On the back is written (probably by an Italian, not by L. Mozart):—Joannes Crisostomus Wolfgangus Amadeus Mozart Salisburgensis Teuto, auratæ Militiæ Eques
Bonnoniensis Veronensisque Accademicus Natus 27 Ianuarü 1756: Ætatis suæ 21.
The portrait represents a man in a brown coat, with the gold cross on a red ribbon round his neck; to the right is a stool, to the left a clavier with black under notes and white over notes; on the desk is a piece of music. But it is impossible to recognise Wolfgang in the portrait; it is that of a man of middle age, stiff in demeanour, and with no resemblance to Mozart. It might be meant for his father, who had promised (August 21, 1778) to send Padre Mardini his own portrait; but this is contradicted by the cross of the order. Probably some confusion has taken place in the arrangement of the collection. Wolfgang took with him on his journey a little medallion as a present to his cousin, among whose remains it was pointed out to me. He is in a red coat, his hair simply arranged, and the very youthful face with its APPENDIX III. intelligent eyes has an open light-hearted expression. Before Mozart went to Munich in 1780 the painter Della Croce at Salzburg began a large family group, and Wolfgang's portrait was fortunately finished before his departure. This large oil-painting, now in the Mozarteum at Salzburg, represents the brother and sister seated at the harpsichord playing a duet. Wolfgang is in a red coat with a white vest and neckcloth, Marianne in a dark rose-coloured dress trimmed with lace, and a red ribbon in her high coiffure; the father, in black, with a white vest and neckcloth, is seated behind the harpsichord, his left hand holding a violin, his right with the bow resting on the harpsichord. On the wall hangs an oval portrait of the mother, with a blue neckhandkerchief, and a blue ribbon in her hair. Wolfgang's sister considered this portrait very like him; and it does in fact give one an impression of individuality. The face is young for his age, but not so gay and animated as in earlier pictures; it has rather a depressed expression, corresponding very well to his mood at the time. After his marriage he had himself painted with Constanze, and sent the two miniatures to Salzburg. "I only hope," he writes (April 3, 1783), "that you may be pleased with them; they seem to me to be both good, and all who have seen them are of the same opinion." Mozart's brother-in-law, the actor Lange, who was an enthusiastic artist, began a portrait of him, seated at the piano, in a light brown coat and white neckcloth, and strove to render the expression of the artist absorbed in his reveries. The picture was only finished as far as the bust, and is now in the Mozarteum at Salzburg; Carl Mozart considered it very like. Mozart's short stay in Dresden in April, 1789, was utilised by Dora Stock, Korner's talented sister-in-law, in taking his portrait in crayons with much delicacy and animation; it was engraved in Berlin by E. H. Schroder, and published by Ed. Mandel. The conception of Mozart's appearance, which afterwards became typical, was formed from a small medallion carved in boxwood in relief by Posch, and now preserved in the Salzburg Mozarteum. This was engraved in octavo by J. G. Mans-feld, 1789 (Viennæ apud Art aria Societ.) with the inscription: "Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori." On the lower edge of the medallion, among instruments and laurel branches, is a sheet of music with "An Chloe" written on it. This engraving is the foundation of most of the later ones; it was engraved afresh from the medallion by Thäter (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hartel).
The last portrait of Mozart is a bust, life size, painted by Tischbein during his stay in Mayence in October, 1790. C. A. André discovered and obtained possession of it at Mayence in 1849; it was among the remains of the Electoral court violinist Stutzl. Two men who had themselves seen Mozart—Professor Arentz, of Mayence, and the former court organist, Schulz, of Mannheim, on being shown the picture, and asked whom it represented, recognised their beloved Mozart without a moment's hesitation. At the same time this likeness differs PORTRAITS OF MOZART. considerably from the others current, and it can scarcely be doubted that Tischbein has idealised the features, especially the nose; but the expression of the eyes and mouth has a mixture of sensuousness, roguery, and gentle melancholy, which testify to the artist's intellectual apprehension; while Posch is probably more accurate in outline, but more Philistine in conception. It has been engraved by Sichling in the "Bildnissen berühmter Deutschen" (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hàrtel), and afterwards diminished for this book.
I consider as apocryphal a small medallion in the possession of Karajan, representing a slender well-dressed youth, inscribed as "Mozart's Portrait;" also a round miniature, belonging to Frz. Henser, of Cologne, of a full-grown man in a grey coat, his hand in his vest, which seems to me to have no resemblance to Mozart. It is signed "Jac. Dorn, pinx., 1780."