Shakespeare’s death
mask could be
genuine.
Next Saturday’s New
Scientist Magazine, a British science
weekly is scheduled to report a finding by lab detectives
that the 17th century death mask,
believed to have
belonged to William Shakespeare, could be genuine. The controversial
mask, discovered in 1842, and now belonging to the German
city of Darmstadt,
bears high forehead and prominent nose.
It also bears the characteristic beard associated with the
bard and sports inscriptions that reveal that the death of
the poet occurred way back in 1616.
Academic Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel of the University
of Mainz commissioned a specialist of the German Federal
Bureau of criminal investigation to help her in
establishing the genuineness of the mask.
Scientist Reinhardt Altmann found close matches between the
two portraits widely believed to be genuine and a bust
housed in London’s Garrick Club. Using a computer technique
that is employed to establish whether different facial
images belong to the same person, the scientist concluded
as above, thereby implying that the mask could have
belonged to the famed bard.
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