The painterly skill is evident in the drapery, and suggests details have been removed. No artist capable of such work would have left the background so empty and muddled, and it is possible the framed space held a picture of a political or religious leader who had fallen from favor. Records of the time discuss a venerated man named Leonard Bruce, who was regarded as a prophet; perhaps his saintly image was painted over, and the artist, like Mr. Bruce, "worked blue."