Editing William Shakespeare (section)

===Portraiture===
{{Main|Portraits of Shakespeare}}
No written contemporary description of Shakespeare's physical appearance survives, and no evidence suggests that he ever commissioned a portrait. From the 18th century, the desire for authentic Shakespeare portraits fuelled claims that various surviving pictures depicted Shakespeare.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/shaa_2/hd_shaa_2.htm|first=Constance C.|last=McPhee|title=Shakespeare Portrayed|publisher=[[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]|date=May 2017|access-date=16 April 2024|archive-date=10 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230910160150/https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/shaa_2/hd_shaa_2.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> That demand also led to the production of several fake portraits, as well as misattributions, re-paintings, and relabelling of portraits of other people.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shakespeare-portrait-is-a-fake/|title=Shakespeare Portrait Is A Fake|work=[[CBS News]]|date=22 April 2005|access-date=16 April 2024|archive-date=19 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419034826/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shakespeare-portrait-is-a-fake/|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Schoenbaum|1981|p=190}}

Some scholars suggest that the [[Droeshout portrait]], which [[Ben Jonson]] approved of as a good likeness,{{sfn|Cooper|2006|pp=48, 57}} and his [[Shakespeare's funerary monument|Stratford monument]] provide perhaps the best evidence of his appearance.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/mar/19/shakespeare-grave-effigy-believed-to-be-definitive-likeness|first=Dalya|last= Alberge|title='Self-satisfied pork butcher': Shakespeare grave effigy believed to be definitive likeness|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=19 March 2021|access-date=16 April 2024}}</ref> Of the claimed paintings, art historian [[Tarnya Cooper]] concluded that the [[Chandos portrait]] had "the strongest claim of any of the known contenders to be a true portrait of Shakespeare". After a three-year study supported by the [[National Portrait Gallery, London]], the portrait's owners, Cooper contended that its composition date, contemporary with Shakespeare, its subsequent provenance, and the sitter's attire, all supported the attribution.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/mar/02/arts.books|first=Charlotte|last=Higgins|title=The only true painting of Shakespeare - probably|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=2 March 2006|access-date=15 April 2024}}</ref>