English School, circa 1600

This depiction of Christ corresponds to a series of paintings known as the Emerald Icons as they supposedly derive from an impression of Christ's profile on a Byzantine emerald, an important Christian relic. The emerald was one of several holy relics sent to Pope Innocent VIII in the 1490s by Bajazet, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, to ensure that the Pope kept his brother and rival, Prince Dschem, in prison in Rome. The story however has become confused over the years; the present painting suggests that the emerald was actually given as ransom for the Prince and a version in the National Portrait Gallery, London, bears an inscription that suggests it was Prince Dschem's son who was held to ransom.