The Emperor Vitellius, in a feigned oval

The composition relates to a series of depictions of Roman Emperors by Van Veen known in two partially complete sets, in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, and that sold, Christie's, Vervoordt sale, Kasteel van 's-Gravenwezel, on location, 10-12 May 2004, lot 143. Both groups were originally thought to be versions of a lost series by Rubens upon which he subsequently based his eponymous series of the mid-1620s, but are now believed to be the work of Van Veen and his workshop, in which Rubens himself worked until 1600, and with which he would thereby have been familiar.