8-1CobbePortrait

 What is the new portrait of Shakespeare unveiled recently? //Answer prepared by Bill W.// Just recently in the news, there has been lots of talk about the new portrait that is “supposedly” the real Shakespeare. According to Stanley Wells, chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, “this painting is the real replica of Shakespeare.” Although many people believed that the Chandos Portrait was true, could this painting be the real one?

This new portrait has been in the Cobbe family for generations. The family is distantly related to Shakespeare's only known literary patron, Henry Wriothesley, the third Earl of Southampton. Its owner Alec Cobbe visited the National Portrait Gallery exhibition "Searching for Shakespeare" in London in 2006 where he saw a painting that had once been accepted as a life portrait of the English poet. During the last few months, this portrait has been examinined. The tests show that the wood panels around the painting dated from around 1610. According to Wells, “I don’t think anyone who sees [the Cobbe portrait] would doubt this is the original. It’s a much livelier painting, a much more alert face, a more intelligent and sympathetic face.” This painting was painted approximately in 1610, six years before Shakespeare's death, and when he would have been aged 46, according to Paul Edmondson of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

"One of the most striking things about the portrait is that Shakespeare has a fuller head of hair than in the Chandos portrait. In the Chandos portrait, it looked as if Shakespeare had hair growing from the side of his head and not the around the whole head. In the recent painting, it seems that Shakespeare’s head is more oval shaped unlike the Chandos portrait which is round. Shakespeare’s clothes are different in style, too. The recent painting has him dressed up in fancy clothes that were worn when meeting someone royal while the other portrait was all black showing off his wealth. Another issue is that the painting looks more like a 26-year-old than a 46-year-old - Shakespeare's age when it was likely painted - may be down to the convention of the time when a painter should "polish out the wrinkles and increase the size of the pearls," according to Mark Broch, curator of the Cobbe collection.

According the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, the Latin inscription along its top edge, 'Principum Amicitias,’ is a quotation from an ode by the classical writer Horace. In Horace's poem, the words--this translates as ‘the alliances of princes!'-- were addressed to the tragic playwright Pollio. Horace's words warned Pollio of the dangers of writing vividly about recent major historical events (dangers of which Shakespeare was all too well aware) and contrasted the playwright's historical and tragic writings. But even more importantly, the Cobbe portrait seems to have been the model or source for Martin Droeshout's familiar engraving of Shakespeare for the First Folio of 1623. Droeshout looks very familiar to Shakespeare so some historians thought that they were exactly alike.

According to the webpage, “Portrait of Shakespeare Unveiled 399 Years Late,” published on __The New York Times__ website, Wells says “I am a scholar and a skeptic. I thought it was dear old Alec off on one of his hobby horses again,” he said. “But over the years my excitement has mounted. I am willing to go 90 per cent of the way to declaring my confidence [in the identification].” On the webpage of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Professor Henry Woudhuysen from the University of London said, //“// //In the quest for an authentic portrait of Shakespeare taken from life, the Cobbe portrait comes with a strong provenance, convincing technical evidence of its date, and a tantalizingly close resemblance to the Droeshout engraving which may have been taken from it. The publication of the Cobbe portrait provides an opportunity to think again about Shakespeare's appearance and his relations with the Earl of Southampton.”//

 I think that there is possibility for that painting to be a real painting because of the date of the painting and that the wood panels are in the 1600’s when Shakespeare became famous. Some of the most famous historians believe that this painting could be the exact replica of Shakespeare. If this painting is considered the true Shakespeare, the whole world will have to change their perspective on this genius. Works Cited Marckey, Robert. “Portrait of Shakespeare Unveiled: 399 Years Late.” //The New York//

//Times//. March 9, 2009. New York Times. 5 April 2009 <

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Spescha, Petra. "Unique portrait of Shakespeare unveiled." //Reuters UK//. 2009. Reuters UK. 14 Apr 2009

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"The Claims for the Cobbe Portrait." //Shakespeare Found//. 2009. Shakespeare Birthplace

Trust. 16 Apr 2009 http://www.shakespearefound.org.uk/evidence.html.

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