“Wie sah Mozart wirklich aus?”

Since the question of what composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart actually looked like has never been fully resolved, an opportunity to explore aspects of his personality and physical appearance was presented to 9 and 10 year olds during a 2013 workshop by artist and children’s book illustrator Franz Zauleck, courtesy of the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation. Some of the artwork generated at that event decorates the walls of one of Salzburg’s main tourist attractions, the Mozart Wohnhaus (Residence) in the city’s market square, which I recently visited.

When ten year-old Theo Gutternig produced the above picture during a children’s art workshop, he had this to say about child prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:

Mozart knew that doing sports is very important. However, since he unfortunately had very little time, he always practiced several sports at the same time. In this picture we see him in a jogging suit and with boxing gloves. It is clear that he liked to sing during sports.

This was the first specimen from the set of drawings on display in one of Salzburg’s most frequented landmarks to catch my attention. Was it the red jogging suit? Whether we are music aficionados or not, most of us can probably identify  Mozart wearing his distinctive red coat with gold brocade trimming. Beyond the resplendent attire however, there are actually very few images of the famous composer that can be guaranteed without doubt to depict an accurate physical appearance. The beauty of this lingering mystery is surely that it allows plenty of scope to a creative mind……Perhaps that’s why I find this entire exhibition so insightful, so entertaining and so very engaging?

Enjoy the following portraits, and the English translation of original words provided by the young artists!

Few people know that Mozart had many different wigs. The model shown here is the storm hairstyle “Angela” that he would have liked to have worn during the holidays. But since Mozart never went on vacation, he unfortunately never got to wear this wig.

Konstantin Gutternig, aged 10

On a stormy Autumn night, Mozart dreamed that he was a soldier with a pretty cap and a pretty uniform. In a dream, however, he learned that soldiers are not allowed to take pianos with them on the march. This shocked him, and he woke up. He was glad that he had only been dreaming.

Nico Stöger, aged 9

Mozart loved to look at the world with his head down. In this way, everything is reversed:

Above is below. Below is above. Left is right. Right is left. Mozart had brought (looking at the world upside down) to incredible perfection. He could stand on a finger.

Konstantin Gutternig, aged 10

When Mozart was sick, he liked to put on the red frock coat. He was then- as we can see in this picture- in a strange way cheerful. Maybe he was happy about the fact that he finally had freedom.

Jakob Rindberger, aged 9

You can learn more about the Mozart Wohnhaus in Salzburg at the following link:

https://mozarteum.at/mozart-museen/mozart-wohnhaus#info

If you would like to locate books written and/or illustrated by Franz Zauleck, please take a look at the following link:

http://search.wordcat.org