The Portrait in Erfurt Alleged to Depict Bach, the Weimar Concertmeister - Is this young man really Johann Sebastian Bach? Pages
at The Face Of Bach
Page 7
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 Portrait in Erfurt Alleged to Depict Bach, the Weimar Concertmeister
Before the 1907 Restoration and As It Looked in 1985
Is this young man really Johann Sebastian Bach?
Page 7
No, alas, and it pains me to write it, the Erfurt Portrait is NOT an accurate depiction of the facial features of Johann Sebastian Bach,
at any age, much less during his tenure as Concertmeister at the ducal courts in Weimar. The very best that can be said is that it
gives the viewer a rough idea of what Bach might have looked like in his early 30's, but, with the arrival on the scene of the
Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment, which depicts Bach in his late 40's and early 50's, even that description loses clout:
Of course, nothing that I write will stop, or even begin to slow down, the circulation of this understandably well-loved painting and
its ongoing misidentification as a portrait of a "young" Johann Sebastian Bach. It has become an icon and a ubiquitous one at that.
Just what did Sebastian Bach look like when he got into that street brawl with Geysersbach? Just what did he look like when he
married Maria Barbara? Just what did he look like when he vanquished Marchand in Dresden? Just what did he look like when he sat
down to the table at that 27dish banquet on May 3, 1716, after proving the organ in the Liebfrauenkirche in Halle? Just what did he
look like when he got thrown into jail by Duke Wilhelm Ernst?
For most people who suffer from it, the Erfurt Portrait satisfies the gnawing craving for a "believable" portrait of "that Bach", a
young Johann Sebastian Bach. The Erfurt Portrait has metamorphosed from a battered portrait of an unidentifed young 18th century
gentleman into a popular, accessible, instantly recognizable image of the "Weimar" Johann Sebastian Bach, an image that lives and
that will live, worldwide, auf immer, und ewig, von nun an.
Teri Noel Towe
August 10, 2001
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Copyright, Teri Noel Towe, 2000 , 2002
Unless otherwise credited, all images of the Weydenhammer Portrait: Copyright, The Weydenhammer Descendants, 2000
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