Scots Build Replica of Bach's Head

Rendering is based on a cast, portrait, and papers from his time
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 1, 2008 8:40 PM CST
Scots Build Replica of Bach's Head
A statue of the composer J.S. Bach in Eisenach, where a new model of his head will be housed.   ((c) Matthew Black)

Forensic artists have re-created Johann Sebastian Bach’s head based on a cast of his skull and documents from the composer’s time, the BBC reports. The model, built at Scotland’s Dundee University, is “the most complete face that can be built from the available reliable information,” including the cast, a single portrait, and papers describing his appearance, said one expert.

The piece also has character, said the director of the Bachhaus, a German museum that will house the head. “It's very dynamic, as if he's going to come up with something.”
When Bach admirers think of the 18th-century composer, “it's always this old man with a wig type of image,” he said. “I think it is interesting for fans to have something else, a real person.” (More Johann Sebastian Bach stories.)

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