History - p. 3

The Crusades of the late 11th to the late 13th Centuries centered on the violent clash of the two aggressive religious cultures of Islam and Christendom. Their legacy echoes in such 20th Century barbarities as the Holocaust and recent wars in The Balkans, Caucasus, Afghanistan and the Middle East. These sculptures try to convey something of the spirit of the times, when both Christian knights and Islamic Mujahidin (i.e. fighters in a Jihad or holy war) combined simultaneous extremes of bravery, fanatical faith and brutality, relieved only by the rarest glimpses of nobility and chivalry despite the high ideals under which both sides professed to fight.

These sculptures are part of a 5-piece "CRUSADES" series commissioned by Prof. Alfred Andrea. The one on the right appears as the cover art on his book "CONTEMPORARY SOURCES FOR THE FOURTH CRUSADE". It depicts events from the medieval Latin manuscript "HISTORIA CONSTANTINOPOLITANA" by the monk Gunther of Pairis.