The Shakespeare Code

Before she kills herself, Lucrece, in Shakespeare’s poem of the same name, studies a ‘piece/Of skilful painting’ of the Sack of Troy. Julio Romano, whom Shakespeare eulogises in The Winter’s Tale (for seeming to have sculpted such a life-like stature of the King’s wife, Hermione) painted such a mural in the Sala di Troia in Mantua.

The language Shakespeare uses to praise Romano’s work as a sculptor – ‘had he himself eternity and cut breath into his work’ –  is identical to the epitaph for Romano in San Maurizio’s Church in Mantua.

(The Shakespeare Code hopes to report from the site)

It’s best now to read: Shakespeare’s Italian ‘Mistakes’.