LONDON, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- New theories introduced by a German Shakespeare scholar could create a midwinter's nightmare for Britain's National Portrait Gallery.
As the National Portrait Gallery prepared to report only one of six portraits of William Shakespeare could be considered authentic, German Professor Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel announced she had proof of at least four genuine likenesses of the bard, the Telegraph reported Thursday.
Hammerschmidt-Hummel further stunned British experts by saying swellings near Shakespeare's eye, which can been seen in many of the contested portraits, indicate he suffered from lymph cancer for 15 years -- and probably died from it. It has never been determined what Shakespeare died of, the newspaper said.
If proven, Hammerschmidt-Hummel's findings could sink the National Portrait Gallery's three years of research into the authenticity of the Shakespeare portraits, the newspaper said.
Hammerschmidt-Hummel studied the paintings with the same forensic tests used by German detectives. The features on two paintings, a bust and a death mask are are so similar, Shakespeare probably sat for them himself, she said.
Hammerschmidt-Hummel's findings have been dismissed by experts at the Portrait Gallery. Stanley Wells, emeritus professor of Shakespeare Studies at Birmingham University, called her research and results "rubbish."
