Death mask 1814699 223469318 2008-07-04T05:41:11Z SchuminWeb 231595 Reverted edits by [[Special:Contributions/Hortonicus|Hortonicus]] ([[User talk:Hortonicus|talk]]) to last version by XLinkBot {{for|an episode of the television series Rome|Death Mask (Rome)}}{{for|a Saint Seiya character|Cancer Deathmask}} {{TOCleft}}[[Image:001Paskal.JPG|right|thumb|160px|Death mask of [[Blaise Pascal]].]] 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 [[portrait]]s. 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 [[molding (process)|mold]]. In other cultures a death mask may be a clay or other 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 Tutankhamun's burial mask. In the [[17th century|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]]. Proponents of [[phrenology]] and [[ethnography]] also used both death masks and life [[mask]]s (taken from living subjects) for scientific and [[pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] purposes. ==History== ===Sculptures=== [[Image:Toetanchamon.jpg|thumb|right|125px|Gold [[mask]] of [[Tutankhamun]].]] Masks of deceased persons are part of traditions in many countries. The most important process of the funeral ceremony in [[ancient Egypt]] was the mummification of the body, which, after prayers and consecration, was put into a sarcophagus enameled and decorated with gold and gems. A special element of the rite was a sculpted mask, put on the face of the deceased. This mask was believed to strengthen the spirit of the mummy and guard the soul from evil spirits on its way to the afterworld. The best known mask is that of [[Tutankhamun]]. Made of gold and gems, the mask conveys the features of the ancient ruler. Such masks were not, however, made from casts of the features; rather, the [[mummification]] process itself preserved the features of the deceased. In 1876 the archaeologist [[Heinrich Schliemann]] discovered in [[Mycenae]] six graves, which he was confident belonged to kings and ancient Greek heroes – [[Agamemnon]], [[Cassandra]], Evrimdon and their associates. To his surprise, the skulls were covered with gold masks. It is now thought unlikely that the masks actually belonged to Agamemnon and other heroes of the [[Homer]]ic [[Epic poetry|epic]]s. The lifelike character of [[ancient Rome|Roman]] portrait sculptures has been attributed to the earlier Roman use of [[wax]] to preserve the features of deceased family members. The wax masks were subsequently reproduced in more durable stone.<ref>[[H.W. Janson]] with Dora Jane Janson, ''History of Art: A Survey of the Major Visual Arts from the Dawn of History to the Present Day'', [[Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey]], [[Prentice-Hall]], and [[New York City|New York]], [[Harry N. Abrams]], 1962, p. 141.</ref> ===Casts=== [[Image:Dante deathmask front.jpg|thumb|left|120px|[[Dante]]'s death mask.]] [[Image:Chopin death mask.JPG|right|thumb|150px|[[Frédéric Chopin|Chopin]]'s death mask.]] In the [[Middle Ages]], a shift took place from sculpted masks to true death masks, made of wax or plaster. These masks were not interred with the deceased. Instead, they were used in funeral ceremonies and were later kept in libraries, museums and universities. Death masks were taken not only of deceased royalty and nobility ([[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]], [[Sforza]]), but also of eminent persons - poets, philosophers, and [[dramaturge]]s, such as [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]], [[Filippo Brunelleschi]], [[Torquato Tasso]], [[Blaise Pascal]] and [[Voltaire]]. As earlier in [[ancient Rome]], death masks were often subsequently used in making marble sculpture portraits, busts or engravings of the deceased. [[Oliver Cromwell]]'s death mask is preserved at [[Warwick Castle]]. Another notable death mask is that of [[Napoleon Bonaparte]], taken on the island of [[Saint Helena]] and displayed at [[London]]'s [[British Museum]]. A death mask of [[Chopin]] was made in [[Paris]] in 1849. In Russia, the death-mask tradition dates back to the times of [[Peter the Great]], whose death mask was taken by [[Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli]]. Also well known are death masks of [[Alexander I of Russia|Alexander I]], [[Nicholas I of Russia|Nicholas I]] and [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]]. One of the first real [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] death masks was that of the poet [[Taras Shevchenko]], taken by [[Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg]] in [[St. Petersburg]], [[Russia]].<ref>[http://www.deathmask.kiev.ua Virtual Museum of Death Mask] URL accessed on December 4, 2006.</ref> ===Science=== [[Image:Ned Kelly death mask.jpg|right|thumb|160px|Death mask of [[Australia]]n [[bushranger]] [[Ned Kelly]].]] Death masks were increasingly used by scientists from the late eightheenth century onwards to record variations in human [[physiognomy]]. The lifemask was also increasingly common at this time, taken from living persons. Anthropologists used such masks to study [[physiognomy|physiognomic]] features in famous persons and notorious [[criminal]]s. Masks were also used to collect data on [[race (classification of human beings)|racial]] differences. ===Forensics=== [[Image:Inconnue.jpg|thumb|left|100px|''[[L'Inconnue de la Seine]]''.]] Before the widespread availability of [[photography]], the facial features of unidentified bodies were sometimes preserved by creating death masks so that relatives of the deceased could recognize them if they were seeking a missing person. One such mask, known as ''[[L'Inconnue de la Seine]]'', recorded the face of an unidentified young woman who, according to one oft-repeated story, had been found drowned in the [[Seine|Seine River]] at [[Paris]] around the late 1880s. A worker at the Paris [[morgue]] was so taken by her beauty that he made a plaster cast of her face. She was considered so beautiful that in the following years copies of the mask became a fashionable morbid fixture in Parisian [[Bohemian#Modern use of the term as a social phenomenon|Bohemian]] society.<ref>Elizabeth Bronfen, ''Over her Dead Body: Death, Femininity and the Aesthetic'', MUP, 1992, p. 207.</ref> The face of [[Resusci Anne]], the world's first [[CPR]] training [[mannequin]], introduced in 1960, was modeled after ''L'Inconnue de la Seine''.<ref>[http://www.laerdal.com/document.asp?subnodeid=13088268 Laerdal company website: The Girl from the River Seine] URL accessed on June 7, 2007</ref><ref>[http://www.sca-aware.org/library/history/archer-gordon-story-of-resusci-anne.pdf A Death Mask to Help Save Lives] Archer Gordon, M.D., PH.D. URL accessed on June 8, 2007</ref> ==Notes== {{reflist|2}} ==See also== *[[Portrait]] *[[Sculpture]] ==External links== {{commons}} * [http://libweb.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/aids/C0770/index.html Laurence Hutton Collection of Life and Death Masks] * [http://www.lensculture.com/schels.html Before and After Death] Photographic portraits of people before, and immediately after, they die [[Category:Art genres]] [[Category:Death customs]] [[cs:Posmrtná maska]] [[de:Totenmaske]] [[et:Surimask]] [[fa:ماسک مرگ]] [[fr:Masque mortuaire]] [[is:Helgríma]] [[nl:Dodenmasker]] [[ja:デスマスク]] [[pl:Maska pośmiertna]] [[ru:Посмертная маска]] [[sl:Posmrtna maska]] [[fi:Kuolinnaamio]] [[sv:Dödsmask]]