Famous Authors Drawn, Not Quartered January 25, 2010

Martin Droeshout’s 1623 Engraving Of William Shakespeare. The purpose of any portrait is to capture the essence of the subject. To somehow convey in a single image not just the outward appearance of the sitter, but his soul. But if the subject is a great writer, does that task become impossible? Poet Ben Jonson thought so, and maybe the curators at Princeton University’s Firestone Library do, too. Those curators have just opened a new exhibit…