Fotoreproductie van een prent naar een reliëf van de Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in Londen, voorstellend William Shakespeare geflankeerd door twee muzen before 1867

This is a photographic reproduction of a print after a relief sculpture that was made for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London. The sculpture depicts Shakespeare seated on a rock, flanked by muses representing poetry, tragedy and comedy. The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery was an ambitious commercial project, intended to promote both British art and the reputation of Shakespeare as a national icon. Established in the late 18th century, the gallery commissioned leading artists to create paintings based on Shakespeare's plays. These paintings were then exhibited to a paying public, and reproduced as engravings in a lavish folio edition. This particular relief sculpture, placed at the front of the gallery on Pall Mall, served as a kind of advertisement for the project. Shakespeare is presented as a figure of classical inspiration, aligning British culture with the traditions of antiquity. To fully understand the significance of this image, we might consult contemporary exhibition reviews, subscription lists for the folio edition, and other archival materials that shed light on the cultural and economic context of the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery.