In the model in the portrait of an unknown man discovered the William Turner
ARTinvestment.RU   18 августа 2010

Scientists have identified a handsome mature man with a portrait by Cornelius Varley with a great painter Joseph William Turner Mellordom by comparing images from the death mask of the artist

Scientists have identified a handsome mature man with a portrait by Cornelius Varley (Cornelius Varley) with a great painter Joseph William Turner Mellordom by comparing images from the death mask of the artist.

S'pore about whether this is a picture portrait of Turner, lasted for two centuries. Too few researchers have been material for comparison. The painter did not like to sit or to write self-portraits. The first known self-portraits in watercolor was painted by him in 15 years at the request of family friends. As a family friend, remembered Turner Anna Dart (Ann Dart), he wrote it with reluctance. He said that drawing such a little man like him, it makes no sense: people might think that, say, edakii shorty can not write good pictures. As a result, the main image of the artist in the age of forty hitherto regarded as cartoons, which depicted the contemporaries of Turner's grotesque dwarf with a hooked nose and chin like Petrushka.

Now, evidence that the portrait Varley - the former does not caricature artist in adulthood. An employee of the University of Dundee (Scotland) - This University is a leading center in the field of forensic identification from photographs, videos, and skeletal remains - Kelly Freeman (Kelly Freeman) has made the portrait Varley plane drawing full face and then apply it for three-dimensional image obtained by laser Scan Turner death mask.

From the comparison of complexity: the portrait of Turner depicted the age of about forty years old (it is believed that the portrait was painted in 1815), and the death mask was made from a 76 - year-old man, emaciated and had lost almost all his teeth. Despite this, Freeman found a similar, such as, for example, the identical form of eye sockets and the distance between the upper lip and nose.

Of course, every beautiful portrait can not be considered absolutely certain image of man. But at the same time it is the portrait Varley Turner first presented realistically. This is not a comic character in the cartoons, but a serious mature man.

Now Kelly Freeman hopes to create more volume and a color portrait of Turner's death mask.

death mask for the study provided the National Portrait Gallery, which houses 624 portrait artists, but Turner's image of unity among them. There are just pencil sketches made by the students during lectures or exhibitions. There is another portrait of Turner, written in 1838 by John Linnell (John Linnell). Turner refused to pose, and the portrait painted Linnell from memory, it appears a man with a sharp nose, and, most probably, with his bald head, covered with a brushed sideways hair. In the Tate kept a remarkable self-portrait of Turner, which he portrayed 24-year-old boy with blazing eyes.

None of the images does not look like a portrait of Cornelius Varley, written with invented them in 1811 "graphic telescope. This optical instrument is an analog device camera lucida ("Bright Room"). Telescope image on a blank sheet of paper so that the artist could see both the surface plate and the basic contours of an object or model. For him he could make a fairly accurate sketch. But a portrait done in such a way, still implies posing. Scholar Turner Selby Wittingham (Selby Whittingham) suggests that the artist has agreed to pose, because I was intrigued by what results can be achieved using "telescope." And perhaps, as a painter of high status would have a portrait, contrasting with the offensive cartoons.

Nowadays, of course, few people could share the fears Turner the incorrect perception of his contemporaries of his appearance. Admirers and researchers of his work welcome any crumbs of information about how he looked. And the portrait of Cornelius Varley, representing Turner in the prime of life, is now certainly take its iconography important.

Material prepared Maria Onuchina, AI

Sources: guardian.co.uk , artinvestment.ru