Photos of Beethoven and Franz Schubert

Started by JoshLilly, June 05, 2007, 06:04:04 AM

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JoshLilly

Er... yep. Supposedly. I've read that when the bodies were exhumed in the 1880s that photographs were taken. Do these photographs still survive? I assume that by that time both would have been only the skeletal remains, but I am curious as to whether these photographs were preserved. And also a bit curious as to why this was done. I don't think they had sufficient equipment or processes to determined much of value by examining the skeletons in that time. I'm sure they could discover a little bit, but I'm not really sure what. Maybe it was one of those phrenology things; all I've seen is that it was for "scientists" to examine the bodies.

Joe Barron

#1
This was news to me, but a quick Internet search shows that Beethoven was dinsinterred twice — the first time in 1863, when he was reburied in a more secure casket inside a brick vault, and again on June 22, 1888, when he was exhumed from the Währinger Cemetery, measured and moved to the Central Cemetery in Vienna, Austria. His skull was photographed at this time, and a cast was made:



Schubert was disinterred and reburied along with him each time.

JoshLilly

There's one photo. Thanks!
I hear that Bruckner actually held Beethoven's skull in 1888.

Steve

Quote from: Joe Barron on June 05, 2007, 07:17:50 AM
This was news to me, but a quick Internet search shows that Beethoven was dinsinterred twice ? the first time in 1863, when he was reburied in a more secure casket inside a brick vault, and again on June 22, 1888, when he was exhumed from the Währinger Cemetery, measured and moved to the Central Cemetery in Vienna, Austria. His skull was photographed at this time, and a cast was made:



Schubert was disinterred and reburied along with him each time.

Was he found with the score of the 10th?  ;D

Bogey

FWIW:

Beethoven's "life-mask", made by Franz Klein in 1812, when the composer was 42 years old.

There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

Joe Barron

Quote from: Steve on June 05, 2007, 10:53:26 AM
Was he found with the score of the 10th?  ;D

He was too busy decomposing.

Josh, my internet sources say Bruckner held Schubert's skull before it was reinterred in 1888. It may be he held Beethoven's, too.

Bogey

This from the web:

Schubert, Andreas Theodor, b Vienna 7th Nov 1823, d 1893
Financial Councillor
Andreas was Schubert's stepbrother, aged just 5 at his death. Mind you, this didn't stop him from identifying a picture (the 'chalk picture') of a youth as being Schubert at 16. He does seem to have been more than a little irreverent - he took a tooth from Schubert's skull when it was exhumed, and destroyed the manuscript of Der Tod und das Mädchen, D531; by cutting it up into 8 pieces for souvenirs. He was also apparently the source of the rumour that Schubert was banned from the family home. He became a financial councillor, and married Anna Fleurriet.
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

Bogey

There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

mahlertitan


Scriptavolant

#9
Here's a graceful website for corpses lovers:

http://www.findagrave.com/

Solitary Wanderer

'I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.' ~ Emily Bronte

Churchmouse

Quote from: Bogey on June 05, 2007, 11:18:47 AM
FWIW:

Beethoven's "life-mask", made by Franz Klein in 1812, when the composer was 42 years old.













I think the skull bones of Beethoven  seems  wider in the head than the death mask.   



.

cilgwyn

What a macabre but gruesomely interesting thread. More skulls and death masks of great (and minor) composers please!

Churchmouse

Wasn't there studies of lead poisoning done from the bones of the skull? 

cilgwyn


Scarpia

Quote from: Churchmouse on May 23, 2011, 03:19:34 AM
Wasn't there studies of lead poisoning done from the bones of the skull?

Hair, I thought.

kishnevi


Jo498

The mask depicted is actually a cast (inverse cast?) of the living Beethoven as said in the post. Of course, there's also a death mask where he looks considerably more... dead?



Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal