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The real bard?
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A recent exhibition in Toronto had a painting said to be that of William Shakespeare. Is it really a portrait of the Bard of Avon?
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What did Shakespeare look like?
"Painting Sir ... is a mystery".
"Measure For Measure,"
Act 4, Scene 2
IN a recent exhibition, the Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada had displayed a portrait claimed by its owner to be that of William Shakespeare. The owner said the painting, dated 1603, had been in the possession of his family for 12 generations.
It was the image of a man with blue eyes, receding auburn hair above the temples and small, thin lips. His chin had wispy hair and his cheeks appeared to be ruddy.
The Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa, conducted a number of tests and scientific evidence attested to the portrait's 17th Century origins. The institute, in its report released after seven years of research, conclusively said that the oak on which the portrait was painted was from "the Baltic region, that the earliest possible date for the execution of the painting was 1597 and that a date of execution from 1603 onwards was plausible".
But is it a portrait of Shakespeare?
"It looks to be conceivably a painting of someone done in 1603. Whether it is Shakespeare, we won't be able to answer," said Ms. Christina Corsiglia, curator of the European Art of the gallery. She could only say this: "The most obvious thing is, it is not presented as anything but a portrait of a young man or a middle-aged man ... "
If it can be convincingly proven that the image is of Shakespeare, the date of 1603 would made it one of rare representations of the Bard while he was still alive.
It was in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, that two actor friends, John Herminges and Henry Condell, collected 36 of his plays, into what has come to be known as the First Folio. The edition's unique character was the title page with a portrait engraving of Shakespeare done by Martin Droeshout.
Droeshout (1601-c.1652), an English printmaker of Flemish descent, who provided the engraving for the First Folio, was only 15 years old when Shakespeare died and 22 years old when his first major engraving work appeared in 1623. The engraving was perhaps based on an earlier portrait, or on a description given by Shakespeare's associates and those familiar with the poet's appearance.
The portrait was accompanied by the commentary of Shakespeare's contemporary, Ben Johnson:
The Figure, that thou here seest put,/ It was for gentle Shakespeare cut/
Wherein the Grauer had a strife with Nature, to out-doo the life;/
O, could he but haue drawne his wit/As well in brasse, as he hath hit
face,/the Print would then surpasse/All that was euer writ in brasse.
But, Since he cannot, Reader, looke/Not on his Picture, but his Booke.
As with Droeshout's engraving, it is not known on what Johnson based his likeness. Presumably commissioned by Shakespeare's family, the statue seems to have earned the approval of the playwright's family. During their several visits to the memorial site they could not have failed to note the verisimilitude of the playwright and the sculpture
Over the last three centuries, a whole series of works by painters and sculptors have come into prominence with each one boasting of the claim "out of the work Shakespeare shall come forth forthwith".
A Catalogue of Painting in the Folger Shakespeare Library — "As Imagination Bodies Forth" by William L. Pressly — is a meticulously prepared book on the subject, discussing the merit of each representation, the credentials of the artist and the date and the period attributed to the depiction. The Chandos Portrait and the Flower Portrait are among those which enjoy a unique position and receive special description in this respect.
The Chandos Portrait, oil on canvas — an authentic Jacobean painting (National Portrait Gallery, London), painted around 1610 by one John Taylor (he died in 1651) — is one of the most popular and widely reproduced images claiming to represent Shakespeare. "It has a long and distinguished history as a likeness of the Bard and is a favourite model to Shakespeare portraitists," says William Pressly.
The Chandos Portrait is named after the Duke of Chandos, who owned it in the 19th Century. Its genuiness depends on the authenticity of the 18th Century report that it was owned by the playwright and theatre manager Sir William Davenant (born 1610), reputed to the part of Shakespeare's circle of friends and colleagues. In 1856 the painting was given to the newly founded National Portrait Gallery as a cornerstone and nucleus of the institution's acquisitions.
The Flower Portrait in oil on an English oak panel inscribed "Willm Shakespeare 1609," first came into circulation around 1840. After this it was acquired by Edgar Flower, from whom it takes its name. It is now in the Memorial Gallery in Stratford-upon-Avon. The painting, done over an earlier picture of the Madonna and Child with St. John, is considered by many as the portrait upon which Dreshout based his engraving.
One-fifth of the Folger collection consists of portraits of Shakespeare. The library has about 30 portraits of Shakespeare, some of which are said to have been painted during the dramatist's lifetime.
Ultimately, one has to accept what the famous 18th Century English artist, Thomas Gainsborough and close friend of the Shakespeare actor, David Garrick, expressively said. The portraits are merely the imagined images of Shakespeare and their importance is not from their absolute truthfulness of the looks of the poet. It is the insights and perceptions of the genius of the playwright that they generate that are of utmost relevance.
Perhaps Ben Johnson had this in his mind when he wrote "To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare."
"Thou art a monument without a tomb/ and art alive while thy book doth live,
And we have wits to read and praise to give."
S. RANGARAJAN
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