Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/141

ANCIENT POBTRATTURES OF OUR LORD. Ill served at his residence, the IJliydd, Upton-on-Scvcrii, It is on panel, measuring lOf in. in lieight by 5^ iu breadth. In the upper part the head of the Saviour is seen in profile, to the lei't, on a gold ground ; the features are of mild, pleasing expression ; the long hair, of dark chestnut colour, falls on the shoulders ; the beard is short, and slightly forked ; the dress dark green. The lower moiety of the panel bears the following inscription in gold letters (lloman capitals) on a black ground : — THIS PRESENT FIGURE IS THE SIMILITVDE OF OVRE LORD IIIV OVRE SAVIOR IMPRINTED IN AMIRALD BY THE PREDESESSORS OF THE CRETE TURKE AND SENT TO OVRE HOLY FATER {sic) THE POPE INNOSENT THE VIII. AT THE COST OF THE GRETE TURKE FOR A TOIvIN FOR THIS CAUSE TO REDEilE HIS BROTHER THAT WAS TAKYN PEESONER. Several examples of this "similitude," it may be re- membered, have been brought before the Institute, at the London meetings and in our temporary museums. Those hitherto known to me appear without exception to be repe- titions of a valued type, probably from the hand of some Italian painter, who had access to the precious emerald as his model ; in every instance the date of their execution seems to be about the commencement of the sixteenth cen- tury, possibly a few years earlier. Whilst they differ slightly in certain details, they are nearly uniform in dimension, and the inscription, that sometimes contains slight blunders, is always in English, and constantly sets forth the gift of the emerald prototype to Innocent VIII. by Bajazet II. to propi- tiate the Holy Father in favoui* of his younger brother, Zemes or Zizim, who had been defeated at Erousa in 1482, and souglit refuge with the Soldan of Egypt. These curious details have been set forth by Mr. King in his memoir above cited. The examples of the painting previously' sub- mitted to the Institute, differ only from that transmitted to Mr. King from the Isle of Man in the absence of the radiant aureole, which is found in that instance only. In 1851 one of these portraitures had been exhibited by Mr. Thomas Hart, of Reigate ; it is described in this Journal (vol. viii, p. 320). The inscription asserts that the simili- tude had been "found in amarat," evidently a blunder for