This small full-length portrait is related to Willem Boy’s well known oak relief of Gustav Vasa, but in what way? Some scholars believe that the relief was based on the painting, others that it was the other way round. Details such as the design of the rapier hilt (not common until around 1600), the anachronistic footwear and the naive rendering of the face support the view that the painting should be dated several decades after the king’s death.