LikenessesandPortraits5

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**WHAT DOES SHAKESPEARE LOOK LIKE? WHAT ARE THE ONLY EXISTING LIKENESSES OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE? ARE THEY AUTHENTIC? WHAT IS THE COBBE PORTRAIT AND WHY IS IT SO SIGNIFICANT? WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THE COBBE PORTAIT FROM ALL OTHER EXISTING LIKENESSES? WHAT IMPACT DOES ITS DISCOVERY HAVE ON OUR UNDERSTANDING OF SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE AND LOOKS? IS IT AUTHENTIC? ** The image of Shakespeare has long been debated, and up until now very few images have been accepted as the true face of Shakespeare. The only way we today can possibly know what Shakespeare looked like are paintings, and paintings are not 100% accurate, ever. A ccording to BBC’s “Searching for the Face of Shakespeare”, T he portrait long taken to be the real face of Shakespeare was the so called Chandos Portrait, which takes its name from the 3rd Duke of Chandos, who bought the work in 1789. A few other portraits of Shakespeare include the Janssen portrait, and the Soest portrait. Just recently, another portrait has been found that is accepted as the likeness of the great poet. This portrait was in Britain’s National Portrait Gallery on loan from the Folger Shakespeare Library,   and about three years ago, an art restorer named Alec Cobbe recognized a portrait of Shakespeare as one very similar to a portrait he had in his own personal collection, which was long taken to be a picture of Sir Walter Raleigh. Many scholars today claim that what the Cobbe family has in their house is authentic, and the one found at the museum is a copy, as are many other portraits found in the likeness of the Cobbe portrait. The painting underwent many tests to make sure that this was the original copy, and the results came back positive, that this is the real deal. The tests produced evidence that the painting dates back to around 1610, and that the Cobbe painting was the source for the one that had been on loan to the Britain’s National Portrait Gallery,  and several others.  This Cobbe portrait is very different from all the other portraits. For example, the Cobbe portrait depicts a rich man, many of the other portraits all show a middle class man, in not so fancy clothes, while this portrait shows Shakespeare as he probably was after his career; a rich upperclassman, in his royal gowns. It really shows how Shakespeare would have been, other than some middle classman. According to Richard Lacayo, author of “Is This What Shakespeare Looked Like?”, The original Cobbe portrait seems to have been copied a few times, judging by the similar paintings that have been found. “ Research reveals that the Cobbe family inherited the portrait after their cousin married the great granddaughter of the third Earl of Southampton, Henry Wriothesley - Shakespeare’s only literary patron”, according to [|Lee Jamieson], author of “The Cobbe Portrait”. Jamieson states that the painting has direct ties to Shakespeare himself. Though the Cobbe portrait can never be 100% proved to be the likeness of Shakespeare, neither can any other paintings, and the world will forever guess at what the great poet could possibly have looked like.
 * prepared by: Tony Douglass **
 * The Image of Shakespeare **