26 death masks of famous historical figures

Death masks were made from the middle ages until the nineteenth century. It was not just a photo in memory of the man, and the cast accuracy of details conveyed the appearance of the deceased for posterity. Thanks casts from the past, we know today, looked like many famous historical figures. In this collection – a collection of death masks of some of the people included in the story.

Isaac Newton (1643-1727)

The scheme of creating death masks for many years was unchanged. The face of the deceased lubricated or protected with gauze, then applied a clay or wax to make a mold.

Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer (1860-1911)

Once the material has dried, the resulting mask was removed. Such plaster casts did with persons deceased members of the Royal family and nobility, as well as prominent personalities, composers, playwrights, military and political figures, philosophers, poets and scientists.

Horatio Nelson, the British naval commander, Vice-Admiral (1758-1805)

As in Ancient Rome, death masks were often used for making sculptures, busts or portraits of the dead.

Mask, presumably belonging to William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

In other cultures a death mask was "the funeral" – it was buried with the deceased.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

The most famous of such mask from Ancient Egypt, which was part of the mummification process (mask of Tutankhamun), and the mask of Mycenaean Greece (mask of Agamemnon).

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

Death mask lost popularity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

After the death of Queen Victoria of great Britain, her grandson, Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany, tried to make her death mask, but members of the Royal family stopped him – they knew how the Queen doesn't like them.

Oliver Cromwell, English military and political leader (1599-1658)

With the advent of photography post-mortem mask has almost disappeared.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

John Keats, the poet of the younger generation of English romantics (1795-1821)

Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (1809-1847)

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher (1770-1831)

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer (1811-1886)

William Blake, English poet (1757 – 1827)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

James Joyce, Irish writer (1882-1941)

Johannes Brahms, German composer (1833-1897)

Cosima Wagner (1837-1930) – the composer, the second wife of the German composer Richard Wagner

Lorenzo de ' Medici (1449-1492), Florentine statesman

Gustav Klimt, Austrian painter (1862-1918)

Mary Stuart (1542-1587), Queen of Scots

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the great German poet (1749-1832)

George Washington (1732-1799)

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)