Details
English School, circa 1600
Christ
oil on panel
1078 x 814 in. (27.5 x 20.7 cm.)
inscribed ‘THİS PRESENT FİGVRE İS THE / SİMİLYTVDE OF OVR LORD İHS / OVR SAVİOVR İMPRİNTED İN AMİ / RALD BY THE PREDECESSORS / OF THE GREATE TVRKE AND SENT / TO POPE İNNOCENT THE Vİİİ FOR / A TOKEN TO REDEME HİS BRO / THER THAT WAS TAKYN PRİSONER’ (lower center)
Special notice
This lot is offered without reserve.
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Lot Essay

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.

Post Lot Text
This lot is offered without reserve which will be sold to the highest bidder regardless of the pre-sale estimate.

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