What did Bach look like?

A modern reconstruction of Johann Sebastian Bach's head, using computer modeling techniques, shows the composer as a strong-jawed man with a slight underbite, his large head topped with short, silver hair. The bust, unveiled in Berlin on Monday, was created by anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson in her lab at the University of Dundee in Scotland.

Rather than use Bach's actual bones, which are buried at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germany, Wilkinson worked from a copper replica of Bach's skull made for a previous reconstruction in 1894 by physician Wilhelm His and sculptor Carl Ludwig Seffner. Nonetheless, Wilkinson sees her work as the most realistic rendering of Bach's appearance to date.

He looks more like a bare-knuckle fighter than the greatest composer the world has ever known.