Marlowe portrait
The Marlowe portrait is an unsigned portrait on a wooden panel, dated 1585, which was re-discovered in 1953 during renovations at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
It has been widely suggested that the portrait depicts the English playwright Christopher Marlowe, a theory first advanced in 1955 by Marlovian Calvin Hoffman. No other portrait of Marlowe is known to exist.
The portrait is of a man, 21 years old, and expensively dressed. He wears a doublet, possibly velvet, with rows of golden buttons. The pattern on the doublet is made by cuts in the cloth, showing the lining under. The man's stated age and the date on the painting match Marlowe's time at the college, but the evidence is inconclusive, and it could be another student. The latin motto in the upper left corner reads "Quod me nutrit me destruit", in English "That which nourishes me destroys me".
The portrait has become firmly associated with Marlowe, and is often used to depict him. It hangs in the dining hall at Corpus Christi College.
