Mozart's Portrait on a French Box of Sweets

A rare box with a silver mounted miniature painting of a child with a cherubic face, wearing a wig and a red coat of nobility was discovered in Salzburg in 2018. It is a French bonbonniere made of papier-mâché and tortoiseshell. Could this be a portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from when he first performed for King Louis XV in Paris? The detective trail leads the author, who consulted with numerous experts, to Salzburg, Munich, Vienna and Paris. Laboratory testing confirms the authenticity of the lacquered baroque box of sweets, and the miniature upon it. Stefaan Missinne has discovered the linking orphic attribute in its silver mounting. The facial biometrics confirm it is a ten-year-old. Mozart was ten in 1766. The author endorses the box to be a unique Louis XV box of sweets, suggesting tribute to W. A. Mozart as an Austrian child prodigy. The portrait affirms the affective and visual bond between Mozart's immortal musical skills and an anonymous, admiring French lady.

Auteur
Stefaan Missinne was born into a Belgian musical family. He writes and lives in Lower Austria near Vienna. He received his PhD from the Viennese Economics University in Social and Economic Sciences in 1990. He is a Laureate of the Belgian Prince Albert Foundation, member of the American Mozart Society, the Leonardo da Vinci Society, and the Austrian Society for the History of Science. He was a member of the Jury of the international Nico Dostal-Singing-Competition. He is a globe collector and the author of several academic articles.

Résumé
A portrait miniature of a cherubic boy with a wig was discovered in Salzburg in 2018. It is mounted on a bonbonniere made of papier-mache and tortoiseshell. The provenance of the box of sweets is Paris. Could this be a portrait of W. A. Mozart from Versailles? The detective trail leads to Salzburg, Munich, Paris, and Vienna. Laboratory testing authenticates the painting and the box. Stefaan Missinne discovers the &quote;smoking gun&quote; in the silver frame. The guilloche pattern is the linking orphic attribute. Facial biometrics of the boy confirm it is a ten-year-old. Mozart was ten while in Paris in 1766. The Belgian author endorses the bonbonniere as a unique Louis XV box of sweets, suggesting that it is a tribute to W. A. Mozart as an Austrian child prodigy. &quote;An exceptional finding in a Salzburg antique shop leads, like an international research thriller, from the Mozarteum in Salzburg to the archives of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, from the Louvre and the Royal French Court in Paris to the Imperial collections of the Habsburgs. A small, expensive and specially heralded box - the Mozart portrait box - portrays a unique, royally uniformed boyish Mozart as a composer, musician and prodigy. A wonderful artifact that allows us to sense Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a young Austrian musical genius. Stefaan Missinne has made a significant discovery with international appeal and world interest.&quote;Sir James Constable, Harvard University Fellow&quote;Just as in Greek mythology Orpheus was able to sweep his fellow human beings away with his beguiling song, so the author, Prof. Dr. Stefaan Missinne, succeeds in this compact, scientific treatise where he documents and presents striking evidence of a portrait of the youthful Mozart from Paris, dating from 1766. In so doing, he allows the striking traces and circumstances of a small, collectible, but otherwise inconspicuous artefact to speak to us and form a significant whole that addresses us today in a most meaningful way.&quote;Archduke Dr. Michael Salvator Habsburg Lothringen

Contenu
IntroductionDescription of the portrait and the boxMiniature portraits of MozartMozart and his stays in ParisPrimary sources on boxes in Mozart's lettersMozart, musical instruments and notesin miniatures and paintingsIconographic decoration of the silver mountingand on the outside pattern of the round boxInterlaced orphic ornaments from classical antiquityand their appearance in late XVIII century artifactsand frontispieces of printed music editions ofHaydn and MozartAllegory of music on a mechanical goldenwedding box dating from 1768Post-mortem iconographic elements including thereference to Mozart as the death of OrpheusSome thoughts with regard to a potential attributionof the artist who painted the portraitPaediatric osteological approachConclusionAcknowledgementsReferencesIndexList of Pictures