True face of Bach unveiled by forensic experts
Last Updated: Saturday, March 1, 2008 | 3:39 PM ET
CBC News
Forensic experts in Scotland have digitally rebuilt the face of German composer Johann Sebastian Bach, revealing a rather portly, jovial-looking gentleman.
Using a bronze cast of Bach's skull, researchers at Dundee University re-created the 18th century composer's face on a commission from the Bachhaus Museum in Germany.
'He was a very dynamic man, with this reconstruction you can see it.'—Joerg Hansen, Bachhaus Museum
The computer-modelled forensic facial reconstruction of Johann Sebastian Bach is on display during a news conference in Berlin, Germany.
(Herbert Knosowski/Associated Press)
"We carried out a laser scan of the skull, which allowed us to re-create the musculature and skin of the face on our computer system," said Caroline Wilkinson, from the university's centre for forensic and medical art.
The resulting image is of a thick-set, friendly-looking man with a broad face, wide, puffy eyes and closely-shorn white hair.
"For most people, Bach is an old man in a wig; it is a stylized image, we have no realistic portrait of him," said Joerg Hansen, managing director of the museum. Hansen added that the new image made the composer "look interesting."
"He was a very dynamic man. With this reconstruction you can see it," Hansen said.
The official picture will go on display at the Bachhaus Museum, in the eastern German town of Eisenach, Bach's birthplace, this month.
Bach's bones were excavated in 1894 and sculptors used them to help create a bust in 1908, but it was still based on an inaccurate portrait of the composer.
Researchers also took into account descriptions of Bach's physical characteristics — he had eye problems and swollen eyelids — and incorporated them into the new image.
Museum officials say having a realistic portrait of the artist is just another way of imagining him as a person.
"It's not really that important to know what he looked like — we love Bach through his music, that is why people come to the museum — but they are also interested in the man," Hansen said.
Bach, who died in 1750, is venerated for creating music of great depth and beauty. Some of his most cherished compositions include The Brandenberg Concertos, The Goldberg Variations and Mass in B Minor.
