In every period throughout human history men and women have disappeared under unknown or mysterious circumstances. These disappearances present some of the most intriguing historical puzzles ranging from suspected political assassinations, to less complicated cases where people simply go sailing and are tragically, never heard of again. The list of famous people who have disappeared mysteriously and have never been found, includes explorers, monarchs and leaders, philosophers and scientists, heroes and outlaws.
Presumed self-portrait of Leonardo (c. 1510) at the Royal Library of Turin, Italy (Public Domain) and Mozart aged 14 by Giambettino Cignaroli (Public Domain)
Modern Disappearances
If one was to compile a list of missing famous historical people in more modern times, perhaps the most famous inclusion from American history would be the celebrity fashion designer and aviator, Amelia Earhart, who mysteriously disappeared attempting a round-the-world flight. If Amelia's disappearance is not at the top of the American list of missing famous people, then Dan. B. Cooper certainly is after his shenanigans on Thanksgiving Eve 1971. On board Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, Cooper claimed to have been in possession of explosives and demanded $200,000, four parachutes and a refueling truck upon landing at Sea-Tac. After he had skyjacked the plane he jumped out and was never seen again.
Disappearing persons is not a new phenomenon, for stepping back in time, the bodies of England's King Edward V, Greece’s Alexander the Great and the brutal ruler of the Huns, Attila, have all gone AWOL. While many articles, books, websites and documentaries cover the top 10 missing-persons, among these ranks there are two historical giants, both genii in their own right, whose graves can never be visited, because nobody really knows what happened to their bodies. They are none other than Leonardo da Vinci and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Landscape of the Arno Valley by Leonardo Da Vinci (1473). (Public Domain)
The Bones Of Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 at Vinci, a small town high up on Mount Albano, in the valley of the Arno River, near the city of Florence, Italy. He lived during the Renaissance and died on May 2, 1519. Trained to be an artist by the sculptor and painter Verrocchio, Da Vinci is credited as an accomplished painter, anatomist, botanist, sculptor, mathematician, engineer, inventor, architect and musician. Between 1478 to 1482 Da Vinci obtained his own studio and became the court artist for Lodvico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, and he would live in Milan city for 17 years. In 1512 AD, when the French lost Milan to the Swiss, he moved to Rome where he stayed until his health started to fail.
- Was Alexander the Great Entombed In Venice In Disguise As St Mark?
- Boudica Iberian Warrior Queen Who Said No To Rome
- Five Missing Kings and Queens – and Where We Might Find Them
At the age of 65 Leonardo da Vinci moved to France to work for King Francis I and he left Italy forever at the end of 1516. It was on May 2, 1519 that the living engine of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, died. The artistic achievements of Da Vinci are relatively well known, for example, two of the best-known paintings in the world: the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, and his drawing Vitruvian Man, but who he was as a person still remains a mystery. And so too, does the whereabouts of his mortal remains.
Drawing of the Château d'Amboise attributed to Francesco Melzi (1518) (Public Domain)
After Da Vinci died the French buried him in the collegiate church of Saint Florentin at the Château d'Amboise, on August 12, 1519. However, according to Charles Nicole in his 2005 book Leonardo da Vinci: The Flights of the Mind, the location of his remains is unclear. Most of Château d'Amboise was destroyed during the French Revolution and the church was completely demolished in 1802. According to Charles Nicholl, some of the graves were destroyed in the process, scattering the bones interred there and thereby leaving the whereabouts of Leonardo's remains subject to dispute. According to Nicholl a gardener may have even buried some in the corner of the courtyard.
Aerial photograph of Amboise castle on the Loire River taken from the south (Lieven Smits/ CC BY-SA 3.0)
Exploring the fate of Da Vinci’s remains, in 2019 scholar Nicholas Montard published Léonard de Vinci est-il vraiment enterré au château d'Amboise? (Is Leonardo da Vinci really buried at the Château d’Amboise?) This researcher explained that in 1863 the fine-arts inspector general Arsène Houssaye received an imperial commission to excavate the site and discovered a partially complete skeleton with a bronze ring on one finger, white hair, and stone fragments bearing the inscriptions "EO", "AR", "DUS", and “VINC. What else could these initials represent if not the name of the great missing genius: Leonardo da Vinci? Montard studied the skull and noted that its eight teeth corresponded to those of someone approximately the same age as Da Vinci when he died. Furthermore, excavators unearthed a silver shield near the collection of bones which depicted a beardless Francis I, which is thought to correspond with the king's appearance during Leonardo's time in France.
A beardless Francis I (1515) the patron of Da Vinci while spent his last years working in France. (Public Domain)
Adding to these many layers of speculation regarding the skull of Leonardo da Vinci, in 1874, art historian Mary Margaret Heaton wrote that the skull would have belonged to someone that measured approximately the same height as Leonardo. She also wrote that the skull was allegedly presented to Napoleon III before being returned to the Château d'Amboise, where they it was re-interred in the chapel of Saint Hubert in 1874. Today, a plaque situated above this tomb states that it contains the remains of Leonardo. But is this really where the great man was lain to rest? In 2016 study was launched to sample the great artist’s paintings for traces of his DNA in order to determine whether or not, Leonardo’s remains really are those interned in the chapel of Saint Hubert.
Leonardo's physiological sketch of the human brain and skull (c. 1510) (Public Domain)
According to an article in The Guardian, Dr Alessandro Vezzosi, creative director of Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci, and Agnese Sabato identified the descendants of Da Vinci's half-brother whose DNA they planned to compare with a lock of hair that might have come from Da Vinci. The lock of hair was found in a private American collection with the historic label that reads Les Cheveux de Leonardo da Vinci. After being hidden for five centuries the hair was finally exposed for the first time, along with documents attesting its ancient French provenance, Vezzosi told the Guardian. The DNA tests from the alleged Da Vinci hair have not yet been completed, so the Château d’Amboise skull remains anonymous, but Dr Alessandro Vezzosi and his team from the ‘The Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project’ strive to determine if the remains purported to be those of Leonardo da Vinci at Amboise Castle are indeed his, or not, as the case may be.
Anonymous portrait of the child Mozart, possibly by Pietro Antonio Lorenzoni; painted in 1763 on commission from Leopold Mozart (Public Domain)
The Skull Of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the famous composer who profoundly shaped classical music with over 600 works including sonatas, symphonies, masses, chamber music, concertos and operas. Mozart began playing to the public at the age of six and wrote his first symphony by age ten and by the age of 17 he had accepted a post as a court musician in Salzburg, offered to him by Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. In 1777 Mozart left Salzburg and after travelling to Paris and Germany, he moved permanently to Vienna, Austria where he lived for the remainder of his life. In the closing years of his life he began composing one of his greatest works, The Requiem, but he died before it was completed.
Mozart family, by Johann Nepomuk della Croce (1780). The portrait on the wall is of Mozart's mother. (Public Domain)
While many conspiracies surround Mozart’s death, in reality, during a fever epidemic, on November 20, 1791, Mozart took ill and developed a severe swelling in his hands and legs. With the swelling came nausea, then continuous vomiting followed by uncontrollable diarrhea. On December 5 that same year, at 35 years old, the great musician began convulsing and after lapsing into a coma, he died. After his death in 1791 Mozart was buried in a common grave at Vienna's St. Mark's Cemetery. The common grave refers to a burial belonging to a citizen, not of the aristocratic class. However, in 1801, gravedigger Joseph Rothmayer claimed to have unearthed the great composer’s skull, which is missing its lower jaw, and ever since the skull has been in the possession of the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg.
To Whom Does The Skull Belong? Hamlet - Alas Poor Yorick by Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix (1839) (Public Domain)
Since its discovery, almost every scientist concerned has assumed that the skull was the actual cranium of the great man. In 1989, anthropologist Pierre-Francois Puech of the University of Provence examined the controversial skull and published a paper in the Journal of Forensic Sciences titled Craniofacial Dysmorphism in Mozart's Skull. In his paper the researcher concluded that Mozart: “may have died of complications of a head injury rather than rheumatic fever as most historians believe.” This assertion was based on a fracture he found on the skull's left temple which led him to theorize that the composer: “may have sustained it in a fall, and that would help explain the severe headaches the composer was said to have suffered more than a year before his death.”
This entire line of thinking came to question in a 2006 article published in Live Science explaining that a joint analysis of the skull was being conducted by the Institute for Forensic Medicine in Innsbruck, and the U.S. Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory in Rockville, Maryland. Lead researcher, Dr Walther Parson, an internationally renowned forensic pathologist, said the findings raised more questions than answers. Two teeth were carefully removed from the skull’s upper jaw and the DNA sampled was compared with samples gathered in 2004 from the thigh bones of two skeletons exhumed from the Mozart family grave at Salzburg's St. Sebastian Cemetery. While experts had always assumed the remains were of Mozart's maternal grandmother and a niece, the DNA study revealed “none of the skeletons in the grave were related, making it impossible to prove that the skull was Mozart’s,” Dr Parson said.
The memorial gravestone of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in St Marks Cemetery, Vienna.(CC BY-SA 2.5)
In a 2006 Science Blog article Dr Parson said he was quite disappointed that the mystery continues. He explained that the samples from the three people who were believed to be relatives of Mozart all had unmatched different mitochondrial DNA, and they were all different from the DNA sampled from the alleged Mozart skull. Therefore, since none of them is an actual maternal relative of Mozart, it means that the skull cannot be proved as Mozart’s. The researcher concluded that this means in the future if anyone presents an authentic matrilineal relative or a paternal relative, it can be compared to the available ‘y’ chromosomal data and researchers may then be in a position to make a confirmation. As of the time of writing the true identity of the skull remains anonymous, and it is yet unknown if it belonged to the world-renowned 18th-century classical musical composer, Mozart, or not.
Ashley Cowie is a Scottish historian, author and documentary filmmaker presenting original perspectives on historical problems, in accessible and exciting ways. His books, articles and television shows explore lost cultures and kingdoms, ancient crafts and artifacts, symbols and architecture, myths and legends telling thought-provoking stories which together offer insights into our shared social history. www.ashleycowie.com.
Top Image: The Death of Leonardo da Vinci, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, (1818) (Public Domain)
By Ashley Cowie
References
Bortolon, L. 1967. The Life and Times of Leonardo. London: Paul Hamlyn.
Heaton, M. M. 1874. Leonardo Da Vinci and His Works: Consisting of a Life of Leonardo Da Vinci. New York City, New York: Macmillan Publishers.
Kole. W. J. 2006. Mystery of 'Mozart's Skull' Still Unsolved. Live Science. Available at: https://www.livescience.com/532-mystery-mozart-skull-unsolved.html.
Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project. Available at:. https://www.jcvi.org/research/leonardo-da-vinci-dna-project
Montard, N. 2019). Léonard de Vinci est-il vraiment enterré au château d'Amboise?" [Is Leonardo da Vinci really buried at the Château d'Amboise?]. Ouest-France
Nicholl, C. 2005. Leonardo da Vinci: The Flights of the Mind. London, England: Penguin Books.
Puech, B., Puech, P., Tichy, G., Dhellemmes, P., and Cianfarani, F. 1989. Craniofacial Dysmorphism in Mozart's Skull. Journal of Forensic Sciences, Vol. 34, No. 2, 0, Available at: https://doi.org/10.1520/JFS12663J
ScienceBlog 2006. Army Helps DNA Scientists Unravel Mozart Mystery. Science Blog. Available at: https://scienceblog.com/9713/army-helps-dna-scientists-unravel-mozart-mystery/
.jpg){kind=link}
