Slightly off topic, I have always meant to find out about death masks. A fascinating thing. Do you know why death masks were done? I always associate them with the 19th century. I really need to find out more about these things, but I'm feeling rather lazy today.
They go back further than that. Death masks were taken from king Henry VIII, Peter the Great and Oliver Cromwell, though there are some famous 19th century examples too, such as Beethoven, Chopin, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln etc. I believe they served simply as a memento or record. An accurate 3D representation, which would have been valuable in the pre-photography era, particularly for artists. I've seen Cromwell's mask and it still has impact. He's such an (in)famous figure, only seen in paintings, and to look at him right in the face, a face unfiltered by an artist's imagination, is quite spine tingling.
Fascinating! But unfortunately, the link to more info doesn't work for me. Does anyone else have the same problem? Could you either fix the link or post the URL? Thanks!
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Slightly off topic, I have always meant to find out about death masks. A fascinating thing. Do you know why death masks were done? I always associate them with the 19th century. I really need to find out more about these things, but I'm feeling rather lazy today.
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http://www.snopes.com/medical/emergent/cprannie.asp
http://deathaday.blogspot.com/2007/10/cpr-annie-linconnue-de-la-seine.html
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"Annie, Annie, are you OK?"
"smooth criminal," anyone? even wierder!
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