![]() The painting shows a slim man with a receding hairline, light-colored eyes and a trimmed reddish beard, wearing a shirt and doublet. The sale is to be held by private treaty rather than an auction. Its owner wishes to remain anonymous, and is asking for over £10 million (around €11.6 million or $12.2 million). That is why the new portrait of the Bard on display these days at the Grosvenor House hotel in London has raised as much expectation as misgivings. Over the years, there have been several claims regarding the legitimacy of Shakespeare portraits that have turned out to be wrong. There are only two representations of the Bard’s physical appearance: a bust at his funeral monument in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, and a 1623 engraving on the title page of the First Folio, a compilation of his works. The biggest mystery, however, is the one surrounding over what William Shakespeare looked like. The head of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s ill-fated second wife, has been depicted over and over again in novels, movies and TV series, despite the fact that an anonymous 16th-century oil painting is the only clue to that woman “with a long neck, a wide mouth and black, beautiful eyes,” as defined by the ambassador of Venice in the court of the Tudors. Take a closer look with our digital guide on the Bloomberg Connects app.History is littered with characters without a portrait, or with such dubious reproductions of their image that these have not served to create an accurate memory. Plan your visit to see the Library’s First Folios along with over 200 other treasures from the Library’s collections in the Polonsky Exhibition. These remarkable books will be on display through October 1. Tilden that each have their own small differences, such as an extra title page in a Lenox copy. Among the Library’s Folios are copies from the founding collections donated by William Astor, James Lenox, and Samuel J. Errors were discovered and corrections made, leading to interruptions, alterations, irregularities, and inconsistencies. Only 235 copies remain, and each one is unique as a result of the printing process. They were printed on high-quality paper usually reserved for Bibles, making the First Folio an expensive and ostentatious enterprise. It is believed that between 700 and 750 copies of the First Folio were printed in 1623. The table of contents shows how the plays were categorized by genre for the first time, although Troilus and Cressida is absent from that page despite its inclusion in most copies, possibly indicating protracted negotiations to include it. There is also a list of the 26 actors who performed the plays in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later the King’s Men) theatre company, including Shakespeare himself and Richard Burbage, who originated many of the leading tragic roles. The frontispiece features the now iconic portrait of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout the Younger accompanied by a poem by Shakespeare’s contemporary and sometime rival, Ben Jonson. The Folios contain points of interest beyond the texts of the plays themselves. The compilers’ efforts preserved 18 plays-including Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and The Tempest-that might otherwise have been lost forever. They likely used earlier editions of individual plays, various versions of production scripts, and Shakespeare’s own working drafts to faithfully reproduce the texts as they were performed. ![]() William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, this first published collection of Shakespeare’s plays was compiled by John Heminge and Henry Condell, the playwright’s fellow actors and friends who were also shareholders in the Globe Theatre. The First Folio is regarded by many as the most important book in the history of English literature. ![]() These additions to the Polonsky Exhibition arrive just in time for Shakespeare Day, observed on April 23, the date on which Shakespeare died in 1616 and is also thought to have been born in 1564. Alongside the First Folios will be an early 17th-century etching of London that depicts the venues where Shakespeare’s plays were first performed, including the Globe Theatre and the Rose Theatre, and the places where these books were first printed and sold. It is joined by five more copies of this historic book, which contains 36 of Shakespeare’s plays. One copy has already been on view since the exhibition opened in September 2021 and is featured in the audio guide with commentary from Shakespeare scholar Professor James Shapiro (Columbia University). In honor of the 400th anniversary of its publication this year, all six of the Library’s copies of William Shakespeare’s First Folio will be displayed in the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures from April 22 through October 1, 2023. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |