We are, of course, talking about the portrait made during Vlad`s captivity at Visegrad, a dungeon near Buda, where he was a prisoner for 13 years by order of Matthias Corvinus.
The portrait is now preserved in the Ambras Castle [Austria], and the few copies are scattered in private collections owned by descendants of the Hungarian nobles that were part of the Hungarian king`s most exclusive entourage.
There are several brochures [I would rather call them caricatures] that spread through Europe in the fifteenth century via print – the embellished German stories. The image presented is strictly negative and exaggerated, designed to instill horror in the imagination of the people, because, let’s not forget, these brochures were spread by the merchants and nobles of Brasov and Hungary – Dracula’s adversaries.
Pope Pius the 2nd described him as “a brave and honest man in appearance, whose face looks worthy of a prince, so is the human soul different from the appearance.”
[translated from “Dracula” by Matei Cazacu]
Niccolo of Modrussa expressed himself as follows:
“[He wasn`t] too tall, but very strong, with a cruel and fierce appearance, large and aquiline nose, swollen nostrils, with smooth red facial skin, very long eyelashes surrounding the green eyes, often wide open, made threatening by bushy black eyebrows; his face and beard were shaved, except for the mustache. His big temples made his head look bigger. He had broad shoulders on which black curly hair fell.”
[translated from “Dracula” by Matei Cazacu]
Matei Cazacu presents us in his historical novel dedicated to the medieval ruler, with a detailed description that can only be the result of a careful analysis:
“[…] The prince is featured in half profile, wearing on his long and curly hair a red velvet cap adorned in the lower half with eight strings of pearls. Above the forehead, an eight-pointed gold star, with a huge square emerald supporting five pearls of considerable size. The arched eyebrows allow us to discover his gray-green eyes wide open. A long and slightly arched nose with prominent nostrils covers part of the long brown mustache that cuts the face on almost all its width. The read outstanding lower lip, like that of the Habsburgs, marks the chin with a slight pragmatism. This combination of curved nose over red lips is called “parrot beak over two cherries”. Vlad Dracula wears a red shirt – almost orange-, a bright red tunic with shades of purple, buttoned with big round buttons adorned with jewels.”
๑۞๑ Related:๑۞๑
† Vlad the Impaler
† Count Dracula