I been wondering what was the point of the death masks long ago? Was it their way of remembering the dead like a photograph?
I been wondering what was the point of the death masks long ago? Was it their way of remembering the dead like a photograph?
I saw a life mask of Mr Lincoln once, along with casts of his hands.
He was a big man, I can tell you that.
Oh sorry, I can't help with the 'why' of it.
Last edited by Harry in Connecticut; 10-08-2007 at 10:40 AM. Reason: To add to my comment
There is a site with famous peoples death masks. I don´t have the name of it anymore, since my computer decided that it would be fun to delete some of my stuff. My favorite deathmask of the once on that site was James Dean.
You can buy replicas on ebay both alive and dead of famous people.
Have you seen the Wiki write-up?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_mask
I think I now understand why some of the old portraits I've seen have never quite sat well with me: they were painted based on death masks.
Here is a link to view some Death Masks...
http://libweb.princeton.edu/librarie...ist.html#names
I think they are beautiful! I bet there could be a market for these today. They also used to make "Life Masks" and some even do just the hands. A nice keepsake. Another lost art which still has some following are Grave Rubbings.
Has anyone seen this site? www.thanatos.net. I was only there once; I'm not sure what it's all about...
here is a link to view celebrity life masks...
http://www.sapsema.org/lifemask.html
Wow, those are awesome
those were fantastic! thanks for sharing.
memento mori is another interesting some of the pics are amazing and i find it so amazing that people used to keep these types of things on their mantels were as today that would be considered morbid in most western homes
I found this really cool site with life & death masks.
http://libweb.princeton.edu/librarie...ist.html#names
I like these because they show you a more accurate representation of what some historical figures looked like than the paintings of the era, which were too stylized in my opinion.
I love seeing these. I never knew James Dean had one, interesting.
Cool! Thanks for sharing
Very cool!
I just sent a link to the site to my husband. He's not much into death haggery but something tells me he'll be interested in the pics for his genealogy research. That and he's a big history buff.
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I remember there being a lot of these on display at Madame Tussaud's in London...and of course I spent an inordinate amount of time staring at them...screw the wax figures, the death masks were FAR more interesting!
I wonder why some of the people had more than one death mask & they were so different.
I just have to add, because this has been bothering me, that the Shakespeare mask is clearly a sculpture made with artistic license. There are no human characteristics and it looks just like what every artist imagines that Shakespeare, if he/she existed, looked like. And I have an English degree so I can say that.
They have the death masks on display of the prisioners that were hanged at the Old Melbourne here.
They used to do the masks so that they could study of the skull to predict criminal behaviour. It is weird to see them up close though...
Okay, so now this makes a little more sense.
In the days before photography there was a way to preserve a pefect likeness of someone: death masks. There were also life masks but it was such an uncomfortable process on the living that few had them made. For your viewing pleasure: Julius Caesar, Mary Quenn of Scots, Oliver Cromwell (my avatar) ,Isaac Newton, and Napoleon:
"Everybody is born, and everybody dies. Being born wasn't so bad , was it?"
Peter the Hermit
Wow...Mary Queen of Scots looks so real. She was much younger than I had always thought.
Love the smirk on Ceasars face.
More dead pusses to gaze upon: Thomas Paine, Ludvig von Beethoven, Fred Chopin, U.S. Grant, and Peter Lorre
"Everybody is born, and everybody dies. Being born wasn't so bad , was it?"
Peter the Hermit
Well folks, I uploaded peter Lorre and he didn't show up. I tried to upload it again and I was told I had already uploaded the file! I'll try again tommorow.
"Everybody is born, and everybody dies. Being born wasn't so bad , was it?"
Peter the Hermit
Wow, Beethoven looks tortured even in death. And he really did look like all the paintings I've seen. It's sort of comforting to see that from looking at a mask taken just after he'd died. It's the closest real likeness we have to him living.
Beethoven is my favorite composer.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Grant looked the same.
Thomas Paine looks almost happy!
those are neat.
Ned Kelly, Australian bushranger. If you look at the line between the two images and cross your eyes you get three images in a row. The middle one is in 3D.
From this site: http://www.denheldid.com/twohuts/story10.html
Wiki on Ned: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly
Last edited by neilmpenny; 04-16-2009 at 10:44 PM.
I am a sick puppy....woof woof!!!
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Carping the living shit out of the Diem. - Me!!
http://www.pinterest.com/neilmpenny
The one for Newton looks a lot like Robin Williams...
Way cool huh?
I am a sick puppy....woof woof!!!
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Carping the living shit out of the Diem. - Me!!
http://www.pinterest.com/neilmpenny
Go to Vincent Price's thread. You can see his death mask.
Mary Queen of Scots was really pretty, I just read this week that her mouth opened and closed for 15 minutes after she was beheaded, I couldn't stop thinking about that when I was lookin at her mask, creeped me bad
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Love is the answer - and you know that for sure.
That was a different lady she was in her 70's and refused to put her head down the first blow hit her sholder then the executioner chased her around hacking her to death, Mary took two blows the first severed most of her head and the second was just to separate a bit of skin still attached. I'll try and find the bit on who the other woman was I think Henry the XIII ordered her execution for treason.
Margaret Countess of Salisbury heres a bit about her execution
Henry kept her a prisoner in the Tower for a further two years. Then, following an abortive conspiracy in the north, he had her executed on May 27th 1541. Margaret did not realise what was happening. When she was told to lay her head on the block she set off to wander slowly and aimlessly around Tower Green. She was forcibly returned to the block, but the executioner was young and inexperienced. Perhaps put off by the advanced age and obvious senility of the old Countess, he botched the execution. It was not until the third or fourth stroke of the axe that Margaret's head was severed from her body.
And here's Mary queen of Scots--Then she, lying very still upon the block, one of the executioners holding her slightly with one of his hands, she endured two strokes of the other executioner with an axe, she making very small noise or none at all, and not stirring any part of her from the place where she lay: and so the executioner cut off her head, saving one little gristle, which being cut asunder, he lift up her head to the view of all the assembly and bade God save the Queen. Then, her dress of lawn [i.e. wig] from off her head, it appeared as grey as one of threescore and ten years old, polled very short, her face in a moment being so much altered from the form she had when she was alive, as few could remember her by her dead face. Her lips stirred up and a down a quarter of an hour after her head was cut off.
interesting stuff, i'm sure madame tussuade did a few famous ones over the years, nowadays they are called lifecasts or facecasts, i have a few including sean connery, anthony hopkins, arnie, i've been under the alginate myself a few times, not for the faint hearted!
Alfred Hitchcock