The Mozart portrait is a 200-year-old painting of a man in a red coat, only now identified positively as Mozart. The new image of Bach is not old, but new–modern laser technology has been used to build a portrait of Bach using his skull. Both are amazing and show us more of the humanity of men who gave the world the miracle of God’s voice in the guise of music.
Rare Mozart portrait discovered
A portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that lay unidentified for more than 200 years has been proved to be authentic, according to an expert on the composer.
Professor Cliff Eisen from London’s King’s College has spent more than a year trying to confirm that the picture was of Mozart, who died in 1791. He said: “This is arguably the most important Mozart portrait to be discovered since the composer’s death.” Its significance came to light after it was bought by a US collector in 2005.
And now for Bach:
Bach from the dead – fresh portrait of a decomposer
“This is the most complete likeness of Bach we can achieve from the information we have,” says the forensic anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson.
Commissioned by the Bach Haus museum in the musician’s home town of Eisenach, Wilkinson has spent a month reconstructing the “true face” of the maestro at the Centre for Forensic and Medical Art in Dundee, where – apart from archaeological recreations of Pharaoh Ramses II and Saint Nicholas (aka Santa Claus) – she is usually involved in crime cases, rebuilding faces out of remains found everywhere from back gardens to war zones.
Using a bronze casting of Bach’s skull (made by the Leipzig anatomist Wilhelm His a century ago), and a portrait painted four years before his death in 1750 at the age of 65 – as well as documents hinting at his health, weight and fondness for beer and schnapps – Wilkinson has created the most definitive image of the composer yet. It is, she believes, about 70 per cent accurate: his friends, apparently, would have recognised him right away. “We made a laser scan of his skull,” says Wilkinson. “From there, we recreated all the muscles of his face, taken from our muscle database. Using the detail of the bone, we then recreated his facial appearance.” Documents describing Bach’s eye problems, including what were possibly cataracts, allowed medical artist Caroline Needham to add the final touches that give Bach a human look.
Neeto.
Related Link:
WSJ: Who Cares What Mozart Looked Like? You and I Do for starters, but What Drives Our Curiosity?
Having spent much of earlier life in the study and performance of music, earning a degree along the way, and still performing occasionally today, this does indeed amaze. Tammy, as you so inciseively described it, for many musicians, music is held to be the voice of God, in a guise which He selected to be sent out to humanity through certain messengers — Bach and Mozart were/are two of the greatest. One need only listen, and reflect on how these men were fonts through which the music flowed. How other than by God’s choice could Mozart have been such a prodigy? How else could Bach have been so prolific a composer, or sired 5 sons who became composers or musicians themselves? How else could it be that modern humanity is still moved to listen to any of the great works of these two men?
On a more personal level, it has been a musical tenet of mine to get into the composer’s head as much as possible when performing any of his works. Even though percussion instruments (mostly timpani for Bach and Mozart) are used less frequently than the other orchestral instruments, there is no less obligation, IMO, on the part of the performer to create sounds that both are as true as possible to the best idea of the composer’s intent, and also to the piece as a whole.
Tammy, thank you very much for this topic. It is always good to understand more of the humanity of those who have received God’s voice and formed it into music.