An international team of researchers has recreated the appearance of the famous Austrian composer and virtuoso musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). This mystery has remained unsolved until now.
Most portraits of the composer were painted after his death. The few surviving images from his lifetime do not provide a complete picture of what Mozart looked like as an adult. Some depict him as a child, while the accuracy of others is questionable.
In 1962, German musicologist Alfred Einstein wrote: “No earthly remains of Mozart have survived, except for a few miserable portraits, none of which are identical.”
The Mystery Unraveled
Renowned Brazilian forensic reconstruction expert and 3D designer Cicero Moraes has recreated the faces of many historical figures long gone. “Our team has been working on facial reconstructions for over ten years, consistently assisting police forensic teams and reconstructing the appearances of historical figures,” Moraes noted.
By chance, he discovered Mozart’s skull while working on another project. Together with his team, Moraes decided to recreate the composer’s appearance, as reported by the Daily Mail.
“The skull was in good condition, although the lower jaw was missing and some teeth were absent. However, we were ultimately able to reconstruct them and the complete skull using statistical data and anatomical consistency,” the expert explained.
The team began their work with a virtual reconstruction of the skull. They then employed various techniques to create a full reconstruction. According to Moraes, the scientists “used soft tissue thickness markers, which helped us understand the boundaries of the skin on the face, and also designed structures such as the nose, ears, lips, and so on.” These indicators, as Moraes pointed out, were based on measurements from hundreds of adult Europeans.
To achieve the most complete picture, the researchers also utilized anatomical deformation techniques, adjusting the virtual donor’s head to match the parameters of Mozart’s skull.
“After correlating all the data, we ended up with a basic bust, which we enhanced with hair and period clothing,” the expert said. Ultimately, the finished face had a “refined” appearance, he added.
What Else Cicero Moraes Shared
According to Cicero Moraes, the most famous portrait of Mozart was painted by Barbara Kraft in 1819, 28 years after his death.
One of the significant lifetime portraits of the composer was an unfinished canvas from 1783 by Joseph Lange. Mozart’s wife, Constanze, described this work as “undoubtedly the best representation of him.” Interestingly, the face reconstructed by Moraes’s team closely resembles this particular portrait.
The expert shared, “Only after the bust was completed did we compare it with these images. The result was entirely consistent with both works.”
What is known about the composer’s skull? Ten years after Mozart’s death, his skull was retrieved from a mass grave in Vienna by gravedigger Joseph Rothmayer. The skull then changed hands several times before being donated to the Mozarteum in Salzburg in 1902.
Moraes asserts that “the skull has characteristics that correspond to the lifetime portraits” of the composer. The Brazilian believes he was fortunate to reconstruct the appearance of such a renowned figure. “I am a big fan of classical music, listening to it almost every day, and Mozart is in my playlist,” the expert said.
Cicero Moraes’s international team included archaeologists Michael Gabicht and Olena Varotto from Flinders University (Australia), Luca Sineo from the University of Palermo (Italy), Thiago Beaini from the University of Uberlândia (Brazil), Francesco Maria Galassi from Lodz University (Poland), and Jiří Šindelář from GEO-CZ, a cultural heritage preservation company (Czech Republic).
The results of the research were published in the journal Anthropological Review.