The Search for the Portrait that Belonged to Kittel Pages
at The Face Of Bach
The Queens College Lecture of March 21, 2001 - Preface, Table of Contents, and
Acknowledgements
The Face Of Bach
This remarkable photograph is not a computer generated
composite; the original of the Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment, all that remains of the
portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach that belonged to his pupil Johann Christian Kittel, is
resting gently on the surface of the original of the 1748 Elias Gottlob Haussmann Portrait
of Johann Sebastian Bach.
1748 Elias Gottlob Haussmann Portrait, Courtesy of William H. Scheide, Princeton, New Jersey
Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment, ca. 1733, Artist Unknown, Courtesy of the Weydenhammer
Descendants
Photograph by Teri Noel Towe
©Teri Noel Towe, 2001, All Rights Reserved
The Search for the Portrait that Belonged to Kittel
The Queens College Lecture of March 21, 2001
Preface, Table of Contents, and Acknowledgements
Preface
In early January, 2001, my old friend and Princeton chum, Rufus
Hallmark, the Director of the Aaron Copland School of
Music at Queens College of the City University of New York,
and his distinguished colleague, Raymond Erickson, a "newer" old friend, a
renowned harpsichordist, and an eminent Bach scholar, suggested over a dinner in the
legendary New York bistrot Tout Va Bien, that I
make my first public presentation on the portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach that belonged
to his pupil Johann Christian Kittel, a portrait that is the subject of a famous and oft
repeated anecdote, a portrait that vanished in 1809, at the Aaron Copland School. I eagerly agreed, and the
following 14 pages of "html" are the official text of, and contain the
illustrations for, that presentation, The Face
Of Bach - The Search for the Portrait that Belonged to Kittel, which I made in
the LeFrak Concert Hall at Queens College, Flushing, New
York, on the 316th anniversary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Needless to say, as you will soon discover, the 21st of March, 2001, was
not only a memorable and exhilarating day for me as an amateur Bach scholar long obsessed
by the problems of the Bach iconography but also a joyful milestone for all who revere the
composer whom his pedagogical grandson Ernst Ludwig Gerber described as "this First
Master of Harmony".
The text and illustrations that follow are the "long version".
Were it to be presented as a lecture, it would most likely last as long as a complete and
uncut performance of the Passio secundum Matthaeum. However, this long version,
of course, is "complete" in a way that the public presentation, which is about
the length of one of Rosalyn Tureck's performances of the "Goldberg"
Variations, could not, and cannot, be.
In the interests of time and out of a desire to make the text and the
supporting illustrations available to the many all over the globe who already have
expressed an eager interest in them, I am uploading the html and making it available on
line without having inserted all of the citations of authority and footnotes that are
normally an essential component of such a scholarly disquisition. Please bear with me, for
the citations, footnotes, sources, bibliographies, and related laecunae and minutia will
all be added, albeit in dribs and drabs, over the couse of the forthcoming weeks and
months, along with additions to an extensive, but presently incomplete, list of the
individuals and organizations to whom I am so much beholden for assistance, gudiance,
technical support, and myriad other courtesies that have made it so much easier to reach
the astonishing destination of this incredible scholarly journey, a scholarly journey that
began with an e-mail that I received one year ago today.
Teri Noel Towe
April 2, 2001
The Search for the Portrait that Belonged to Kittel
The Queens College Lecture of March 21, 2001
Table of Contents
While I recommend, of course, that you begin at the
beginning and work your way through to the end, those of you who are "impatient"
may click on the Page heading of your choice to advance to it directly!
1. An Odyssey Begins
2. The Conundrum of the Missing Portrait
3. Enter the Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment
4. Codifying my Modus Operandi - Part 1
5. Codifying my Modus Operandi - Part 2 - The George Washington
Iconography
6. Bach's Skull
7. The 1746 Haussmann Portrait
8. The 1748 Haussmann Portrait
9. Bach's Physiognomical Characteristics
10. A Description of the Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment
11. Why the Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment is an Accurate
Depiction of the Face of Johann Sebastian Bach
12. Bach in a Short Perruque? Yes, Bach in a Short Perruque!
13. Why the Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment is what remains of the
Portrait of Bach that Belonged to Kittel
14. The History of the Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment and The
Questions that Remain to be Answered
Finally, there is an Epilogue
page, which I am confident you will find worthy of your attention.
Acknowledgements
I have said from the very beginning that I could not do it
alone, that it would be a collaborative effort. I know that I have to have left out
somebody, and I am sure that, as time passes, I shall be adding names to this list.
Each and every one of these people and establisments has my
deepest gratitude:
Nathan P. Johansen, my incomparable and unsurpassable
webmaster, and his associate David Kuhlke
William H. and Gertrude Scheide
Paula M. Morgan
Paula D. Matthews
Judith McCartin
Ellen Riscoe
Rand Mirante
Mina Bryan
Ben Primer
Greg Kitchen
Ken Wagner
Robert Reidy Cullinane
NAndo Santos
Michael V. Cohen, of New York Film Works
Alain Goldrach
Christopher R. Whent
Barbara N. H. Potter, aka Mrs. Keppel
David L. Ganz and Jerrietta R. Hollinger
Rufus Hallmark
Raymond Erickson
Ron Cannava
Wolodymr "Mike" Jowdoszyn
Rick Krahn
Alan Bartow
Nancy Bareis
Ann Dimino
Cynthia Major
Marie Matteo
Claire Brook
Joseph Machlis
Rudolph "Rudd" Procario, M. D.
Spiro K. Balaouras, D. D. S.
Christoph and Barbara Wolff
Rosalyn Tureck
John F. Pfeiffer
John and Anna Deyle Wagner
Jessie Hyland
Elnora Nelson
Lady Diana Moody
Jose and Olga Fernandez
Antonio Garcia
Mary Legutko
Walther R. and Claire Volbach
Fritz Volbach, the Younger
Mordecai and Irma Bauman
Howard and Shirley Cox
Herman Adler
Ingeborg Adler
Denise Restout
Seth B. Winner
Bradley Chase
Michael Ochs, of W. W. Norton
Milton and Elaine Caine
Arthur Loeb and Perry Haberman of the Madison
Avenue Bookshop
Frank & Joe's Gallery
Hacker Art Books
Argosy Books, New York
Donald Noel Shaw, Jr.
John McMurray, Jr.
Frank M. Tack
Laura Maioglio of Barbetta Restaurant
Günter Blobel, M. D.
Qais Al-Awqati, M. D.
Prof. and Mrs. Hans-Joachim Schulze
Peter Wollny
Robert Marshall
Joshua Rifkin
Don Franklin
Gregory Butler
Reinhard Szeskus
Tout Va Bien
Stanley and Julie Anne Sadie
Charles L. Booth, Jr.
Joseph Greenspan
Franz Jolowicz
Thomas L. Clear, II
Thomas Newbould Morgan
Alfred Mann
Gerhard Herz
Arthur and Elsa Mendel
Samuel and Carol Baron
Robin Leaver
Paul P. Rotella
Glenn Keplinger
Richard McLeod
Sandy Lehman
Elizabeth Sita
Maureen Elderkin
Matilda Cascio
Eugene Rankin
Esther Duffy
The Hon. Sir George Bellew, C.V.O, F.S.A.
Sharon Staub Doty
Ellis L. Phillips, III
Edwin C. Esleeck
J. Clement Schuler
Philip Charron
J. Peter Spang
Christopher Monkhouse
Edwin C. Esleeck
J. Merrill Knapp
Daniel W. Foster and the Berwyn Chows
Werner and Beate Felix
Don Smithers
Robert A. Koch
Frank L. and Helen C. Boyden
John Rupert Martin
Ruth Oesch
Klaus Peter Richter
Franz Hauser
Thomas and Nicole Müller
Rob Kruijt
Kent D. Dowell
Angelo Romano
Lowell Nesbitt
David Herron
Peter K. K. Thompson
Jules Bemporad, M.D.
Jeanette Wasserstein, Ph. D
Michael Stein, Ph. D
Charlene Weinstein and her associate Natalie Kabasakalian
Sanford N. Katz
Lawrence Vogelman
Ramsey C. El-Assal
And, last but definitely not least, my parents, my brothers, and
the Weydenhammer Descendants, all of whom would agree, I am sure, that they never know
what I will come up with next! {:-{)}
Thanks to all of you for having helped to make a long held
dream come true!
Teri
Links Pages and Bibliography
Pages will be added and expanded as and when a hectic schedule permits. Please be patient!
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Copyright, Teri Noel Towe, 2000 , 2002
Unless otherwise credited, all images of the Weydenhammer Portrait: Copyright, The
Weydenhammer Descendants, 2000
All Rights Reserved
The Face Of Bach is a PPP Free Early Music
website.
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