"The Newly Discovered Mozart Portrait": Back to Reality

On 11 January 2013 the Mozarteum in Salzburg published a press release that contained the following page:

The gist of this announcement is as follows:

The Mozart Discovery. Hitherto the small portrait on a tobacco box came with a huge question mark. Now it is certain: it shows a portrait if the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart! In the course of a thorough study of all the documents and sources this portrait could definitely be identified as a Mozart portrait from 1783. The miniature shows a striking resemblance to the 1829 engraving by the Dresden engraver Gottschick, wh with this engraving refers to a miniature by Grassi. The portrait on the box could well be a work by Grassi, because Mozart and the painter met each other in Vienna.

Here is the page in the book about the exhibition that deals with the supposed Mozart miniature: 

What we read here, quickly takes us down from the spheres of "sensationally new discoveries" to the low grounds of only too well-known dull speculation. The "certainty" that the press release has been bragging about is gone and the shadow of "we don't really know anything for sure" is lying heavily on the the portrait's supposed authenticity:

Joseph Maria[sic!] Grassi (1757-1838)?[sic!] [...] The miniature shows a striking resemblance to the 1829 engraving by the Dresden engraver Gottschick who refers to a 1785 miniature by Grassi. The portrait on the box could[sic!] well be a 1783 work by Grassi or done from a 1783 model, when Mozart and the painter met each other in Vienna. Possibly[sic!] the object is identical with the "box lid that was done not long after his death, probably based on speculation" as the widow [Constanze Mozart] put it in 1800. It is conceivable[sic] that there were several Grassi miniatures of this portrait which looks unfamiliar to us today.

Thus, the whole "sensation" simply boils down to the following points:

• There is no proof that this miniature was intended to show Mozart.
• There is no proof that it was done from life.
• The miniature is being attributed to Joseph Grassi in the book based only on a handwritten[!] note on a copy of Gottschick's 1829 engraving. This note has no provable connection to Gottschick who (for reasons not difficult to imagine) did not put this attribution on his engraving, but only wrote "Nach einem Miniaturgemälde 1785, gestochen von Gottschick 1829".

• From a purely technical point of view this portrait is starkly at odds with Grassi's work and does not fit into the corpus of his oeuvre. Dr. Großpietsch seems to have delved very lightly into Grassi's life, since he does not even know the painter's correct forenames and erroneously calls him "Joseph Maria" (while his name was Joseph Mathias).
• The dating of the portrait with the appearance of Grassi's name in a Mozart letter is totally arbitrary. There is no provable connection between Mozart and Grassi, apart from the fact that at a ball in 1783 both of them took part in a pantomime.
• None of the information presented by the Mozarteum on p. 96 of the book about the exhibition is new. The information simply copies research that has already been published in 2008 by Dr. Richard Bauer in his book Das rekonstruierte Antlitz (Neustadt an der Aisch: 2008). Bauer is not being given credit by the Mozarteum in connection with the miniature portrait in question.

The articles in the book published by the Mozarteum are classic examples of the deep lack of logical thinking among scholars, who seem to be dazed by the "Salzburg Mozart Bubble" when it comes to logic and a clear methodology in defining *authenticity* in historical portraiture. I will deal with fundamental issues regarding the authenticity of Mozart portraits in an upcoming review of the exhibition book on this blog. 

In the course of a desperate publicity campaign, the Mozarteum took advantage of a journalist's naivete and launched an article in today's New York Times, titled "Wolfgang, Is That You?". In this strangely superficial piece of "popular science" we are being confronted again with the usual mixture of factoids and unsubstantiated conclusions. According to the article in the NYT, "a rummage through the archives found a document showing the object’s provenance". Quote:

The document said Mozart had owned the snuffbox for 10 years and gave it as a gift to Anton Grassi, a sculptor friend in Vienna. Letters from Mozart indicate that Grassi’s brother Joseph, also an artist, painted a miniature of Mozart. Joseph acquired the snuffbox from his brother and attached the miniature, Ms. Ramsauer said.

This mysterious "document" (which could not be located by the Mozarteum experts in the course of the yearslong preparation of their current exhibition) is still unpublished. Since (as stated by Dr. Großpietsch) "Mozart owned several tobacco boxes", its provable[!] connection to the box in question remains doubtful. There is no proof at all that Anton Mathias Grassi (b. 26 June 1755, Vienna, d. 31 December 1807, Vienna) was a "sculptor friend" of Mozart's (as a matter of fact he was a model sculptor at the Imperial Vienna Porcelain Manufactory). To establish a close connection between Anton Grassi and Mozart is an even bigger stretch than the inflation of Joseph Grassi's dancing activities in 1783 into an intimate friendship with the composer. The claim that "Letters[!] from Mozart indicate that Grassi’s brother Joseph, also an artist, painted a miniature of Mozart" is a false and ruthlessly dishonest statement. Grassi does not appear in "letters", but only in one of Mozart's letters to his father on 12 March 1783, where Mozart only reports that "a[sic!] painter (graßi)" appeared as Dottore in a pantomime at a masquerade ball. Any similarity to scholarship is purely coincidental. There is no proof that Grassi ever painted a portrait of Mozart. There is no proof that "Joseph acquired the snuffbox from his brother" or that "he attached the miniature". These claims are all based on reckless speculation. To quote from the NY Times:

One of the most famous portraits — and the one Mozart’s wife, Constanze, considered the most true to life — has long been considered unfinished. It is by Joseph Lange, Mozart’s brother-in-law, and shows him in profile, looking down, his face emerging from a dark background, with a triangle of torso surrounded by scratched white space. The painting, dating from 1789, without doubt looks unfinished, like a classical symphony of two movements.

Fact of the matter is that there is no proof at all that this painting dates from 1789 (contrary to Großpietsch's claim, Franz Segl's 1856 photograph proves absolutely nothing). This dating is based on a mere assumption. No research on Lange's oeuvre and the development of his artistic style has ever been undertaken by the Mozarteum. Quote:

X-ray and infrared analysis performed at the Doerner Institute in Munich, an art research institution, last December, showed that a small completed painting of Mozart’s head and shoulder had been trimmed and mounted at some point on a larger canvas, with paint added around the edges to smooth out the surface. The enlargement was unfinished, not the original.

This paragraph offers no new information at all. It just repeats my 2009 discovery which I published on 19 September 2012, under the title "Joseph Lange's Mozart Portrait" on this blog. When I told Ms. Ramsauer about my discovery in June 2010, I learnt with astonishment that the thought of submitting the painting to X-ray and infrared analysis had never occurred to the Mozarteum curators. Only after my suggestion, did they undertake said analysis which led to the "sensational" results about which the Mozarteum is now bragging. In February 2013, the Mozarteum had the audacity to send me the following statement: "Unfortunately at the time of our press release, we were unaware of the results regarding the Lange portrait that you had published on your blog, because contrary to practice in the scientific community you failed to inform us of a publication about objects from our collection that we had allowed you to consult." The Mozarteum, who employs a librarian for keeping their database of publications up to date, now tries to accuse me of not having properly reported my research. The claim that I "consulted" objects is plain nonsense. I only took a look at the Lange painting which I also could have done by simply visiting the museum, had they not removed the painting from the exhibition. Of course, I do not quarrel with the fact that with this media announcement regarding the Lange portrait the staff of the Mozarteum is now claiming a priority that is not really theirs. There are so many colleagues who witnessed my discovery back in 2009, that today I can actually lean back and watch the ongoing (and partly embarrassing) events with great amusement. I am proud of my pioneering vision that needed no X-ray analysis to discover the truth about Lange's Mozart portrait already four years ago.

Joseph Grassi's signature (which appears on none of his supposed "Mozart portraits")

© Dr. Michael Lorenz 2013

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Postscript (January 2014)

The document that according to the 2013 article in the New York Times, "said Mozart had owned the snuffbox for ten years and gave it as a gift to Anton Grassi, a sculptor friend in Vienna" has still not been published by the Mozarteum. 

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Postscript (January 2015)

The document that according to the 2013 article in the New York Times, "said Mozart had owned the snuffbox for ten years and gave it as a gift to Anton Grassi, a sculptor friend in Vienna" has still not been published by the Mozarteum.

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Postscript (May 2025)

In an essay entitled "Grassis Mozart Porträt. Die Revision einer Miniatur" (Mozart-Jahrbuch 2014, 257-93), in which all kinds of heavy props of scholarship were dragged onto the stage, Christoph Großpietsch presented the miniature in question as an "authentic Mozart portrait" by Grassi. To make matters worse, in this essay, the collector Aloys Fuchs was presented as the main witness to the authenticity of the miniature and was even referred to as a "manuscript expert." Fuchs was anything but an expert, and his many erroneous "expert opinions" demonstrably prove this. The most notorious example of Fuchs's incompetence is his erroneous opinion about the forged 1790 Schikaneder billet to Mozart "Lieber Wolffgang derweilen schicke ich dir dein Pa Pa Pa zurückh" (Wienbibliothek, H.I.N. 8355). Furthermore, Fuchs misidentified Freystädtler's counterpoint studies (A-Sm, Autogr Var 2) as "Mozarts eigenhändig geschriebene Uibungen"; and (to name only one of countless other examples) he "guaranteed the authenticity of the above musical notation of the great W. A. Mozart" of a fragment of the Church Sonata K. Anh. C 16.01 (US-NYpm, M9397.C559), which is actually a copy written by Leopold Mozart. However, even with the greatest effort, the two main obstacles to authenticating the miniature cannot be argued away: 1) The person depicted on the miniature bears no resemblance to Mozart, and 2) the painting technique and style of the miniature do not fit into Grassi’s oeuvre at all.

Lorenzo Da Ponte's Viennese Residence in 1788

In the book about the 2006 exhibition Lorenzo Da Ponte Aufbruch in die Neue Welt at Vienna's Jewish Museum, Werner Hanak writes:

In 1787, Da Ponte is at the peak of his librettist career. And yet he is going to rise and take an even more important role in the world of theater. But before we reach that point in the exhibition, let us interject a question: Where did Da Ponte actually live in Vienna? Contrary to Mozart, whose letters tell us about his numerous addresses during his Viennese years, and different from Da Ponte in New York, where he is documented as established businessman or teacher in many address books, none of the librettist's addresses in Vienna could so far be identified.

Two of Da Ponte's addresses in Vienna can very roughly be located based on the information given in two passages of his memoirs to which Hanak duly refers in his article. After his arrival in Vienna, Da Ponte seems to have lived in the inner city which turned out to be too expensive for him:

Instead of keeping my apartment in the city, which cost me very dearly, I took a small chamber in the house of a tailor in the suburb of Wieden.

A clip from the 1829 edition of Da Ponte's Memorie describing his move to the sobborgo di Vidden.

In a later passage in his memoirs, Da Ponte describes how he dreamed that he ran into Casanova on the Graben, one of the streets of Vienna where he lived at that time ("una cioè delle strade di Vienna, dove io allora abitava"). And at some time before February 1785 (at which time Casanova left Vienna), Da Ponte's dream came true:

Salieri, who used to visit me every day, arrived at the usual hour to take me for a walk in a public garden. When I arrived at the Graben, I noticed an old man in some distance who was watching me attentively and didn't seem unfamiliar to me. Suddenly I saw him leaving his spot, he approached me, embraced me with great vivacity and exclaimed: "Da Ponte, dear Da Ponte, what joy to find you here!" And those were the very same words that he had said to me in my dream.

 Da Ponte describing his dream and his 1784/85 encounter with Casanova on Vienna's Graben

In September 2011, in the course of a complete reading of the 1787/88 Josephinische Steuerfassion, I located Da Ponte's name in these tax records (an inventory of all Viennese houses subjected to taxation, their main tenants and their leasing rates). It turns out that in 1788 Lorenzo Da Ponte lived in the "Heiligengeist Haus" ("Holy Ghost House") No. 316, at the upper end of the Tiefer Graben, opposite the the so-called Heidenschuß, between the squares Am Hof and Freyung. There, for an annual rent of 200 Gulden, Da Ponte lived in an apartment on the fourth floor that consisted of three rooms, a kitchen, and a firewood vault.

The second page of the list of tenants in the house Stadt 316 in the Steuerfassion with Da Ponte listed as no. 15 (A-Wsa, Steueramt B34/1, fol. 470)

3ter Stock
15.        Rechter Hand 3 Zimmer, 1 Küche, 1 Holz

                   gewölb L'Abbe da Ponte                     200 [fl]

L'Abbe da Ponte listed in the 1788 tax register (A-Wsa, Steueramt B34/1, fol. 470)

Unfortunately, the bishopric's general ledger preserved in Vienna's Diözesanarchiv does not list the individual tenants and only gives a general summary of the house's annual rental yield (amounting to 3,431 gulden in 1788/89). The name "Holy Ghost House" originated from a hospital foundation of the Order of the Holy Ghost which was established in Vienna on 27 May 1211, by Duke Leopold VI and his personal physician. The Holy Ghost Hospital, which was located on the Wieden, ran into hard times and was eventually destroyed by the Turks in 1529, during the Siege of Vienna. The last head of the Viennese branch of the Holy Ghost foundation, Dr. Jacob Nagl, went to great efforts to at least preserve the two houses in the city at the corner of Tiefer Graben and Heidenschuß for the foundation. For financial reasons, the foundation eventually had to be disbanded and in 1579, the two houses were taken over by the bishop Johann Caspar Neubeck for the bishopric of Vienna. The two old small houses were torn down in 1639, and for reasons of maximization of rental yield, replaced with one six-storied house whose broadsides faced the Heidenschuß and the Tiefer Graben. The entrance of the house was located on the southwest side and was decorated with a huge stone coat of arms of the house's builder Philipp Friedrich Count Breuner, similar to the one that today is on display near the main altar of St. Stephen's Cathedral.

The area between Hof and Freyung on Huber's 1778 Vogelschauplan with the tall "Holy Ghost House" in the center (W-Waw, Sammlung Woldan)

The "Holy Ghost House" seen from the Tiefer Graben. The entrance was located on the other side towards the Heidenschuß. In the foreground is a so-called Fleischbank, a cold storage house for meat (anonymous watercolor).

An especially nice view of the house appears on Bernardo Bellotto's painting Die Freyung in Wien.

Bernardo Bellotto, gen. Canaletto: view of the Freyung from the northwest 1759–1760 (A-Wkhm, Gemäldegalerie, 1652)

 The "Heiligengeisthaus" No. 316 on Bellotto's painting

Around the middle of the nineteenth century, Franz Gerasch (1826–1906) painted a historistic view of the Freyung that also shows the "Heiligengeisthaus". It may have been inspired by Bellotto's painting.

Rudolf von Alt: Die Freyung gegen den Heidenschuß 1849 (Wien Museum, I.N. 17666)

The most intriguing implication of Da Ponte's address is the fact that by living in the "Holy Ghost House", L'Abbe Da Ponte was a tenant of Vienna's archbishop Christoph Anton Cardinal Migazzi (1714–1803). Da Ponte is not the only person of musical interest connected with this house: at the time of his marriage in 1775, Antonio Salieri had been living there for several years and it seems possible that he later recommended this particular residence to his friend Da Ponte.

Da Ponte's landlord: Christoph Cardinal Migazzi Count zu Wall und Sonnenthurm (1714–1803)

Cardinal Migazzi listed as the owner of the house Stadt 316 in the 1787/88 Steuerfassion (A-Wsa, Steueramt B 34/1, fol. 469)

Who else lived at Stadt 316 in 1788? The first floor (in Vienna "Zu ebener Erde") housed a janitor's room, four butcheries, a wine tavern run by the bishopric, and six Auslaggewölbe (shops). Among them, Anton Angermayer's cheese dairy, Johann Michael Geiblinger's Greißlerei (a general store), and the butcheries of Nikolaus Paulus and Joseph Tscherny. The largest and most expensive apartment in the house (nine rooms on the third floor below Da Ponte) was let to the Tridentine capitular Count Wilhelm Triangi von und zu Latsch und Madernburg. The tenant who shared the fourth floor with Da Ponte was possibly Anton Brandt (1752–1822), the official of the Hungarian Court Chancellery, whose name appears in Matthias Raby von Raba und Mura's 1797 book Justizmord und Regierungsgreuel. The fifth floor was leased to the wigmaker Paul Prem (the future father-in-law of the the clarinetist Joseph Bähr) and the Tyrolian Schwertfeger (swordsmith) Alois Walcher. On the highest floors lived Leopold Peidinger, the widow Ursula Kernhofer, and the tailor Joachim Ruckhart, who had moved into the "Heiligengeist Haus" in 1769, after his marriage to Elisabeth Drescher, daughter of a tailor who had also lived there. Of course, the house was also inhabited by countless subtenants whose names do not appear in the tax records.

It is not possible to determine when Da Ponte moved into the "Heiligengeist Haus" and whether he already moved out before leaving Vienna for Trieste in June 1791. Regarding Da Ponte's collaboration with Mozart, it is important to note that the residence on the Heidenschuß was situated relatively close to Mozart's apartment on the Alsergrund where the composer lived at the very same time. This proximity may have been relevant in course of the preparation of the Vienna premiere of Don Giovanni on 7 May 1788. Mozart's next residence in the house "Zum Nikolaus" at Judenplatz 245 was also located relatively close to the Heidenschuß where Da Ponte may still have lived in 1789, when he and Mozart began working on Così fan tutte.

In 1855, the bishopric sold the "Heiligengeist Haus" (by then No. 236) to the newly founded k.k. privilegierte Österreichische Creditanstalt which tore it down to make way for its new headquarters (to be destroyed during WWII). Most of the floor area of the historic building is located today on the street in front of Heidenschuß 2.

The "Heiligengeist Haus" (No. 236) in relation to today's buildings outlined in red (Paul Harrer-Lucienfeld, Wien, seine Häuser, Geschichte und Kultur. Band 2, 1. Teil, Vienna 1952)

The Freyung from the northwest in 2013. The Schottenkirche is on the left.

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This discovery was first published on 26 September 2011 in an amended footnote of my article "Mozart's Apartment on the Alsergrund", and again on 2 July 2012, in Wikipedia's Da Ponte article.

© Dr. Michael Lorenz 2013. All rights reserved

Updated: 30 March 2023

A Schubert Memorial Vanishes

The first public performance of a secular work by Franz Schubert took place on 1 March 1818, in the hall of the inn and hotel "Zum Römischen Kaiser" at Vienna's Freyung.

The "Hotel zum Römischen Kaiser" at Vienna's Freyung (drawing from 1840)

A concert by the violinist Eduard Jaell included a performance of Schubert's "Ouverture in the Italian Style" D 590. On 14 March 1818, the Wiener allgemeine Theaterzeitung wrote:

On Sunday, March 1st, at 5 p.m., a musical-rhetorical academy for the benefit of Mr. JÄLL took place  in the hall of the Römischer Kaiser [...] The second part began with a wonderfully lovely overture by a young composer, Mr. Franz Schubert. This student of our esteemed Salieri already knows how to touch and move all hearts. Although the theme was strangely simple, an abundance of surprising and pleasant thoughts developed from it, executed with power and elegance. We wish that this artist will soon delight us again with a new offering.

On March 12th, the same overture was performed again in an arrangement for two pianos for four hands each (with the participation of the composer) after which the reviewer Franz von Schlechta praised "the deep mind and the controlled and outright force and appealing loveliness" of Schubert's works.

The program of the concert on 12 March 1818 at the "Römischer Kaiser" (the original document, which was once held by the Wienbibliothek, is now missing)

On 28 February 1819, in the hall on the first floor of the house "Zum römischen Kaiser", music history was made again, when the tenor Franz Jäger performed the song "Schäfers Klagelied" (D 121). This was the first ever public performance of a Schubert song. On March 22nd 1819, the Berlin journal Der Gesellschafter wrote about this concert: "A vocal piece »Schäfers Klage«, composed by the young Schubert and sung by our fine tenor Jäger granted the greatest enjoyment. We are indeed looking forward to the delight provided by an upcoming greater work of this hopeful artist." Five years earlier, another important musical event had taken place in the very same venue: on 11 April 1814, Beethoven's "Archduke Trio" Op. 97 had been performed there for the first time. Until 1887 the house on the Freyung (today Renngasse 1), which after a remodeling in 1834 housed a luxurious hotel, was owned by the Rothschild family. Then it was sold to the Union Bank which in 1927, sold it to the insurance company Österreichische Bundesländer AG.

The right half of the former hotel in 1900 (A-Wn, EP 452 - C)

The former hotel in 1910 (Wien Museum, I.N. 41306)

In the twentieth century, the significance of this building for Schubert's work was not forgotten in his hometown. On 26 May 1929, at the instigation of the Vienna Schubertbund, a plaque on the house Renngasse 1 was unveiled in the presence of the Federal Minister of Education, the Dean of the University, numerous other prominent cultural personalities, and descendants of Franz Schubert's brother Ferdinand. The main part of this memorial had been designed by the sculptor Robert Ullmann (1903–1966). It consisted of a relief of a shepherd with a sheep slung around his neck and a tablet. The inscription on the plaque (whose unveiling seems to have been originally scheduled for the Schubert anniversary of 1928) read as follows.

Franz Schubert trat in diesem Hause als Tondichter zum erstenmal vor die Öffentlichkeit: Am 1. März 1818 mit einer Ouverture im italienischen Stil, am 28. Februar 1819 mit seinem Liede »Schäfers Klagelied«. Wiener Schubertbund 1929.

In this house Franz Schubert went public for the first time as a composer: On 1 March 1818, with an overture in the Italian style, on 28 February 1819, with his song »Schäfers Klagelied«. Wiener Schubertbund 1929.

On the following day, the conservative newspaper Reichspost raved: "On behalf of the insurance company, its general manager Dr. Habich took charge of the monument, a work of art that will tell everybody, who holds precious the cultural heritage of Franz Schubert, about the cradle of fame that spread from the small Old-Vienna-hall of the erstwhile »Römischer Kaiser« all over the world."

A clip from an article in the Reichspost on 27 May 1929

The report on the front page of the Neue Zeitung on 27 May 1929

So far, I was unable to locate a really good picture of the memorial. There is none among the holdings of the Wien Museum and I did not want to bother the Magistratsabteilung 7. The only historical photograph I found was taken in 1941, and shows the left wing of the house, with the memorial's relief barely visible between two windows of the first floor.

The Schubert memorial at Renngasse 1 in 1941

The course of history was not kind to the house Renngasse 1. During the great bombing raid of 12 March 1945, it suffered a severe hit that destroyed nearly a third of the building. A five-window section of the right wing collapsed to the level of the first floor. Although the house was restored, the original infrastructure was not preserved and the old structural core of the building has been replaced.

 The house Renngasse 1 in 1965 on a photograph by Otto Simoner (A-Wn, 218.354A(B))

What about the Schubert memorial at the Freyung that was supposed to tell posterity – "that holds precious the cultural heritage of Franz Schubert" – about "the cradle of fame" in times to come? The memorial is gone.

In June 2003, a complete remodeling of the house was begun on behalf of Armisola Immobilien AG. The architect DI Peter Klein completely redesigned  the house into a modern office building for Deloitte Austria, preserving the original façade only above the first floor. Within fourteen months of construction work, the symmetry of the original façade (resembling the old Trattnerhof) was dissolved and the two old entrances were replaced by two entrances on the very left part of the building, at precisely the area where the Schubert memorial had been located. Owing to the company's plate "Deloitte", there was no space anymore for the memorial which was simply removed. The architects, who were involved in the remodeling, did not even think of integrating the sculpture, which had adorned the building for 74 years, into the new entrance area. The companies responsible for this brutal procedure are actually quite proud of their work and particularly boast about "the preservation of the original façade". In a booklet (deloitte: 15 antworten für kids), published for children by the architects, we find the following euphemistic statement: "Da gab es einen Architekten, den Herrn Klein, der hat das Haus gebaut, mit Kränen und starken Maschinen, und so raffiniert, dass aussen[sic] sogar die alte schöne Fassade stehen geblieben ist, obwohl es drinnen ein ganz modernes Haus ist." ("There was an architect, Mr. Klein, who built the house with cranes and heavy machinery in such a sophisticated way that on the outside even the old beautiful façade was preserved, although inside it is a very modern building."). It seems possible, however, that the addressed children might pose the question, if there really were no nicer lights available for the illumination of the "old beautiful façade".

 The new entrance area of Renngasse 1 in 2008, after the ruthless removal of the 1929 Schubert memorial

The remodeling of the building's façade and its merciless stripping of all "historical trinkets" was apparently carried out in full agreement with the City of Vienna and the Bundesdenkmalamt (the Federal Monuments Office), because the responsible building promoter A.C.C. proudly states on its website: "In enger Zusammenarbeit mit den zuständigen Behörden wurde die Fassade den Erfordernissen des Platzes und den umgebenden Gebäude angepasst." ("In close cooperation with the authorities in charge the façade has been adapted according to the requirements of the square and the surrounding buildings."). My search for the missing memorial turned out to be quite fascinating. I got the first hint from the general planning manager of the reconstruction and after an on-site inspection an employee of IFM (Immobilien Facility Management) confirmed my suspicion – heavy blocks of stone rarely travel far – that the Schubert memorial is now located "in safe custody of the property management in the basement of the house".

The ignorance and blindness of local Viennese historians is exemplified by Dr. Herbert Kretschmer, who in the book WIEN Musikgeschichte (Vienna: LIT Verlag, 2011[!]), wrote: "Only a memorial plaque on the house, which since the late 19th century has been used as an office building, is a reminder that an important musical site was once located here."

Of course, we must not always quarrel with aesthetic principles that are uncompromisingly realized by architects. And yet, unfortunately, none of the involved designers hit upon the really not far-fetched idea to integrate this sculpture into the redesigned atrium as a reminder of the fascinating history of the building. (After all this is also the house, where, in 1834, the physician Romeo Seligmann first made the acquaintance of Ottilie von Goethe). The observant city resident is surprised that the Bundesdenkmalamt turned a blind eye to this procedure. He is forced to surmise that Ursula Stenzel, the then Bezirksvorsteherin of Vienna's first district, was prevented from devoting the necessary attention to a radical razing of a historical downtown façade by more important issues, such as the containment of Glühweinhütten and street artists. Should it really be true that in Vienna, the self-proclaimed "City of Culture", a monument to the greatest genius that this city has ever produced, is only an impeding piece of stone in the path of urban progress?

© Dr. Michael Lorenz 2013

Updated: 25 November 2023

Mozart's Great-great-great-grandfather: an Update

One really should not conduct research, unless one is determined to actually publish it. It turns out that in February 2012, I did not pursue my research to the necessary extent and therefore did not try to locate the entry pertaining to the wedding of Mozart's great-great-great-grandfather Leonhard Altmann. Shortly after 22 June 1595, Leonhard Altmann married the widow Agnes Hoffmeister (A-Wd, Tom. 7, fol. 252v):

Leonhardt Altman von arbin[g] aus paiern nimbt / Agnes weiland Georg Hoffmeister Wittib.                    Domenica 1a  3[ni]tatis

Leonhardt Altmann from Arbing in Bavaria takes Agnes, the widow of the deceased Georg Hofmeister    Fist Sunday after Trinity

This document proves that Mozart's Viennese ancestors originally hailed from Bavaria. Arbing cannot be identified, because there are simply too many places with that name. Furthermore, no baptismal records of these villages survive from the sixteenth century. Since I have not been able so far to find the marriage entry of the "vintner on the Landstraße" Georg Hoffmeister in the Vienna church records, the maiden name of Mozart's great-great-great-grandmother Agnes Altmann (widowed Hoffmeister) still remains unknown. The baptisms of the following children from her first marriage are documented in the records of St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Johann Hoffmeister, born 13 December 1585 (A-Wd, Tom. 1, fol. 23v)

Adam Hoffmeister, born 18 February 1587 (A-Wd, Tom. 1, fol. 67r)

Barbara Hoffmeister, born 11 January 1589 (one of the  stepdaughters mentioned in Leonhard Altmann's will) (A-Wd, Tom. 1, fol. 136v)

The 1589 baptismal entry of Barbara Hofmeister

Maria Hoffmeister, born 9 October 1590 (one of the stepdaughters mentioned in Leonhard Altmann's will) (A-Wd, Tom. 2, fol. 42v)

The 1590 baptismal entry of Maria Hofmeister

Research in the earliest baptismal records of St. Stephen's Cathedral turns out to be difficult, because of very fragmentary indexes.

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© Dr. Michael Lorenz 2013. All rights reserved.

Updated: 5 January 2021

The "Newly Identified" Mozart Portrait

The Mozarteum recently issued a press release regarding "sensational discoveries" in Mozart portraiture which contains statements that are likely to mislead the public. 1) The "Boy with the Bird's Nest" (attributed to Zoffany) "does not show Mozart and is a fake". As a matter of fact that this painting does not show Mozart had been known to art historians for ages. The painting is not a fake, but a misattribution by greedy sellers and/or wishful "experts" who already existed at the Mozarteum back in 1925. 2) "The Unfinished Lange portrait had been already finished before it was enlarged which has been proven by X-ray analysis". This fact was already uncovered by me back in March 2009 without any X-ray and the recent analysis was only carried out after I had suggested this procedure to Dr. Ramsauer in June 2010. 3) "The miniature on ivory on a tobacco box definitely shows Mozart" (quote: "Nun ist es sicher"). As a matter of fact this miniature (Mozart-Museum Salzburg, Inv. Nr. 90/47) has already been identified as genuine Mozart portrait five years ago by the historian (and retired head of the Munich City Archive) Dr. Richard Bauer in his excellent book "Das rekonstruierte Antlitz" (Neustadt an der Aisch: 2008, pp. 6-11). Revaluating the sources (among others Constanze Mozart's letter to Breitkopf & Härtel from 21 July 1800 and the 1829 engraving by Christian Benjamin Gottschick) Bauer came to the conclusion that the portrait "is an en-face-portrait of Mozart dating from the mid 1780s". However (and in my opinion quite correctly) Bauer doubts the attribution to Joseph Mathias Grassi (hilariously misnamed "Joseph Maria Grassi" by the Mozarteum staffer Dr. Christoph Großpietsch), because Grassi, who was personally acquainted with Mozart, would not have written "Joh: Mozart" on the back of the painting and the execution of the portrait is starkly at odds with Grassi's elegant style. Furthermore the attribution to Grassi is only based on a very dubious 1792 engraving, listed among Mozart portraits by Constant von Wurzbach in 1868 (32. "J. v. Grassi p. 1785, Gottschick sc. 1792") that has never been verified. (Gottschick would have been 16 years of age in 1792). It is to be hoped that Bauer's 2008 identification and my 2009 discovery will be referred to by the Mozarteum in the catalogue of its upcoming exhibition.

An Unknown Great-great-great-grandfather of Mozart

It has been known since the early 1970s that some of Mozart's ancestors hailed from Vienna. Mozart's grandparents on the mother's side, Wolfgang Nikolaus Pertl and Eva Rosina Barbara Altmann (widowed Puxbaum) got married on 22 November 1712 in St. Gilgen (St. Gilgen, TRBI, pag. 320). Eva Rosina Altmann's first marriage to Ignaz Franz Leopold Puxbaum had taken place on 30 May 1702, in Stein an der Donau (Stein, St. Nikolaus, Tom. 2/2, pag. 46):

The father of the bride is only identified in the marriage records of St Veit in Krems an der Donau, the  home parish of the groom, where in May 1702 the banns were published:

The entry concerning the publication of the banns in May 1702, in Krems for Ignaz Franz Puxbaum and Eva Rosina Altmann (Krems St. Veit, 2/6, pag. 330)

Der Präutigamb ist Genandt der Edle und Gelehrte Herr Ignatius Franciscus Leopoldus Puxbaumb Weÿl[andt] des Wohl Edl Gestrengen Herrn Johann Georg Puxbaumb beed[er] Kaÿl Stätt Crembs und Stein gewest des Innern Raths und Frau Maria Catharina dessen Haußfrau beeder sehl[ig] Sohn ./. Nimbt zu der Ehe die villehrentugentreiche Jungfrau Evam Rosina[m] Barbara[m] des Edl und Wohlgelehrten Herrn Dominici Altma[nn] Kaÿl: geschwohrner Notarius Publicus wie auch beeder Kaÿl Stätt Crembs und Stain des Inner[en] Raths noch im Leben, Und Frau Anna Sophia dessen Ehe Consortin nunmehr seel: ehel: erzeigte Jungf[rau] Tochter. Werden verkündt zum 1. 2. 3. mahl: Copulirt zu Stain 1702.
Testes. Herr Joseph Elias Rippel des aussern Rath.
H: Christon Grüenthaller des Ausser Rath zu Stäin.
H: Franz Puxbaum burg[er] in Crembs.
Hr: Dominicus Altman d Jungf brauth Vatter

Eva Rosina Altmann's father (Mozart's great-grandfather) Dominik Altmann, Imperial sworn public notary and member of the inner council of the Imperial Cities of Krems and Stein ("Kaÿserlich geschwohrner Notarius Publicus. Wie auch beeder Kaÿserlichen Stätt Crembs und Stain des Innern Raths") was born in Vienna on 4 August 1636. His parents were the gardener ("Gartner auf der Landtstrass alhie") Jacob Altmann and his second wife Maria, née Oeller.

The entry concerning the baptism of Mozart's great-grandfather Dominik Altmann on 4 August 1636, at St. Stephen's Cathedral (A-Wd, Tom. 12, fol. 67r).

One of Dominik Altmann's godparents was the Viennese gardener Mathias Hundtspichler who in 1633 had also served as one of the best men at Jacob Altmann's second wedding (Altmann's first wife Maria, née Eisenbirner had died in 1630):

The entry concerning the second wedding of Mozart's great-great-grandfather Jacob Altmann on 30 January 1633, at St. Stephen's (A-Wd, Tom. 14, pag. 327)

Mathias Hundtspichler, who was also the godfather of several of Jacob Altmann's children, belonged to a whole dynasty of house owners and gardeners by that name who can be documented to have resided in the Viennese suburbs Landstraße and Erdberg between 1600 and 1800. In May 1767, one of Hundtspichler's descendants, the local judge and Kuchlgartner (kitchen gardener) Anton Hundtspichler assisted Angelo Soliman's future wife Magdalena Christian with the purchase of her house in the Viennese suburb of Weißgärber. The gardener Jacob Altmann died shortly before 3 March 1639, on which day his will was published.

The envelope of Jacob Altmann's will, written on 4 November 1638. One of the seals is Mathias Hundtspichler's (A-Wsa, AZJ, A1, 3822/17. Jhdt.).

When more than 40 years ago, Heinz Schöny did genealogical research on Mozart's Viennese ancestors, he mostly dealt with Mozart's great-grandfather Dominik Altmann and his ten children. He identified Dominik's parents, but did not cover the preceding generation. This was probably caused by the scarcity of surviving biographical sources concerning citizens who lived in Vienna at the end of the sixteenth century. The surviving death records of the Vienna Magistrate only begin in 1648, and the oldest Viennese baptismal records (which only cover relatively small areas of the city) only reach back to 1585, while burial records do not even go back into the sixteenth century. Progress of research can only be achieved with a time-consuming systematic search in all the surviving archival holdings, an enterprise that Schöny obviously was unwilling to carry out. In early 2012, I was able to add one male ancestor to Mozart's family tree by identifying Jacob Altmann's previously unknown father as Leonhard Altmann, "Bürger alhie zue wien auf der Lanndtstraß" ("citizen here in Vienna on the Landstraße"). Owing to the limited number of sources, his identity could only be ascertained by his will which was written on 22 August 1605, and published on 29 November of the same year. No document survives that provides information as to his age at the time of his death or the date of his wedding.

The envelope of the will of Mozart's great-great-great-grandfather Leonhard Altmann who died in November 1605 (A-Wsa, AZJ, A1, 520/17. Jhdt.).

Concerning the heritage of his only surviving son and his two stepdaughters, Leonhard Altmann decreed the following.

Und alßdann verschaffe ich meinem Eheleiblichen Sohn, Jacoben Altman, So Ich bei jeziger meiner Ehelichen Hausfrauen Anngneß Im ehelichen standt erzeügt, füer sein Vätterlich Erbguett, In Bahren geltt ainhundert gulden Reinisch. Solche Ainhundert gulden soll mein Hausfrau, biß zue berüerts unnsers Sohnes Vogtbarkeit, ohne Ainichen Inntrese bei Iren Hannden behalten dennselben unnsern Sohn ohne entgelt solches Legats biß zu seinen Vogbahren Jaren od[er] daß ehr sein Nahrung selbst gewinnen mag, mit aller Menschlichen nottüerft versorgen und Christlich auferzihen, Im fall es sich aber nach dem willen gottes begäb, das mehrberüerter unnser Sohn Jacob, vor seiner Muetter, ungevogt mit Todt abgienng, So soll berüerts legadt der ainhundert gulden, auf mein Hausfrau freÿ ledig fallen, Und darvon solle sie meinen negsten befreünden, mehrers nit, dan füenf Pfundt, und Sechzig Pfening hinaus zuegeben schuldig sein, damit sollen sie meine befreünden alerdings hindan und abgefertigt sein. Item meinen Zwaÿen Stieftöchtern, Barbara und Maria, verschaffe Ich auß guetten freÿen willen ainer jeden absonnderlich Zwainzig Gulden Reinisch thuet sambentlich vierzig gulden, Solches legadt soll Ebenfals, mein Hausfrau ohne Intrese, biß zu jedweder Vogtbahrkeit bei Iren Hannden behalten, Und wen Unnder disen meinen Stieftöchtern aine vor der andern Ungevogt mit Todt abgiennge, so soll der Abgestorbnen Legadt, auf die überlebent under ihnnen fallen, gienngen sie aber Beede vor obgedachtem meinem Sohn Jacoben Altman, Ungevogt mit Todt ab, So soll solches legadt alleß und jedes, auf ihn oftgedachten meinen Sohn freÿ ledig fallen.

[translation:]

Furthermore I bequeath to my legitimate son Jacob Altman, whom I begot in marriage with my current wife Agnes, as paternal bequest one hundred Rhenish florins in cash. These one hundred florins should be held in trust by my wife without interest of her own until our aforesaid son reaches legal age. Without any compensation from this legacy she should also take care of our son and all his human needs and raise him in a Christian manner until he reaches majority or is capable of supporting himself. If however it should be God's will that our aforementioned son Jacob should die a minor before his mother, the aforesaid bequest should freely be passed to my wife. And from this she should be obliged to give to my closest friends five Pounds and sixty Pfennigs, but not more. Therewith my friends however should be satisfied. Likewise to each of my two stepdaughters Barbara and Maria out of good and free will I bequeath twenty Rhenish florins, forty florins in all. This bequest should also be held in trust by my wife without interest until both of them reach legal age. And if one of my stepdaughters should die a minor before the other, the bequest of the deceased should go to the surviving one. If however both of them should die under legal age before my aforementioned son Jacob Altman, all of the bequest should freely go to my aforesaid son.

 The opening page of Leonhard Altmann's will (A-Wsa, AZJ, A1, 520/17. Jhdt.)

One of the four witnesses to Leonhard Altmann's will was "der Ehrsambe und füerneme Matheß Hundtspüchler der Zeit Richter auf der Landstraß" ("the honorable and noble Mathias Hundtspüchler, current judge on the Landstraße") who either was identical with Jacob Altmann's best friend, or, more likely (since a "Mathes Hundßpüller der jüngere[!]" from the Landstraße got married in 1608), the father of Mathias Hundtspichler who was to play an important role in the life of the next generation of the Altmann family. Another one of Leonhard Altmann's witnesses was Georg Wagner who in 1633 was to serve as best man at Jacob Altmann's wedding. Mozart's great-great-great-grandfather Leonhard Altmann was buried in the old St. Nikolai cemetery on the Landstraße (which was closed in 1784).

St. Nikolai cemetery on the Landstraße (today's Rochusmarkt). Dr. Mesmer's house and part of his garden can be seen at the bottom (W-Waw, Sammlung Woldan).

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This discovery was first reported in print in the Newsletter of the Mozart Society of America, Vol. XVI, No. 1 (27 January 2012). © Dr. Michael Lorenz 2013. All rights reserved.

Updated: 5 January 2021

Mozart in the Viennese Council of War

On 21 October 1786, Mozart's name ("Mozard Capellmeister") appears in the protocol of the k.k. Hofkriegsrat (I. & R. council of war) – of all places. Mozart stood bail for his friend Franz Jacob Freystädtler who was accused by the Bavarian captain David Haißer of having stolen a piano . In the last fifteen years nobody has discovered more handwritten Mozart documents from the composer's lifetime than yours truly.

Part of the entry in the protocol of the I. & R. council of war concerning Mozart posting bond for his friend Freystädtler (OeStA, KA, ZSt HKR HR 2026, fol. 1067). The file related to this case does not survive.

This discovery was published the article "Mozarts Haftungserklärung für Freystädtler. Eine Chronologie". Mozart-Jahrbuch 1998. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2000, 1-19.

Updated: 6 October 2018

"The Johann Strauss Odyssey" – A Few Necessary Notes

And now for something completely different.

Because Silvia Mattl-Wurm's reply to Frieder Reininghaus' article, "Johann Strauss auf Irrfahrt" [The Johann Strauss Odyssey] (in: Österreichische Musikzeitschrift, 65, vol. 9, Vienna 2010, 45) leaves important things unsaid, I wish to add a few points from my perspective as a Schubert scholar and former president of the International Franz Schubert Institute. While the current efforts of the Wienbibliothek to recover stolen Strauss sketches are laudible, it has become evident that these sketches are only the tip of an iceberg, and that the public has not yet been informed of the full extent of the losses suffered by the music collection of the Wienbibliothek (at that time the Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek) before the retirement of Ernst Hilmar as head of that collection in 1994. In particular, the estates of Otto Erich Deutsch and Ignaz Weinmann, both owned by the Wienbibliothek, suffered massive losses. Items that were demonstrably in the library as part of Weinmann's estate, surfaced in a Viennese antiquarian shop as early as 1993, where they were purchased by Canadian Schubert scholar Rita Steblin. Steblin (basically stepping into the role of concealer) did not notify the police, but informed the head of the library, who, however, took no legal action, preferring instead to resolve everything behind the scenes, putatively in the interest of a principle of "confidentiality" which is still in force today. The head of the music collection (Hilmar) was fired, and eventually, quietly dismissed into retirement. The police and the state prosecutor were never notified. The losses from Weinmann's estate included not only irreplaceable treasures that once belonged to the Krasser family, such as the prayer books of Schubert's sister Therese Schneider and her daughter, but also many other valuable books and a lock of Franz Schubert's hair that had been given to his half-brother Andreas Schubert on the occasion of the composer's first exhumation in 1863. Material from the estate of O. E. Deutsch in the Wienbibliothek also surfaced in the Viennese antiquarian trade. Gitta Deutsch, daughter of the great Schubert scholar, unsuccessfully tried to awaken the media's interest in these dubious transactions. In 1998, I informed City Councilor Peter Marboe of the alleged thefts – but got no response. In 2000, I informed the then head of the Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek Dr. Walter Obermaier and his deputy Dr. Gerhard Renner that the missing lock of Schubert's hair from Ignaz Weinmann's estate was then on exhibition at the museum of the Schubert Memorial Site and Museum Atzenbrugg "on loan from Ernst Hilmar" (falsely dated to 1828, the year of Schubert's death).

Schubert's lock of hair (stolen by Ernst Hilmar from Ignaz Weinmann's estate) on exhibition at the Schubert Memorial Site and Museum in Atzenbrugg

I further informed Dr. Obermaier of several other facts, strongly suggesting that the lost inventory of lenders to the 1897 Schubert exhibition, likewise owned by the library, had also been stolen. This handwritten register had been described in 1995 in the journal Schubert durch die Brille (edited at the time by Ernst Hilmar) as "having turned up in private hands" (Schubert durch die Brille 14, 106). In fact, a copy of a page from this handwritten book had been inserted arbitrarily by Hilmar into one of my articles (Schubert durch die Brille 24, 2000, 46). Rita Steblin had seen this precious, leather-bound manuscript in 1993, in the office of the International Franz Schubert Institute (IFSI) in the Kettenbrückengasse, where Hilmar had told her that it could not be given an IFSI stamp, because it "belongs to the Stadtbibliothek".

Ernst Hilmar's office in the Kettenbrückengasse in December 1993. The caption was written by Rita Steblin. The arrow on the left points to the lost register of lenders to the 1897 Schubert exhibition (photograph by Rita Steblin).

The management of the Wienbibliothek began to search for this inventory (which never had been given a shelfmark), but the book could not be found. The police were not notified and no attempt was ever made to recover the stolen lock of hair from Atzenbrugg. Dr. Renner merely asked me every now and then in a humorous tone: "Have you been to Atzenbrugg lately?" On 6 May 2009, I informed Dr. Silvia Mattl-Wurm of the theft of the lock of Schubert's hair and gave her copies of all my documents related to this unfortunate case which had now grown far beyond the realm of "speculation and premature judgment". Following this conversation – long before the Strauss affair had become public – no attempt whatsoever was undertaken by the people in charge "to retrieve the stolen material without damage to its collections with the help of the authorities" (as Mattl-Wurm put it in her statement in the Österreichische Musikzeitschrift). Mattl-Wurm's reply epitomized the deplorably passive behavior of the Wienbibliothek and its motives: "If we report the theft, it would be more embarrassing for the library than for Hilmar!" If in this affair the police eventually retrieve the stolen goods, we can safely assume that they were not alerted to the theft by the Wienbibliothek. It was certainly no action taken by the representatives of the Wienbibliothek (now spun as cunning finesse) that led to the resurfacing of a few of the stolen Strauss manuscripts. It was the stupidity of the thief Ernst Hilmar and his accomplice Werner Bodendorff, and a lucky coincidence, involving the chairman of the German Johann Strauss Society, Ralph Braun. The whole affair is reminiscent of one involving the Vienna City Archive, where between 1969 and 1999, nine leaves were stolen from Beethoven's probate file. Owing to the lack of an inventory, it is not even known what exactly went missing and nobody ever reported the theft to the police.

See also: Response to Walburga Litschauer's essay "Perspektiven der Schubert-Forschung in Österreich", (Österreichische Musikzeitschrift, 65, vol. 9, Vienna 2010, pp. 46-49)

Updated: 10 May 2025