Death Masks of the Famous

Death Masks of the Famous

In Western cultures, a death mask is a wax or plaster cast made of a person’s face following death. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits. It is sometimes possible to identify portraits that have been painted from death masks, because of the characteristic slight distortions of the features caused by the weight of the plaster during the making of the mold. In other cultures a death mask may be a clay or another artifact placed on the face of the deceased before burial rites. The best known of these are the masks used by ancient Egyptians as part of the mummification process, such as Tutankhamon’s burial mask.
In the seventeenth century in some European countries, it was common for death masks to be used as part of the effigy of the deceased, displayed at state funerals. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they were also used to permanently record the features of unknown corpses for purposes of identification. This function was later replaced by photography.Wikipedia.

  An Etruscan ceramic death mask, made in the seventh century BC. Circa 1950

The golden death mask of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen. 1950.

The effigy of Catherine de Valois, (1401–1437), in Westminster Abbey, London, the earliest European death mask. She was queen of England, the wife of King Henry V; they married in 1420 at Troyes. Circa 1950.

A patinated bronze death mask of Napoleon Bonaparte is on display during a Los Angeles auction preview November 2, 2001 at Butterfileds in Los Angeles, CA.

A death mask thought to be that of English dramatist William Shakespeare (1566–1616). Found by Dr. Ludwig Becker in Mainz in 1849, the mask was linked to Shakespeare because of its 1616 date and its supposed facial resemblance to the writer. A rival theory, however, maintains that the mask is more likely to be that of English poet Ben Johnson. Circa 1900.

The death mask of English painter, poet and engraver William Blake (1757–1827). Circa 1890.

The death mask of Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658), the most successful general of the English Civil War, he was instrumental in the execution of Charles I, and his conquest of Wales and Scotland ensured the English Commonwealth remained intact. 

Two men making a death mask, New York, circa 1908.

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