death masks
Faces preserved forever
Death masks are casts made of a person's face shortly after death, typically in plaster or wax.
Historically used to preserve the features of notable figures—monarchs, composers, criminals—before photography existed.
The practice produced haunting likenesses: Napoleon's death mask, Beethoven's death mask.
Now largely obsolete except as historical artifacts or artistic references.
- likenessVisual similarity or representation
- memento moriArtistic death reminder
- cremationBurning the deceased
- funeral ritesCustoms for honoring deceased
- burial customsPractices for interring dead
famous faces · mould · cast · plaster · wax figure · Dante · Tutankhamun · sculpture · Agamemnon · physiognomy · effigies · replica · portraits · necropolis · impressions · mortality · last breath · tomb
- mummificationembalming, linen bandages, wrapping, evisceration, canopic jars
- ancient portraitsmarble busts, Roman busts, bronze busts, royal portraits, encaustic
- Ancient Egyptpharaoh, pharaohs, sphinx, pyramids, hieroglyphics
- artifactspottery shards, knives, pottery, antiquity, inscriptions
- Egyptian Antiquitiesmummies, sarcophagi, sarcophagus, canopic jars, scarabs
- funeral customsburial, funeral, cremation, funeral procession, casket