德國作曲家巴赫“舊貌換新顏”

Experts have digitally rebuilt the face of 18th century German composer Johann Sebastian Bach -- and say the results may surprise his fans.

Using his bones and computer modeling, they have come up with an image of athick-setman with closely-shorn white hair.

The new Bach face, the creation of Scottish forensic anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson, will go on display at the Bachhaus museum in the eastern German town of Eisenach, Bach's birthplace, next month.

Eighteenth century portraits show him very differently. "For most people, Bach is an old man in a wig, it is a stylized image, we have no realistic portrait of him," Joerg Hansen, managing director of the museum said.

"We know he was a physical man, that he danced, that he stamped his feet when he played, that he sang. He was a very dynamic man -- with this reconstruction you can see it."

Bach's bones were excavated in 1894 and sculptors first used them to help create a bust in 1908.

But it was mainly based on a portrait of the composer and contemporary critics said it was so inaccurate that it might as well have been the composer Handel.

"It's not really that important to know what he looked like, we love Bach through his music, that is why people come to the museum, but they are also interested in the man," Hansen said.

近日，有關專家利用數字技術還原出18世紀德國著名作曲家約翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫的容貌，并稱這個新形象可能會讓他的樂迷們大吃一驚。

專家們利用巴赫的顱骨和計算機建模技術合成出了他的新形象。從新形象可以看出，巴赫體格健壯，留著一頭短短的白發。

巴赫的“新顏”出自蘇格蘭法醫人類學家凱羅琳·威爾金森之手，并將于下月在巴赫出生地——東德小鎮埃森納赫的巴赫故居博物館展出。

這個新形象與18世紀的巴赫畫像差別很大。巴赫故居博物館館長喬格·漢森說：“在多數人心目中，巴赫是一個戴著假發的老人，這是一個程式化的形象，其實我們并沒有他的真實畫像。”

“我們知道，巴赫體格健壯，能唱能跳，演奏的時候還會跺著腳。他活力四射——這從他的新形象可以看出來。”

巴赫的遺骨于1894年被掘出。1908年，雕塑家們首次利用這些遺骨塑造出了巴赫的半身雕像。

但這尊塑像主要還是以巴赫的一副畫像為樣本，現代批評家們認為這尊塑像不夠逼真，看上去倒是更像作曲家亨德爾。

漢森說：“其實知道巴赫長什么樣并不是那么重要，我們熱愛巴赫主要是因為他的音樂，這也是人們來博物館參觀的原因，不過人們對巴赫本人還是很感興趣的。”