Knight Templar on Horseback and Badges of the Holy Sepulchre, 1842

This original antique lithograph, colored by hand, is a plate from the Galleria Universale di Tutti i Popoli del Mondo (Venice, Giuseppe Antonelli, 1842). The upper image shows a knight in a closed great helm, a white surcoat and pink sleeves, sword raised, on a rearing horse covered in a long white caparison marked with a red cross, with a green saddle cloth edged in gold. The lower image shows three decorations: at left a gold cross with fleur de lis ends under a crown, a red cross at its center, hung from a black ribbon; in the middle a silver star with a red Jerusalem cross inside a gold wreath; and at right a blue lozenge with a gold cross and red center, suspended from a gold chain.

The top margin is lettered "Tom. IV" at left, "FRANCIA" in the center and "Tav. 34" at right. The upper caption reads "Cav. Templario a Cavallo" (Knight Templar on horseback). Under the three badges are "Decorazione degli Ufficiali" (Decoration of the officers), "Decorazione dell' Amminis.re Generale" (Decoration of the administrator general) and "Decoraz.e dei Frat.lli-Serventi" (Decoration of the serving brothers), and below the panel "Ordini del S. Sepolcro" (Orders of the Holy Sepulchre).

The Knights Templar were a military religious order founded in Jerusalem in the twelfth century; they wore a white mantle with a red cross. The Jerusalem cross, a large cross with a small cross in each angle, is the emblem associated with the Holy Sepulchre and sits at the center of all three badges here.

The white and red horseman above the row of jeweled badges gives the plate a strong heraldic look on the wall.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.