From the New York Times:
Nearly 400 years after his death, William Shakespeare appeared in a new and more handsome guise on Monday, thanks to a recently discovered portrait that a group of Shakespeare scholars and art historians said was the only known likeness to have been painted in his lifetime.
I find the reaction to the painting more interesting than the painting itself.
The Cobbe portrait, as the scholars now call it, shows a head-turner of a man. In middle age, this Shakespeare has a fresh-faced complexion, a closely trimmed auburn beard, a long straight nose and a full, almost bouffant hairstyle. He is dressed in elaborate white lace ruff and a gold-trimmed blue doublet of a kind worn only by the wealthy and successful men of his age.
[Stanley Wells, the chairman of the Shakespeare Birthday Trust,] and other experts said they were convinced after three years of studying the portrait, and after elaborate scientific tests at Cambridge University, that it was, in effect, the holy grail Shakespearean scholars had sought for centuries: a portrait done in Shakespeare’s lifetime, and the original from which other Shakespeare paintings of the period were copied. They said their studies showed it probably was painted in 1610, when Shakespeare was 46, and only a few years from his death in 1616.
In a brochure for an exhibition opening in Stratford in April, titled “Shakespeare Found,” the birthday trust offered a lyrical interpretation.
“His face is open and alive, with a rosy, rather sweet expression, perhaps suggestive of modesty,” it said. “There is nothing superior or haughty in the subject, which one might well expect to find in a face set off by such rich clothing. It is the face of a good listener, as well as of someone who exercised a natural restraint.”
That description is silly.
It's the "face of a good listener, as well as of someone who exercised a natural restraint"?
Come on.
That's projecting a lot.
Goofy.
In a handout for reporters, the trust said the portrait might open a new era in Shakespeare scholarship, giving fresh momentum, among other things, to generations of speculation as to whether the playwright, a married man with three children, was bisexual. Until now, that suggestion has hinged mostly on dedications to the Earl of Southampton that Shakespeare wrote with some of his best-loved poems and some of the sensual passages in his poems and plays, particularly his sonnets, most of which, the London scholars said, are centered on expressions of love and desire for men, not women.
“This Shakespeare is handsome and glamorous, so how does this change the way we think about him?” the handout said. “And do the painting and provenance tell us more about his sexuality, and possibly about the person to whom the sonnets are addressed?”
This image of Shakespeare could give "fresh momentum, among other things, to generations of speculation as to whether the playwright, a married man with three children, was bisexual."
Why?
The experts are saying that the Cobbe portrait sheds new light on Shakespeare's sexuality.
Apparently, they believe the portrait could be of a man in love with another man.
Why?
What qualities are displayed in the portrait that would bring one to that conclusion?
He looks "handsome and glamorous." First, that's a very subjective assessment. Second, why is being handsome and glamorous indicative of homosexual behavior or longings?
Again, that's a lot of projecting.
Video.
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