–> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--0: 05·-A man with quite a high forehead. -The bald head. -Well, I'm afraid he is a bald man. 0: 11·-Bald. -By the end of his life, he was bald. -With a beard. -The little black beard. 0: 17·-Pointy beard. -With an earring. -Flashing gold earring. -Kind of really open, quite large almond eyes. 0: 25·-But that is really the only thing we know. I don't think we know the -- the color of his eyes, even. 0: 32·-Most people have seen portraits of William Shakespeare. But are they really the same man? 0: 38·-We cannot be 100% sure of what William Shakespeare looked like. 0: 43·-It's interesting, isn't it, that so many people want to know what Shakespeare looked like. -The beauty of his portraits0: 49·doesn't seem to match the beauty of his plays and his poetry. -We really cannot come to grips with, cannot understand, 0: 56·cannot account for that level of genius. We want some window into where it came from. 1: 03·-You not only want to know what he looked like, just out of curiosity, you want to form some kind of bridge to that man. 1: 10·-The earliest images of the Bard have been described as a disembodied head on a plate, or a self-satisfied pork butcher. 1: 17·-People have been searching for a portrait of Shakespeare to be able to engage with that extraordinary intellect. 1: 23·It's hard to do so because the authorized images don't really give you that extraordinary sense of creativity. 1: 30·-Now a new portrait has come to light, and it challenges everything known about1: 35·Shakespeare's appearance. -I was surprised how young he looked. -This is a 13-year quest1: 41·that puts an act of faith to the test. -He is a man of the stage and the theater. 1: 46·You can see it in his eyes. -Window cleaner Steven Wadlow is thrown into the confusing world of art history. 1: 53·-Could have been done in the same art studio at a later time. -That's interesting. Not what I thought you was gonna say. 2: 00·Very interesting. -Follow the low points.-I'm always like this. I think I'll take anything just to not have to be out2: 06·in the morning scraping vans and being in the coldand the highlights of a journey. -Just can't get better than that. 2: 11·Fabulous. Fabulous day. Yes! [ Laughs ] -. which could reveal an image of William Shakespeare not seen before. 2: 22·♪♪2: 29·-So here we are in Chapel Street, where my parents live.-This is Steven Wadlowon this corner house here. -And he's a window cleaner. 2: 35·He grew up with his mom and dad in the town of Tring, about 40 miles from London. -Through this way. 2: 41·-His dad was a picture frame restorer, and one day he brought home a painting that was believed to have hung in a fine mansion near Banbury. 2: 48·-My mum. Say hello. And Peter, my dad. -The painting was given pride of place2: 54·above the televisionChapel Street. Here's the portrait. -What the family didn't know is that the portrait, 3: 00·which hung in the same spot for more than 50 years, might be one of3: 06·the most important paintings in the world. And the identity of the sitter could change their lives forever. 3: 13·-Ever since I can remember, I remember that painting being there because I didn't particularly like it. 3: 18·Because it used to scare me. Because wherever you are in the house, it's, um. it's looking at you. 3: 24·It always used to remind me of those portraits on "Scooby-Doo." -The painting would one day be a central part of Steven's life. 3: 31·Occasionally, the family wondered who the subject might be. Then one day, Steven got a phone call from his father. 3: 38·-My parents had been watching "Time Team." It was about Shakespeare's home, New Place up in Stratford, 3: 43·and the image of the Cobbe portrait of Shakespeare kept appearing on the screen, and they saw the similarity and thought, 3: 49·"Well, that looks like the painting on the wall above the television." -The Cobbe portrait had recently been announced to the world3: 55·as a genuine portrait of Shakespeare, painted during his lifetime. However, these claims were later disputed by experts. 4: 03·-So my dad phoned me the next day and said, "Oh, I think the -- I think the painting on the wall, um, in the corner might be Shakespeare."4: 10·-Not long after, they got a visit from a friend who was an English and art lecturer. She took a special interest in the painting. 4: 19·-She turned round and she said, "Oh, you've got a picture of Shakespeare."4: 24·It was at that stage she took an eyeglass out of her handbag. And she did say it looked more like Shakespeare4: 31·than Shakespeare. -Quite shaken up, she sat down and asked for a strong drink. 4: 38·-And she said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I must go." -She was astonished. 4: 45·There aren't any surviving portraits of Shakespeare known to have been painted during his life. 4: 50·People have been searching for one for the last 400 years, and any claim of a new discovery is met with skepticism. 5: 00·-What you start from is not does this represent Shakespeare? But from what does this look like and what is the evidence telling us? 5: 06·And that's, I think, a really critical thing. So in looking at this portrait and encountering it for the first time, it looks like a portrait of an aspiring gentleman, 5: 14·both in terms of the costume, but also, I think in terms of the hairdressing, as it were. 5: 19·This is a very fashionable thing to be wearing. A, like, quiff to the top here that you see in the period about 1600, 1610. 5: 27·Someone is presenting themselves in a rather fashionable way as a elegant gentleman. 5: 32·-When we look at paintings that we don't know from the early period, we tend to think of people we know. 5: 39·There were an awful lot of people from this period who had their paintings painted, whom we don't know, whose names we will never recover. 5: 46·So I have a general, uh, sphere of doubt about anything5: 51·that comes forward with Shakespeare's name. -The experts may have doubted Steven at the start5: 57·of his journey, but he had one very good reason to take his investigation further. 6: 03·-One expert has suggested that if it were to be proven to be Shakespeare, it could be worth anything from £100 to £200 million, 6: 10·which is obviously worth investigating further. -Steven needed to prove the portrait's authenticity, 6: 17·and he started at the Hamilton Kerr Institute in Cambridge. He asked them to x-ray the painting6: 23·in hopes of revealing any underpainting, and to use stylistic analysis to tell him more about its age. 6: 31·They dated it to roughly 1595, meaning it was created during Shakespeare's lifetime. 6: 38·-1595 would be very convenient because in 1595, Shakespeare was 31. 6: 45·On the portrait is a 31. -The Hamilton Kerr's analysis of the portrait6: 51·also showed several areas of overpainting, revealing clues that might help identify the sitter. 6: 58·-So the overpaint, as the x-rays and other images show, is up here, across here, down there. 7: 06·Very deliberate. And here we have sort of a shield shape. So under there I think it's very likely there is a coat of arms. 7: 15·And then here we have coat of arms that's been added later by somebody, 7: 20·which again is over the top of some sort of writing, some sort of inscription or maybe another motto. 7: 27·-In order to learn more about the tantalizing clues the x-rays revealed, the painting was sent to the heralds at the College of Arms7: 34·in London, which regulates the granting of coats of arms. The heralds are appointed by the ruling monarch and date7: 41·back to the 12th century, when they served as royal diplomats. But by the Elizabethan era, they were responsible7: 48·for issuing these unique heraldic emblems. -So this is a system that has to communicate identity quickly7: 55·and efficiently in a military environment. You don't want to be trying to puzzle out minute details8: 00·as somebody comes charging towards you waving an ax. So this is a system which is clear and basic, 8: 07·like road signs. The nature of these coats of arms is they're the arms of the elite. They're the arms of the powerful landowners, noblemen, knights. 8: 16·-What does Peter O'Donoghue make of the coat of arms on Steven's painting? -It's one of those designs which is quite difficult to interpret, 8: 24·but it looks as though it's a red background with a black creature of some kind. 8: 31·And then what we in heraldry would call a bend sinister, diagonal stripes, 8: 36·bottom left to top right. But then when we look more closely, there's all kinds of problems, 8: 41·and it's really difficult to know what's happening. The animal. The head looks like that of a fox, I think. 8: 47·But it could be some other kind of animal. It's really unclear what's happening to the hindquarters of that animal. 8: 52·And the other thing is, if it is a black animal on a red background, that breaks one of the most basic laws of heraldic design. 9: 00·In heraldry, you always have to alternate between bright and dark colors. So if it is black on red, 9: 07·then that makes it feel like a made-up coat of arms. 9: 12·-A fake coat of arms is not going to help identify the subject of the portrait. 9: 18·Steven next turns his attention to comparing his portrait with images proven to depict the writer. 9: 26·-The poet may have been thinking of his own beloved River Avon when he wrote, "Here will we sit and let the sounds of music9: 34·creep in our ears." Here in Stratford Church, Shakespeare is buried in the heart of the England he loved. 9: 43·-Holy Trinity Church is home to the earliest known representation of William Shakespeare. 9: 49·Created soon after his death, the funerary bust had the blessing of his family, 9: 56·but it too has been the subject of artistic criticism. It has been described as having the look10: 01·of a self-satisfied pork butcher. -This isn't a particularly romantic representation of him. 10: 10·I think he thought of himself as having achieved a great deal as an author, and also tremendous success, having made himself a gentleman. 10: 18·And I think that's what we see, you know, the references to his kind of self-satisfaction. 10: 23·I do think he looks like somebody who has satisfactorily accomplished what he might have set out to do in life. 10: 30·-Made of marble and alabaster, it hangs over Shakespeare's grave. But in the 400 years it has stood there, 10: 37·it has suffered damage. Overeager devotees of the Elizabethan writer have chipped pieces off the monument. 10: 44·It's been removed by treasure hunters looking for lost manuscripts, and it's also been repainted on several occasions. 10: 52·Are the colors seen today original? -It was first renewed in 1749, 10: 58·and then 40 years later, a man named Edmond Malone came along, very famous editor, 11: 04·and he thought that the polychromatic scheme11: 10·that the face was shown in flesh colors was an abomination. 11: 17·He believed that the monument was, or should have been all white, neoclassical. 11: 25·-The white paint was scraped away and the bust was repainted in 1861. 11: 31·Give or take a few repairs, that is the version seen today, but it is difficult to compare11: 37·painted portraits with a 3-D image. The Droeshout engraving, 11: 43·made for the First Folio of his plays, published in 1623, is one of a few two-dimensional images accepted as Shakespeare. 11: 51·But Martin Droeshout, the engraver responsible, probably never met Shakespeare. 11: 57·-The engraving was probably done shortly before the publication of the First Folio in 1623, 12: 02·thus posthumously for Shakespeare. Yet it is almost certainly, 12: 07·as engravings invariably were, a copy of an earlier artwork. 12: 13·An earlier portrayal. This means that basically what we're looking at here is a not terribly competent copy of an earlier painting. 12: 22·-This portrait tells you a lot more about the engraver than it does about the sitter. 12: 29·The artist is really struggling with proportion. They're struggling with understanding12: 34·the facial construction. You've got a half turn of the face and then you've got the eyes looking12: 40·in a different direction. -But for all its problems, it must have been a good likeness. 12: 46·It was commissioned and authorized by people who knew what Shakespeare looked like. -The engraving must have been seen and authorized by those12: 55·that knew Shakespeare well. So we know that the portrait has to be based on something taken from the life. 13: 02·-If Steven's painting really is Shakespeare, then it should share similarities with the only two authenticated representations of him --13: 09·the funerary bust and the Droeshout engraving. -One of the first things I did in starting this process13: 17·was doing comparisons with the Droeshout engraving on the First Folio, 13: 23·-As the Droeshout was based on an earlier portrait of a younger Shakespeare, the engraver might have been told13: 29·to make the sitter look older for the final image. -Now, whatever portrait that engraver used, 13: 36·that discussion must have happened. Another thing is that if you take the fancy lace collar13: 42·away here and just leave the inner part, 13: 47·that becomes quite similar to the collar on the Droeshout. I accept there is a degree of wishful thinking, 13: 54·but the more I look at it, the more I believe it's Shakespeare. I just have this gut feeling. 13: 59·But gut feeling isn't enough. We need to find more. ♪♪14: 10·-Authenticating a painting is not an easy task and relies on many different areas of study. 14: 16·Steven will need to understand the latest scientific developments and gain a comprehensive knowledge of art history. 14: 25·As he has been researching his painting, he has tried to educate himself in these disciplines, 14: 30·all while earning a living by cleaning windows. -This is my day job. 14: 36·Because the bills have to be paid. And it's a good job to be doing, really, because it gives me time while I'm out14: 43·and about to have thoughts and think. And, um, often my thoughts are about what next14: 48·with the portrait. -What would it take for Steven's painting14: 54·to be authenticated as a portrait of Shakespeare? -So there are lots of things that you that need to be true, 15: 01·I suppose, for a portrait to be authenticated both of the period15: 06·and of the sitter. You're looking at really critical things like, um, what does the provenance tell you? 15: 12·Where has it been over time? How can you understand what this portrait has been considered15: 17·to be over a long period of time? And does it link back to the family in any way or to people close to the individual15: 24·it's supposed to represent? So provenance and documentation is absolutely key. 15: 30·-When Steven started his quest, all he had to go on were his father's memories of buying the portrait15: 36·from a father and son company of painting restorers. -They explained that they got 200 or 300 pictures, 15: 43·which came from the attic of a large house in Banbury or near Banbury. 15: 50·I did various work on them and they ended up bringing this particular picture to me and they said, "Well, we've got to get rid of it. 15: 58·We know it's not a Rembrandt." I said, "Well, it doesn't look like a Rembrandt," but I said, "It does look like Tudor to me."16: 04·They said, "You are right, it is Tudor. It's 1595."16: 10·There was a date on it on a paper, and the date was 1595. But in the end, they did owe me quite a little bit of money. 16: 18·And we ended up doing a deal that I acquired this picture. 16: 23·♪♪16: 31·-Steven began searching for the location where the painting came from, using the clues that his father had given him. 16: 38·All he knew was that it was a manor house in the Banbury area, and that the owner was in need of money for repairs. 16: 46·-But he did mention, which was a little bit odd, that it was a manor house that looked more like a sort of row of houses16: 52·than a traditional mansion or manor house. So the only place that seemed to fit the bill16: 57·was the Great Tew manor on the Great Tew estate, just a few miles from Banbury, so certainly within the Banbury area. 17: 04·This place had been inherited by a Major Eustace Robb in the early 1960s, 17: 09·and it had been sort of mothballed, uh, for a good 50 plus years prior to that. 17: 15·-Desperate for money to maintain the manor and the estate, Major Robb was selling the family jewels17: 21·and perhaps more importantly, the family art collection. Someone who lives nearby17: 28·and has studied the history of Great Tew is author and publisher John Mitchinson. 17: 33·-Would you be able to tell me anything about, um, Major Robb? -Yes. He sort of ran it like a very old school, 17: 40·kind of, um, lord of the manor. -Yes. -He just wasn't -- He just didn't have very much money. -Do you think it's at all a possibility17: 48·that a painting such as ours could have been in an outhouse, not really known about? 17: 54·I don't mean one painting, but, like, a batch of stuff in a corner, left and forgotten for many, many years. 18: 00·-I think if you talk to people about the house, certainly I remember when it was, you know, you could go in there and wander -- wander in. 18: 06·There were rooms full of stuff. So it's entirely possible that stuff could have been piled into one room and left. 18: 13·There were a lot of paintings in the house, and the one that everybody talks about, which nobody knew was there was the Michelangelo cartoon, 18: 22·which I think raised over 4 million quid. -Yes. -Yeah. I mean, I think there was a lot of art in the house. 18: 28·-Steven's discovery that the portrait may have come from Great Tew is the first step in establishing18: 34·the painting's crucial provenance. But there's still a long way to go. 18: 40·And Steven also has competition. Other paintings have already staked their claim18: 45·as being portraits of Shakespeare. -There are very pretty portraits of Shakespeare, 18: 52·but the one that is more likely to reflect18: 58·at least what he looked like is the Chandos portrait. The Chandos portrait was probably painted19: 06·by an actor in Shakespeare's company, so he knew what he looked like. I like the eyes of Shakespeare in it19: 14·because they really seem to show a presence. You feel that, "Okay, 19: 21·this could be the man who wrote all those wonderful things." -A very atmospheric and stylish portrait. 19: 30·The provenance is very good. It's been accepted right from really Shakespeare's lifetime as a portrait of him, 19: 37·or anyway, very shortly after his death. But there's no actual documentation that says it is him. 19: 43·It just speaks to you. And so the fact that there's no silver bullet of authentication, 19: 48·in a way it is dwarfed by the charisma of the painting. -Well, the Chandos portraits got a lot to recommend it. 19: 56·It is known in living memory of Shakespeare to be a portrait of Shakespeare. 20: 02·It also includes the same facial recognition. If we compare that to this portrait, 20: 09·you've got a very high forehead. You've got large almond open eyes, you've got a beard. 20: 16·I feel very confident that this represents Shakespeare. -Based on scientific and stylistic analysis, 20: 23·experts think the Chandos portrait was painted between 1600 and 1610, 20: 29·when Shakespeare was between 36 and 46 years old. Unlike the Chandos, which was painted on canvas, 20: 37·Steven's portrait is painted on a wood panel. Using dendrochronology, scientists can determine20: 44·whether the panel would have existed in Shakespeare's lifetime. -In this case, 20: 49·you've got a wooden panel with three separate panels, and you can date the wood, and you can use dendrochronology to do that, 20: 55·which is looking at the tree rings and seeing how the pattern matches a known set of data. 21: 02·And we know from this that it's coming up as very late 16th century when the tree was felled. 21: 07·So dendrochronology is a really useful technique to give you a last date by which the painting must be after. 21: 14·-The dendrochronology report on Steven's panel gave the last ring a date of 1592. 21: 20·More proof the portrait is definitely from Shakespeare's lifetime. 21: 28·By the 1590s, Shakespeare had moved to London, home to some of Elizabethan England's21: 34·earliest theaters, like the Globe. But it could be a dangerous place21: 40·where common criminals and government spies drank in taverns alongside actors and painters. 21: 46·Traditionally, portraiture had been limited to royalty or the very wealthy. During the Elizabethan era, for the first time, 21: 54·merchants, lawyers, and even actors could commission their own portraits. 21: 59·-There was a booming market for portraits as far as the middling sort was concerned. 22: 06·What they want to do is to show off -- to show off the social status. 22: 11·They want to show how rich, how wealthy they are. -So in the 16th and early 17th century, 22: 16·you don't have a sense of artistic identity where an artist is choosing his models and his subjects. 22: 24·It's very much a transactional approach where artists will be commissioned for a particular piece of work, 22: 30·and the patron will decide what size they want it, how, um, what inscriptions they might have, um, 22: 37·what clothes they might wear, how they might be positioned. -William Shakespeare's life in London22: 42·was now that of his theater, his fellow actors, his plays. His theater, the great Globe, concerned daily22: 51·with props and rehearsals. -Shakespeare was living a double life, inhabiting the disreputable world of the theater, 22: 58·while also representing himself as a respectable gentleman after receiving his own coat of arms in 1596. 23: 05·-The theater was a louche place, very dodgy and down market, 23: 11·dangerous as well as volatile sort of area to be working in. 23: 16·Shakespeare is presenting himself as a man of substance in the face of the image of someone involved23: 24·in the playhouses, a mere actor on a par in many posh people's minds, 23: 30·with jugglers and acrobats and tumblers. One step up, as it were, from those sort of circus performers. 23: 38·♪♪23: 43·-After finding the links to Major Robb and the manor, Steven thought he was finished with Great Tew. 23: 49·But the village wasn't finished with him. -After I'd established that23: 55·I really did think that Great Tew was probably the place that the portrait came from, 24: 00·I then found, to much surprise and excitement, to be quite honest, that it had --24: 05·this place here has connections with portraits of Shakespeare. 24: 12·The Chandos in the National Portrait Gallery was actually once here. 24: 17·-The Chandos once belonged to a Shakespeare memorabilia collector named Robert Keck, 24: 22·a lawyer who died on a journey to France in 1719. 24: 28·-He left his collection to a relative of his, Francis Keck, 24: 33·and Francis Keck was the lord of the manor, as it were, here behind me. 24: 38·-Before Robert's death, art historian George Vertue visited Great Tew. 24: 43·He was collecting all of the Shakespeare-related material he could find. This work became an invaluable resource. 24: 50·-In his notes, which historians still use today, he had the --24: 56·the Chandos was very clearly mentioned, along with a second portrait of Shakespeare, 25: 02·and this was dated 1595, oil on panels by Marcus Gheeraerts. 25: 08·-Historian Mary Edmond discovered this mention of a second portrait while researching the Droeshout engraving in the 1990s. 25: 15·And then she drew an even more startling conclusion while reading Vertue's notes. 25: 20·-Mary Edmond was a splendidly incisive and intelligent researcher. 25: 26·She claimed that 1595 painting as the original, that Droeshout was working from. 25: 33·Her acumen and her historical knowledge and her ability to ferret out, 25: 39·uh, uh, difficult and, um, uh, unknown bits of the archive, 25: 45·um, outdid many of the professionals. So anything she says has to be listened to with some interest. 25: 54·-Steven has learned that his oil on panel portrait, believed to have been painted in 1595, 26: 00·might have been kept at the same place as the second portrait mentioned in Vertue's notes. 26: 06·This missing painting, possibly used as the model for the Droeshout, was also oil on panel and painted in 1595. 26: 15·Could they be the same painting? ♪♪26: 24·-Who the painter is, of course, is a vital part of the jigsaw, because it would be lovely to ascertain26: 31·who the painter is or was, so that we can then see what connection they26: 37·may have had to William Shakespeare. -When we think of Renaissance painters, 26: 44·we often think that they were worshiped as geniuses. This was not usually the case in England. 26: 51·More often than not, they were considered craftsmen. They were considered artisans. 26: 57·Very often they had to paint very --27: 02·really everyday objects rather than big masterpieces. 27: 08·-Sir Roy Strong, who's the top person you could wish to speak to regarding27: 13·portraits of period, suggested it was very much27: 18·like William Segar. -It looks like William Segar's style, with very kind of lidded eyes, 27: 25·but it's very, very difficult to be absolutely certain with, um, 16th- and 17th-century artists. 27: 32·The difference between Gheeraerts and Segar. Pretty difficult to tell. -Segar and Gheeraerts were both active in 1595, 27: 41·the assumed date the portrait was painted. Could the clothing in the portrait27: 46·reveal any clues about the period during which it was painted? -Is it a 1595 portrait, question mark? 27: 54·The hair is quite fashionable in the late 1590s. A lot of the costume is later. The collar is quite interesting in this, 28: 00·because I wouldn't be expecting -- I'd be expecting to see a different sort of collar. This collar is a -- what's called a supportasse. 28: 07·It's keeping up the lace collar and it doesn't quite make sense as a collar28: 13·that would sit underneath a doublet like this. You'd be expecting it to come down here rather than sit --28: 18·sit high up. So you'd really need to work out what's original to the portrait and what is not. 28: 24·And you'll probably only do that by doing conservation work on it and unpicking some of the overpaint. 28: 32·-Conservation work would mean removing paint, changing the portrait, 28: 38·which Steven promised his father he wouldn't do. Instead, Steven contacted University College London, 28: 45·which offered to put the portrait under their hyperspectral imaging scanner, which allows them to determine28: 51·whether the pigments are genuine to the period. -Hello? -Hello. Steven. 28: 58·-Yes. -Welcome. Adam. -Hello, Adam. Nice to meet you. Great to meet you. Thank you very much. -Let me see what you've got. [ Both talking over each other ]29: 04·Go on. -I'll show you mine. -Go on then. -It's all very highly technical. 29: 10·-It's a treat to see anything coming out of a box like this, isn't it? Yeah. 29: 16·Oh. Can I? -Yes, of course you can. -Gosh. Thank you. 29: 22·-Okay. -I'm not -- I'm not an artist. But that looks to be an incredibly good condition to me. 29: 28·I mean, I probably shouldn't say this, but it looks like it was painted yesterday. -Yes. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. 29: 35·I promise you it wasn't, though. -You're particularly interested in underneath the shield at the top, you say? -Yes. So up here. 29: 42·-Oh, yes. You can see a shadow of a shield just here, can't you? It looks like it's matching the one at the other side. 29: 48·-Yep. -A normal photograph has got three color components. Our camera gives us about 600 color components. 29: 56·So that allows us to tell us whether one red is different from another red, which your eye might not be able to tell30: 02·because your eye only looks at one red. Has anybody asked whether the lace might have been added later? 30: 08·Because it's to a different -- very different style compared to the rest of the painting. -If it was, as you were just saying, just that, 30: 15·and this was added later, that would be really interesting because that -- that is more like going back30: 20·to the Droeshout engraving. And I've always assumed that if this was the painting used, 30: 26·that the engraver had just left this off because it was too complicated.-Oh, I seeto engrave. 30: 33·♪♪30: 39·-They're currently fitting, um, a new camera with a longer wavelength. And the hope is that that will see beneath, um, the overpaint. 30: 50·So I don't know if it's my imagination, but I am sure our man is delighted to be out of the box. 30: 57·He's sitting there smiling at everybody, watching all this work going on and all this fuss he's having, and you can tell he's lapping it up. 31: 03·He is a man of the stage and the theater. You can just It's just -- It's oozing out of him. 31: 09·You can see it. You can see it in his eyes. -They're starting to see preliminary images, 31: 14·but it could be months before Steven knows what secrets have been revealed. 31: 20·But he is not afraid of what science might have to say about his portrait. -I certainly think it's a very real possibility31: 27·that our portrait was the model for the Droeshout. But how do we prove that? 31: 34·I thought, "Let's have a look and do some comparisons." So I went about making my own photoshops with a photocopier. 31: 44·We were comparing the Wadlow and the Droeshout and straightaway, 31: 49·I mean, the nose isn't quite right there, I accept that, but the mouth was -- was, uh, was cause for celebration at the time. 31: 56·-Today, Steven's cutting and pasting has been replaced by cutting-edge technology. 32: 01·He used the online Betaface facial recognition software. It analyzes 101 advanced facial points32: 09·and uses biometric measurement functions. -As you can imagine, I was -- I was quite excited when I saw this. 32: 16·We've got the Droeshout here, the Wadlow here, which this software is showing at 91. 2% a match, 32: 25·which is quite remarkable. We have then the world-famous Chandos32: 30·at 88% matched with the Droeshout. Wadlow is leading the pack there. 32: 36·I mean, I was quite staggered. I was actually quite pleased that it meant my, um, my cutting and pasting, uh, all those years back32: 44·wasn't too, uh, harebrained after all. -It's an exciting day. 32: 51·Steven has returned to UCL to get the results of the scans they carried out on his portrait. 32: 56·-Hello, everybody. How are we all? So my hopes for the day are that they come up with some wonderful piece of information33: 03·that, um, move us forward and prove our theory. But being realistic, I doubt that that will happen. 33: 10·-If you put him on there, I can lower this. -The good news is that all the paints are genuine to the period, but they also raise other questions. 33: 19·-More of the questions are about the red pigments used.-Yeah. So the redwithin the. 33: 24·-Comparing these. -Yes. It's suggestive that they are of a relatively similar recipe or mixture. 33: 32·So it could be -- it could have been done at the same time, could have been done in the same art studio at a later time. 33: 39·-That's interesting. That's not what I thought you was going to say. Very interesting. -Very, very closely to or someone's very good at. 33: 47·-Very good atmatching by art. -Yes. -The results are showing the red paint used in the slashes on the doublet33: 53·is the same as the red in the fake shield. But what about the idea that the shield was painted much later33: 59·than the original portrait? -The tentative results here suggest that they were painted at the same time. 34: 05·-Or relatively close to each other. -Which makes it real more of a mystery then, because we've got somebody painting this, 34: 13·somebody painting that with that, the detail of the eye, and then somebody basically making a mess of that. 34: 20·-In terms of stylistically, you would assume that they were done by different levels of skill. 34: 27·-Yes. So does that mean that this and these were added later? -Yeah. -Maybe these --34: 33·But then what would the reason be for that? You know, it doesn't make a lot of sense. -One thing that might give us traction on here is34: 38·if it's been added later, it's going to sit on top of the older layers. 34: 45·-Of whatever was there beforeof whatever was there before. -Yes. -And we know that our longer wavelength infrared imaging is34: 52·better at looking at deeper layers. -Yes. -So, John, do you think that the long wave infrared scan34: 57·might give us some clues as to what's going on underneath the red? -Longer wavelengths of light35: 03·penetrate surface layers more effectively, revealing the pigments used in deeper layers35: 08·and the order they were added. -We start to see where things have changed. 35: 14·So this part of the rough is different from this part. And you see here at this wavelength, 35: 22·we don't have any of the lace, but we have the lace here and the lace looks --35: 28·It's very proud on the painting, but it's almost invisible in the infrared. 35: 34·I mean, it seems to me that the lace has been painted over everything else. -If you look at the general outside, 35: 42·the outermost of this collar, you can see through that collar to what you would assume to be a more modest35: 48·and a smaller collar, and that would be suggested more originally intended. 35: 55·-One possible explanation for the addition of a coat of arms and the fancy collar is that the portrait was being updated36: 02·as the subject's status improved. This was not uncommon in the mid 1590s. 36: 08·It was a prosperous time for Shakespeare and when he was granted a coat of arms. 36: 14·-In October of 1597, a deed recorded the purchase of New Place, 36: 20·largest and finest house in Stratford. -However, there is one thing none of these portraits36: 26·that claim to be of William Shakespeare have -- a family coat of arms. Granted arms in 1596, 36: 34·he experienced a tragic event that may have affected how he felt about this kind of emblem. 36: 40·-How is he, Anne? -He died, Will. -Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet, 36: 46·died in August 1596 at the age of 11, while his father was in London. 36: 53·A tragedy reflected in a number of his plays, including "Hamlet, Julius Caesar" and "Twelfth Night."36: 59·-But he was never to have another son to whom he could pass on the name Shakespeare. 37: 05·-It could be that his son died shortly before these arms were granted, and so he had no male heir to take these arms on. 37: 13·Perhaps they lost their flavor for him, lost their significance. -Over the years, 37: 20·Steven's theories have had to change when new evidence has been found, but he's still looking for the breakthrough37: 27·that will bring his quest to an end. And sometimes it gets difficult. 37: 32·♪♪ -Been 10 years this month since I started doing this. 37: 40·People often ask how much I'd take for the painting if I was offered money for traveling in the past, but if I was offered. 37: 47·On mornings like this, I think I'd take anything just to know -- just to not have to be out in the morning scraping vans37: 53·and being in the cold. I suppose if I'm being totally honest, 37: 59·it has become a bit of an obsession. And the fact that my dad bought it got told that he was -- he'd paid too much for it, 38: 07·I think it adds quite a bit to the, um, desire to find out about it. 38: 12·As I say, would have been nice to find out for my -- for my dad. He's 92, bless him, so I haven't put a time limit on it myself. 38: 20·Um, I'd just be happy if I can maybe get some answers38: 26·in my lifetime, really, which sounds a bit morbid, but that's sort of how it is. 38: 31·-One important virtue Steven has learned during his long search is patience. 38: 36·If you wait long enough, something will come along. ♪♪38: 43·Steven approached Lumiere Technology of Paris to have his paintings scanned with their layer amplification method. 38: 50·In contrast to the UCL scans, which looked at pigments, these scans will reveal underdrawings38: 57·and the artist's original intentions. Now Steven is learning the results with Jean Penicaut. 39: 05·-It was Lumiere technology that the Louvre trusted with the "Mona Lisa."39: 10·So you've got to have some credibility for that alone. And, um, it made quite big news39: 16·because they discovered underdrawings under the "Mona Lisa" that hadn't been seen before. 39: 22·So the first time I come to see Jean and dropped the portrait off for him to look at, it was very sort of, "So what?"39: 29·He thought it was a pastiche of, um, different images39: 35·of Shakespeare all put together, which in itself is encouraging because he was thinking it was images39: 40·of Shakespeare put together. ♪♪39: 50·-Days like this are always nerve-wracking for Steven. He knows this could be the day39: 57·when one of the world's leading experts gives him proof that his painting is not William Shakespeare. -Oh, how are you? -Hello, Jean. 40: 03·Great to see you again. It's been a bit too long. -Jean has discovered that the underdrawing shows corrections, 40: 09·revealing that the artist changed their mind. Experts generally take this40: 14·as a sign a portrait was done from life. So does Jean still think the portrait is a pastiche, 40: 21·or is it something much more significant and that Steven's portrait was actually painted from life? 40: 28·-I was wondering if you thought it was painted from life. -I think so it is. Yes. If you -- if you -- if you just consider the face, yes. 40: 36·-Yes, yes, yes. The original face -- we don't know about these -- was painted from life. 40: 59·and explain his surprising new theory. 41: 43·-Yes. or a part he was playing. -Yes. -Sort of thing. -So imagine.-Shakespeare as a character. 41: 49·-Yes. 42: 32·-Hamlet. 42: 38·I'm no expert on the works of Shakespeare. But of course, the more I get drawn into it, the more I look at those as well. 42: 45·Um. and. I try not to get drawn down a path where I'm making it --42: 51·making it convenient to -- to work. But the experts all seem to agree42: 58·that Shakespeare played the part of the ghost of King Hamlet, 43: 04·Hamlet's father, that appeared on stage three times, and very probable as well, 43: 13·that there was a portrait of the king, as in Shakespeare on the stage. 43: 33·♪♪43: 39·♪♪43: 46·-That was an amazing day. After all these years and all the --43: 53·Is it Shakespeare? Isn't it Shakespeare? People agreeing, people disagreeing. But when people are agreeing, 43: 59·they don't really matter because they're just like me. Um, and then today we have Jean, 44: 06·who discovered the underdrawings on the "Mona Lisa," um, has done lots and lots of quality research44: 13·for top-quality paintings and art around the world, says that our painting, he believes, is Shakespeare. 44: 20·You just can't get better than that. I really, really -- I'm almost speechless, which is unusual. 44: 26·Um, but, uh, fabulous. Fabulous day. 44: 34·Yes! [ Laughing ] -When the conclusions of the visit to Paris were released, 44: 42·the story quickly traveled all around the world. -First of all, 44: 47·just explain how you came to have this painting in your possession. -In the '60s. Wow. What a few days this has been. 44: 53·The Internet's gone mad with our story going around the world, in New York, America, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, everywhere. 45: 02·Quite amazingly, really, most of them have been very kind. Uh, people supporting, backing me up. 45: 10·Many people saying, "Yes, that is definitely Shakespeare." Things are moving, things -- You know, this is -- this is absolutely brilliant. 45: 17·-The idea of a young Shakespeare without a beard but with hair had the world buzzing. 45: 24·But how does the idea that the portrait was used as a prop on stage fit with the traditional view45: 30·that plays at this time were performed without props? The imagery and the words being enough to conjure45: 36·up the required scenery. -Soft. What light through yonder window breaks. 45: 42·It is the east and Juliet is the sun. -There used to be a myth that it was a theater, 45: 51·a drama based on words, words, words. But what has come to the fore45: 57·is that actually theaters, playhouses -- the playhouses of the period -- were painted worlds. 46: 04·They -- People went there to be amazed at these shows. 46: 11·[ Laughter ] -Theater companies would re-create thunder and lightning. 46: 18·Pyrotechnics and secret trapdoors were employed to amaze the audience, and props were also used. 46: 26·Emanuel Stelzer has been researching playwrights of the era and has discovered that there were a large number46: 32·of portraits used on stage as props. -There are 76 extant plays46: 38·in which a portrait is used as a prop. Shakespeare uses portraits in some of his plays. 46: 46·-Shakespeare's astounding insight into human nature is nowhere better illustrated than in his character of Hamlet. 46: 54·As he faces the dread decision of whether or not to kill his father's murderer, Hamlet's mental struggle is a study in psychology. 47: 02·-To be or not to be. That is the question. 47: 09·-There are the two pictures in Hamlet in the closet scene, and that's a very interesting scene. 47: 15·-The closet scene has been described as the greatest scene in Shakespeare's greatest play. 47: 21·In it, Hamlet confronts his mother, Gertrude, with portraits of both his father and of his murderous uncle, 47: 28·saying, "Look here upon this picture and on this." -The portrait of his father is said to be beautiful. 47: 37·So you have him saying that this portrait shows a man with Hyperion's curls, 47: 46·the front of Jove himself, and eye like Mars to threaten and command a station like47: 51·the herald Mercury, new-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill. So he's mobilizing the entire Olympus to say how beautiful, 47: 58·how handsome, how heroic this man was. 48: 03·-At the emotional climax of the scene, as Hamlet's rage is becoming too much for his mother to bear, 48: 09·the ghost of Hamlet's father appears to urge him on. -We have these old theatrical traditions, 48: 16·some of them belonging to not long after Shakespeare's death, that he played old man parts, the ghost in "Hamlet,"48: 25·which is certainly an old man part, in fact a dead man part. -Shakespeare himself was a working actor. 48: 30·Adam in "As You Like It," the ghost in "Hamlet." -If a portrait was used on stage, 48: 36·a fascinating new theory takes shape. -This would mean that people in the audience48: 43·would be looking at a portrait of Shakespeare. It is a possibility, 48: 48·although there is a lot of conjecture behind it. 48: 54·-Could Jean Penicaut's idea that the painting was used as a prop explain some of the puzzles associated with it? 49: 01·-This would work wonders because it can be transported very easily49: 07·if a character on stage should exchange it or give it to another character. 49: 13·It would be a great size for it. -Was it used one year for one play49: 18·and then the next year was it brought out as a prop again? But this time the play called for the slashes on the doublet, 49: 28·for the lace collar, for a kind of elevation of status for whoever it was was being represented in that play? 49: 36·-It's an attractive theory that solves several of the mysteries that have come to light during Steven's quest. 49: 42·It's attractive, but is it believable? Shakespeare himself wrote49: 47·that a pretty face can sometimes be a disguise. In "Macbeth," King Duncan says there's no art49: 54·to find the mind's construction in the face. -When we look in the National Portrait Gallery archives, 50: 00·there are boxes and boxes of portraits that, over time, have been considered to represent Shakespeare. 50: 07·This is one example of a portrait which is being considered to represent Shakespeare, 50: 12·which shows a man of the right sort of period. They're often quite elegantly dressed50: 18·and quite elegantly presented. They're pleasing figures to look at, and they're men with lovely kind of fair faces50: 26·who you want to engage with. And I think it's quite easy to project onto those images that could this be the extraordinary image50: 33·of this literary mastermind? Because they're probably more pleasing than the monument50: 39·and the engraving image. ♪♪50: 48·-Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon was the Shakespeare family's local church. 50: 54·It is one of the few places that William Shakespeare is known to have visited during his lifetime. 50: 59·He was baptized here in 1564. 51: 04·It's also the site of his grave and the monument placed here to commemorate him shortly after his death in 1616. 51: 13·-So here I am in Stratford-upon-Avon. I'm up here doing some research on the painting, 51: 18·and I've taken this opportunity to come to Holy Trinity Church to come and see Shakespeare's grave and the funerary monument. 51: 30·And even better, I've brought Shakespeare home. ♪♪51: 41·So here we are. Here's our Shakespeare. And he's now met the funerary monument. 51: 48·-You know, there were pilgrims who went to Stratford. 17th century. 51: 53·And they were thrilled just to walk on ground that they knew Shakespeare had walked on. So an awful lot about it is a desire for making contact, 52: 02·reaching some kind of level of authenticity. -So before all this started, over 12 years now, 52: 09·I didn't really know anything at all about Shakespeare and certainly didn't know anything about his life. 52: 15·And then, of course, this whole process has changed all that. People are approaching us from around the world, backing us up. 52: 24·The vast majority of people seeing the painting, seeing the portraits, 52: 29·whether through media or whatever channels, are in agreement that our portrait is Shakespeare. 52: 36·-If we knew that this is Shakespeare, uh, this would mean that we have --52: 44·we have found a new way to visualize him, to try and enter, uh, more. Yes. 52: 53·In presence, in communication with him. -Hopefully, Shakespeare can be remembered53: 01·for a vibrant man with some hair and a knowledgeable, intriguing look, 53: 08·rather than maybe the chap we see up there that everybody sees him as. 53: 14·But of course, one day somebody's going to want to buy it. And if they are, and if it goes to the right home53: 20·and is displayed to the public, then, yeah, I'm looking forward to a day where I can retire with a few pounds, 53: 26·a good amount of money, knowing that we've done good for history and for the family. 53: 32·-The bar is set very high for any portrait that claims to be of Shakespeare. 53: 37·It needs to pass rigorous scientific tests to prove its authenticity and convince the experts53: 44·who are able to spot an impostor. Will an authentic portrait of William Shakespeare53: 50·painted from life ever be found? -Where would we be if we didn't believe in the possibility53: 57·of future discoveries? And certainly the idea that there might be in some attic a picture of Shakespeare54: 03·that shows him not as a slightly beleaguered, middle-aged man of substance, 54: 10·but as a young, energetic kind of man who wrote Romeo. 54: 15·-But I think for a portrait of Shakespeare to be found still absolutely possible. There are lots of portraits that ones have come across54: 22·that are sort of totally unidentified. I suspect we won't ever get that evidence to be really clear, 54: 27·exactly, and nail it. -Steven still has his window-cleaning business, 54: 33·but the portrait is now kept in safe storage. He feels there is enough evidence54: 38·for his painting to be recognized as a possible lifetime portrait of William Shakespeare. 54: 44·-Have you had doubts that it's not? -Not really. No. -You haven't? -No. 54: 50·I will -- I will reserve a small percentage that I could be wrong because it would be foolish to do that. 54: 56·But like I'm saying, the more it goes on, the more it's just, you know. 55: 01·And if it's not Shakespeare, it's somebody that didn't half look like him. [ Laughs ].
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New Shakespeare Portrait Could Change History | Full Episode | Secrets of the Dead | PBS [55:35]
