troubled historical setting" (p. 18).

Also exemplary is Folda's use of historical knowledge to understand...