<p>Scientists have discovered two previously unknown portraits of English playwright William Shakespeare - one which shows the Bard in his young age and another which shows his whole person for the first time.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel, a professor of English at Mainz University, Germany, said he subjected the images to fundamental tests of identity and authenticity, and found they were "true-to-life portraits of Shakespeare."<br /><br />One portrait, possibly painted around 1594, when Shakespeare was about 30 years old, depicts only the facial features of the Bard of Avon.<br /><br />Hung in the bedchamber of Prince Franz (1740-1817), in the Gothic House of the Dessau-Worlitz Garden Realm, the portrait was seized by the Soviet army in 1945.<br />Archival research shows Prince Franz brought the picture from his trip to England from 1763 to 1764. Records show it was given to him as a gift by Thomas Hart, a distant relative of Shakespeare, 'Discovery News' reported.<br /><br />The second portrait shows the whole person of Shakespeare for the first time.<br />"We can see he wasn't a very tall man," Hammerschmidt-Hummel said.<br /><br />The painting shows Shakespeare at the age of 50, about two years before his death and it portrays the Bard as an affluent, older gentleman living in retirement.<br /><br />The portrait shows Shakespeare sitting on an elaborately carved chair, holding a book in his left hand and resting his right hand on the head of a dog, which is sitting to his right.<br /><br />Careful examination of the image has determined the breed of the dog, which appears to be a Lurcher, a cross between a Greyhound and a working dog.<br /><br />"I am calling it the Boaden Portrait because I found it in a rare, richly illustrated edition of James Boaden's work of 1824," Hammerschmidt-Hummel said.<br /><br />Announced on the 450th anniversary of the playwright's birth, the new finding adds to four portraits of the Bard which Hammerschmidt-Hummel authenticated in 2006.<br />Before then, only two likenesses of Shakespeare, both posthumous, were accepted as authentic: a bust on his tomb in Stratford's Holy Trinity Church and an engraving shown in the Folio edition of his plays in 1623.</p>
<p>Scientists have discovered two previously unknown portraits of English playwright William Shakespeare - one which shows the Bard in his young age and another which shows his whole person for the first time.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel, a professor of English at Mainz University, Germany, said he subjected the images to fundamental tests of identity and authenticity, and found they were "true-to-life portraits of Shakespeare."<br /><br />One portrait, possibly painted around 1594, when Shakespeare was about 30 years old, depicts only the facial features of the Bard of Avon.<br /><br />Hung in the bedchamber of Prince Franz (1740-1817), in the Gothic House of the Dessau-Worlitz Garden Realm, the portrait was seized by the Soviet army in 1945.<br />Archival research shows Prince Franz brought the picture from his trip to England from 1763 to 1764. Records show it was given to him as a gift by Thomas Hart, a distant relative of Shakespeare, 'Discovery News' reported.<br /><br />The second portrait shows the whole person of Shakespeare for the first time.<br />"We can see he wasn't a very tall man," Hammerschmidt-Hummel said.<br /><br />The painting shows Shakespeare at the age of 50, about two years before his death and it portrays the Bard as an affluent, older gentleman living in retirement.<br /><br />The portrait shows Shakespeare sitting on an elaborately carved chair, holding a book in his left hand and resting his right hand on the head of a dog, which is sitting to his right.<br /><br />Careful examination of the image has determined the breed of the dog, which appears to be a Lurcher, a cross between a Greyhound and a working dog.<br /><br />"I am calling it the Boaden Portrait because I found it in a rare, richly illustrated edition of James Boaden's work of 1824," Hammerschmidt-Hummel said.<br /><br />Announced on the 450th anniversary of the playwright's birth, the new finding adds to four portraits of the Bard which Hammerschmidt-Hummel authenticated in 2006.<br />Before then, only two likenesses of Shakespeare, both posthumous, were accepted as authentic: a bust on his tomb in Stratford's Holy Trinity Church and an engraving shown in the Folio edition of his plays in 1623.</p>