Ghost of a flea: Searching for Shakespeare

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March 02, 2006

Searching for Shakespeare

An exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery brings together for the first time six paintings of Shakespeare thought most likely to have been painted from life. Channel 4 discusses several contenders, saying the National Portrait Gallery's three-year project concluded only the Chandos portrait was likely to be an authentic representation. Yet a German academic claims no fewer than four fit the bill, including a death mask not included in the exhibition. Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel, who surely has the coolest name in all of Shakespeare studies, claims a swelling appearing under the Bard's left eye indicates he had lymph cancer and also provides a clue as to which portraits were based on the man himself.

The four images with the morphological similarities are, she reveals in a book to be published in Britain in April, the Flower Shakespeare, named after the brewery family that gave the picture to the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1895; the Chandos Shakespeare, presented to the nation by Lord Ellesmere in 1856; the terracotta Davenant Bust, which stands in the Garrick Club in London; and the Darmstadt Death Mask.

Flea-readers seeking more Shakespeare pictures may find them at The Shakespeare Page and further discussion focused on the Sanders Portrait at Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare. The National Portrait Gallery hosts Searching for Shakespeare through May 29.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at March 2, 2006 07:11 AM

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