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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 4, 2011 3:58:11 GMT
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Oct 4, 2011 11:37:32 GMT
Well how peculiar  whilst still being interesting. I still don't believe that the Will Shakespeare one is authentic...even tho the scientific press here was quite excited by it a few years ago. I think that the only death mask I've ever seen is Dylan Thomas' one...it (or a copy) was in his boathouse in Laugharne, South Wales..it made me cry. |
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 4, 2011 15:07:18 GMT
Somehow the masks are less weird than photos of people in their coffins.
I question the Shakespeare one as well. Also, I wonder if a few of those weren't life masks. I think the only death mask I've seen was a copy of Napoleon's.
Oh -- just remembered that way back Kerouac did a thread on the death mask of a young woman suicide who was fished out of the Seine. Maybe he'll remember the name of it & post a link here.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 5, 2011 3:12:13 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2011 5:14:25 GMT
I had completely forgotten that thread!
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Oct 5, 2011 16:48:39 GMT
What a beautiful woman she must have been, what tragedy led to her drowning I wonder...very sad. On a similar note, I really love the mask (not a death mask, a mummy mask) of the Lady Tjuya..I went to see it at an exhibition at the millenium dome a couple of years back...it is stunning...a sort of Mona Lisa of the ancient world...imo www.touregypt.net/featurestories/yuyaa11.htm |
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 5, 2011 17:36:47 GMT
Oh, that's so lifelike and beautiful, Cheery.
As far as I know, the mummy masks are portraits and probably made by a sculptor who knew the subject in life.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 5, 2011 18:01:56 GMT
I found a whole site full of life/death masks, although I don't recognize many of the subjects. The pages are arranged alphabetically. But this, this is the real pay dirt of life masks and death masks. I feel grateful to those who made these masks, especially the ones that were pre-photography. Even subjects who'd had their portraits painted are sometimes elusive in terms of how they really looked. But check out this sculpture of England's Henry VII, who died in 1509. Even though it was made from a death mask, it's as though the living man is in the room with us.  |
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Post by onlymark on Oct 5, 2011 18:16:42 GMT
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Oct 5, 2011 18:35:26 GMT
Oooh yes...some of those are absolutely stunning.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 6, 2011 15:45:49 GMT
They are such beautiful portraits. I did get hung up on trying to decide if some were painted during their lifetimes. The link text says no, but their reasoning is not convincing. Whatever, they're phenomenal as paintings in their own right.
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whilst still being interesting. I still don't believe that the Will Shakespeare one is authentic...even tho the scientific press here was quite excited by it a few years ago. 