TADZİO

"With astonishment, Aschenbach noticed that the boy was perfectly beautiful. His countenance—pale and gracefully reserved, surrounded by honey-colored locks, with its evenly sloped nose, the lovely mouth, the expression of alluring and divine earnestness, was reminiscent of Greek statues from the most noble period. With all its perfection of form, it had such a personal appeal that the onlooker thought he had never encountered anything similar either in Nature or in Art."  

(Thomas Mann / Death in Venice)

Did the 12 years old Swedish Bjorn Andersen fit this description of Tadzio? The Swedish boy from Stockholm really looked like Tadzio, but before taking a decision, Visconti went to Sweeden, and the  other coutries...  to make sure he would be as close as possible to Tadzio's description in the novel.

"His walk was very graceful, both in his stance and in the movement of the knees, the way his feet touched the ground, very light, at the same time tender and proud and made more appealing through the childlike self-consciousness... A head of Eros, with the yellowish tint of Parisian marble,  with exquisite and somber brows," temples and ear covered by the dark and soft curls of his hair."

(Thomas Mann / Death in Venice)

A true aristocrat. But Mann didn't speak only about perfection. His Tadzio was capable of true rage outbursts. Here is, for example, when Tadzio, Polish aristocrat, finds himself next to some Russians,

whom he loathes.

"He was advancing slowly, but so nimbly and proudly as if he was used to walking without footwear and he surveyed the huts. No sooner had he noticed the peaceful Russian family than his face was clouded by a tempest of scorn and disdain. His brow darkened, his mouth was lifted, between the lips and the cheeks an embittered tearing took place, and his eyebrows were so heavily wrinkled that they made the eyes appear sunken in and let them speak the evil and somber language of hatred. He averted his glance, beheld them another time, made a fiercely dismissive gesture with his shoulder...and turned his back unto the enemy."

(Thomas Mann / Death in Venice)