Description: |
From Silhouettes of Sebastian and Maria Barbara Bach.
First published without mention of a source in Bilder-Atlas zur Musikgeschichte von Bach bis Strauß by Gustav Kanth, Schuster & Löffler, Berlin, 1911, p. 8. The models used were clearly the silhouettes in the Prague collection of Fritz Donebauer, which were auctioned on 6-8 April 1908 by J.A. Stargardt of Berlin. The catalogue describes them under no. 32 as “portrait-silhouettes of Joh. Sebastian Bach and his wife. In oval metal frames, on gold ground”. The illustrations given coincide in format and all other details with the silhouettes published by Kanth, but that they were drawn from the life can neither be proved nor disproved. There is a bold theory that the surprising hairstyle (a wig with a pigtail), which points to a later period, was established by the Hungarian fashion for flunkeys at the Weimar court, which would date these silhouettes between 1714 and 1717 (Ahlgrimm - Fiala, Besseler V). The conformity of the outline of Bach's skull (after His) with the outline of the silhouette has been demonstrated by photomontage (Ahlgrimm - Fiala) but this, combined with a carefully expressed expert opinion that “they may well belong together”, is no absolute argument for authenticity (cf. B-53). Both silhouettcs are republished in larger format and with the source erroneously given as "Cabinet des Estampes" in "Jean-Sébastien Bach. L'oeuvre et la vie". Les Libraires Associés (Paris 1963), p. 33. |