John Bettes the Elder

His son, John Bettes the Younger (with whom he is sometimes confused), was a pupil of Nicholas Hilliard who painted portraits during the reign of Elizabeth I and James I.

[3] Bettes has been identified as the designer of the engraved title-border for William Cuningham's Cosmographical Glasse, printed by John Day in 1559.

[4] On the other hand, Bettes's style is distinct from Holbein's; he paints fur more loosely and the beard more flatly than the German artist.

[7] In the view of art historian Susan Foister, on the evidence of this portrait, Bettes is "unlikely to have assisted" Holbein.

[6] Since the work's creation, the blue smalt pigment of the background has turned brown; the painting has also been cut down along the sides and bottom, with the inscription reaffixed to the back.