Focus on this artwork and explore the Identification with Marlowe.
The first to suggest a connection between the portrait and Christopher Marlowe was John Patrick Tuer Bury (son of Robert Gregg Bury), the college librarian and university lecturer in Modern History, who saw it soon after its discovery. Marlowe finished his BA at Corpus Christi in 1584 and began his MA studies there, and it was suggested, based on his baptism date of February 1564, that he would have been aged 21 in 1585.Bury consulted with Bruce Dickins, chair of Anglo-Saxon, G K Adams of the National Portrait Gallery, John Bakeless, an American biographer of Marlowe, Frederick S. Boas, professor of English Literature and former president of the Elizabethan Literature Society and Rosemary Freeman, reader at Birkbeck College. The portrait was confirmed to be an Elizabethan work. In March 1953, it was decided to commission the painting's restoration by the London firm of W. Holder and Son. The firm no longer exists, nor any known records about what their restoration involved.Some sources credit Calvin Hoffman, a prominent proponent of the Marlovian theory of Shakespeare authorship, with the idea that the portrait depicted Marlowe, although he only proposed this in 1955.The identification of the sitter remains uncertain. No other portrait of Marlowe is known to exist.: 214  The portrait could be of another student, though of the 27 wooden portraits the college keeps as of 2014, only 3 are known college members, all masters. Apart from "Marlowe", a further 4 of the 27 are unidentified. Alternatively, the portrait could be of a non-student as the man is not wearing the clothing prescribed for scholars – an ankle-length, dull-coloured gown – and has long hair, while scholars were required to wear their hair short; although it is known that many students at the time broke these regulations, including wearing silk and velvet.Scholars Oliver Rackham and Peter Roberts have suggested that the age on the painting does not match Marlowe's age. They argue that ætatis suæ 21 means "in his 21st year", i.e. aged 20; which, combined with Marlowe's baptism date of February 1563 in the old style dates used at the time, would require the sitter to be at least a year younger than Marlowe.Some suggest Marlowe would not have afforded to commission such a portrait as he was supported by a scholarship; although there is some indirect evidence that in 1584 Marlowe began receiving a significant additional income from an unknown source.: 118  It has been suggested it would be unlikely for the College to commission a portrait of an ordinary student, and that Marlowe was an undistinguished scholar, coming 199 out of 241 students in his BA, making this even less likely. It is also unlikely the college would have displayed a portrait of a student violating the university's own dress regulations.
National Portrait Gallery Oliver Rackham Calvin Hoffman Robert Gregg Bury Marlovian theory of Shakespeare authorship masters Elizabethan Birkbeck College chair of Anglo-Saxon Marlowe began receiving a significant additional income from an unknown source Frederick S. Boas scholarship Rosemary Freeman Bruce Dickins ætatis suæ old style Christopher Marlowe