This undated photo provided by the International Mozarteum Foundation shows Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The Associated Press
VIENNA -- A round-faced young man with a thick
head of hair depicted on a tiny 18th century portrait that had the
experts puzzled for centuries now has a name -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Researchers
at Salzburg's Mozarteum museum announced Friday that they have
definitely identified the person in the picture as the musical genius.
And
it's not any likeness either. They say that of 14 known portraits, it
is one of only a few showing him gazing directly at the viewer and
without his signature white powdered wig.
Expert Cristoph
Grosspietch says the museum's findings are based on examinations of the
portrait and historical records of the era.
He says the
same experts concluded that another portrait, showing a youth holding a
bird's nest, was not Mozart, as had been believed.