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Icon of Saints Sergius and Bacchus equiped as Turcopoles, Acre, 13th century.
St Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai, Egypt


A detail of Saint Sergius
A detail of Saint Bacchus
Title: Double-Sided icon with Saints Sergius and Bacchus and the Virgin Hodegetria
Work Number: 50
Date: 13th century
Is Referenced By: Michigan Inventory Number 63
References: County of Tripoli or Sinai; Product of a Veneto-Crusader atelier at Acre, recently called the Workshop of the Soldier Saints. New research, however, points to Syrian or Cypriot characteristics.
Medium: obverse: tempera and metal leaf with pigmented varnish on panel; reverse: tempera and silver-colored leaf with pigmented varnish on panel
Physical Dimensions: 95.3 x 62.9 x 4 cm
Source: The Sinai Icon Collection, Princeton
(St Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt)



Referenced on p.56, Byzantine Cavalryman c.900-1204 by Timothy Dawson (Author), Giuseppe Rava (Illustrator)
This magnificent icon of Saints Sergios and Bakkhos from the turn of the thirteenth century shows exquisite realistic detail of their equipment - full scale shirts, high boots, horn-nocked recurve bows, a fine array of arrowheads corroborating those found in archaeology, and their horse furniture. Note the European-style high saddles and the so-called 'St. George cross' pennon. (Monastery of St. Catherine, Sinai)



See also an Icon of Saint Sergius equiped as a Turcopole, Crusader states, late 13th century. St Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai, Egypt.
A Turcopole in Armies and Enemies of the Crusades 1096-1291 by Ian Heath.
Fresco of St. Bacchus, Church of Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi, Nabk, Syria, portrayed as a Byzantine cavalryman, 1208-9AD
Other 13th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers








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