Abstract: This study proposes a novel computational approach to address the centuries-old debate surrounding the authenticity of the two principal portraits of William Shakespeare: the Chandos portrait (National Portrait Gallery, UK) and the Sanders portrait (brought from London to Montreal in 1919). The biometric facial recognition analysis reveals a statistically significant correlation in craniofacial architecture, suggesting that the two paintings depict the same individual at different stages of life. And while traditional art history has often treated those paintings as distinct works due to stylistic differences and surface degradation, this research employs AI-based image restoration to enhance and normalize both paintings. By removing layers of oxidized varnish and historical overpainting, a high-resolution structural baseline is established leaving no doubt that those paintings are authentic representations of Shakespeare. This work provides a technological bridge between the fully scientifically analyzed Sanders portrait and the cultural tradition of the Chandos portrait.
Bridging the Iconographic Gap: Biometric Comparison and AIAssisted Restoration of the Chandos and Sanders Portraits of William Shakespeare (Keywords : Shakespeare, face scars. Chandos and Sanders portraits, visual face recognition, MyHeritage AI photo enhancer and deep learning technology, genuine paintings) Dedicated to the memories of Lloyd Sullivan and Robert J. Schmitt Jr. Introduction This short study aims to compare two of the most significant visual representations of William Shakespeare (WS): the Chandos portrait (1-2), (done around 1610) widely regarded as the most iconic likeness, and the Sanders portrait (3) (1603), one of the most extensively studied candidates for an authentic life portrait. According to George Vertue (2), the Chandos painting was executed around 1610 by WS’s friend John Taylor, who later left it in his will to William Davenant. Davenant was WS’s godson and was also rumored to have been his illegitimate son. The portrait eventually came into the possession of the Duke of Chandos, from whom it derives its name, and it later became the first portrait acquired by the National Portrait Gallery when the gallery was founded in the 19th century. The Sanders portrait was owned for generations by the Sanders family, who claimed that it had been passed down since the 17th century. The portrait was painted in 1603 by an ancestor, John or William Sanders, a friend of WS and a minor actor in his theatrical company. The existence of the portrait became public only in 2001, when Lloyd Sullivan, who had inherited the painting from his mother, Kathleen Hales Sanders, in 1972, revealed it publicly. The Sanders portrait of WS has successfully undergone virtually every scientific test to which a painting can be subjected. Thanks to Karel van Mander’s realism (4) in his painting "The chess players" showing Ben Jonson and WS, major facial scars so well painted were found important facial landmarks supporting the identity of WS’s portraits. On that matter, this study first compares our two paintings of interest with a visual face recognition software (VFR) developed by the late Robert Schmitt Jr., a pioneer in this field.