Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Marlowe portrait
The putative Marlowe portrait is an unsigned portrait on wooden panel, dated 1585, which was discovered in 1952 or 1953 at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. It has been proposed that the portrait depicts the English playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), though several scholars have suggested that this is unlikely.
The painting was discovered in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1952 or 1953. Contradictory accounts of its discovery exist.
One account dates the discovery of the portrait to late 1952, during major renovations to the college's Old Court which destroyed many ancient interiors. The wood panels had been used to support a gas heater installed in a student's room, above the room that had been assigned to Marlowe 370 years earlier. When a new heater was installed, the panels were discarded and put in a skip. The room's occupant, Peter Hall, recovered them for reuse, but noticed the dirty and badly damaged portrait and took the pieces to the college librarian.
A conflicting account states that the portrait was discovered in 1953, during renovations of the college master's lodge. A passing student, Peter Wimbush, noticed two pieces of wood amongst a pile of builder's rubble that had laid in the rain for several days, which proved to be the two parts of the portrait.
The portrait's history from its 1585 creation to its 20th century rediscovery is unknown. It is not listed in Robert Masters' 1790 catalogue of Cambridge University's paintings, nor in an 1884 inventory of paintings held by Corpus Christi College. The wood is badly split and has nail holes, suggesting that the panels had been put to various mundane uses over the years.
The portrait measures 24 by 18 inches (61 by 46 cm) and is painted on wood panels, made from Baltic oak imported from Poland or Lithuania. It depicts a young man, with long hair and a light beard, with his arms folded. He is expensively dressed in a dark doublet, possibly velvet, with rows of golden buttons. The doublet has a zig-zag pattern made by cuts in the cloth, exposing the orange lining.
The upper left hand corner of the portrait contains the date anno dni 1585, together with the age of the sitter expressed by the Latin text ætatis suæ 21, meaning of his own age 21.
Below this is a Latin motto, Quod me nutrit me destruit, in English That which nourishes me destroys me. This wording has not been found in other texts, but it reflects a common Elizabethan sentiment. Author Charles Nicholl suggests that it is a version of Quod me alit me extinguit (That which feeds me extinguishes me), an Elizabethan motto which appears in the poet Samuel Daniel's 1585 work The Worthy Tract of Paulus Jovius, and later in William Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre, c. 1607, and his Sonnet 73, 1609.
Hub AI
Marlowe portrait AI simulator
(@Marlowe portrait_simulator)
Marlowe portrait
The putative Marlowe portrait is an unsigned portrait on wooden panel, dated 1585, which was discovered in 1952 or 1953 at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. It has been proposed that the portrait depicts the English playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), though several scholars have suggested that this is unlikely.
The painting was discovered in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1952 or 1953. Contradictory accounts of its discovery exist.
One account dates the discovery of the portrait to late 1952, during major renovations to the college's Old Court which destroyed many ancient interiors. The wood panels had been used to support a gas heater installed in a student's room, above the room that had been assigned to Marlowe 370 years earlier. When a new heater was installed, the panels were discarded and put in a skip. The room's occupant, Peter Hall, recovered them for reuse, but noticed the dirty and badly damaged portrait and took the pieces to the college librarian.
A conflicting account states that the portrait was discovered in 1953, during renovations of the college master's lodge. A passing student, Peter Wimbush, noticed two pieces of wood amongst a pile of builder's rubble that had laid in the rain for several days, which proved to be the two parts of the portrait.
The portrait's history from its 1585 creation to its 20th century rediscovery is unknown. It is not listed in Robert Masters' 1790 catalogue of Cambridge University's paintings, nor in an 1884 inventory of paintings held by Corpus Christi College. The wood is badly split and has nail holes, suggesting that the panels had been put to various mundane uses over the years.
The portrait measures 24 by 18 inches (61 by 46 cm) and is painted on wood panels, made from Baltic oak imported from Poland or Lithuania. It depicts a young man, with long hair and a light beard, with his arms folded. He is expensively dressed in a dark doublet, possibly velvet, with rows of golden buttons. The doublet has a zig-zag pattern made by cuts in the cloth, exposing the orange lining.
The upper left hand corner of the portrait contains the date anno dni 1585, together with the age of the sitter expressed by the Latin text ætatis suæ 21, meaning of his own age 21.
Below this is a Latin motto, Quod me nutrit me destruit, in English That which nourishes me destroys me. This wording has not been found in other texts, but it reflects a common Elizabethan sentiment. Author Charles Nicholl suggests that it is a version of Quod me alit me extinguit (That which feeds me extinguishes me), an Elizabethan motto which appears in the poet Samuel Daniel's 1585 work The Worthy Tract of Paulus Jovius, and later in William Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre, c. 1607, and his Sonnet 73, 1609.