Reassuring period pieces

Here in London are two historical exhibitions which treat more of human identity, national and individual, than they do of pure painting. Each one showcases art, but in the wider context of the artefacts of a particular period. For a nation which loves to visit country houses (courtesy of that great institution, the National Trust), both exhibitions should prove reassuringly familiar in format and content.

Searching for Shakespeare, at the National Portrait Gallery (until 29 May, sponsored by Credit Suisse), celebrates the 150th anniversary of the NPG appropriately, given that the very first painting presented to the gallery in 1856 was the famous ‘Chandos’ portrait of Shakespeare. This supposed depiction of the Bard, looking like a retired buccaneer, forms the centrepiece of this exhibition which sets out to investigate the man behind the myth. It has been famously said that scholars and biographers would practically kill for a sight of Shakespeare’s laundry lists, so little hard information is available. But part of his charm is the mystery which surrounds his life. The fact books can tell us only so much, which makes the rereading of Nothing Like the Sun, Anthony Burgess’s excellent novel about Shakespeare’s love life, all the more relevant and enjoyable.

The exhibition begins with objects, with a man’s wool hat and a pair of woman’s gloves (to remind us that Shakespeare was a glover’s son), and graduates soon to maps and books. There’s a tiny hornbook, on which the eager or otherwise pupil could con the alphabet, vowels and Lord’s Prayer, and a gold Gimmel ring of two interlocking bands (and hands), a token of love and fidelity. The documentation is as dry as it always is in shows like this, except for the bond for Shakespeare’s shotgun wedding, which adds a bit of spice. There’s a superb ink drawing of Southwark (showing the Globe in the distance) by Wenceslaus Hollar, and a more colourful plan of London by Frans Hogenberg.