"In this period, Koch found inspiration in Italian painting from the early Renaissance. The head with the headband is presumably based on Piero della Francesca's sequence of frescoes "The Legend of the True Cross" [check at the end of this post]in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo. A number of these frescoes depict figures wearing (white) headbands: soldiers battling in the name of the one true faith. Anno 1937, Koch portrayed himself in this self portrait as a soldier fighting for a greater cause. He was convinced only a strong new leader could save Western culture from a moral catastrophe: Italian 'Duce' Benito Mussolini." From the informative plate in the museum. (http://elhurgador.blogspot.nl/2013/11/pyke-koch-pintura.html)