26 Death Masks of Famous Historical Figures (27 photos)

Death masks were made from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. They weren't just a photo taken to commemorate a person, but a cast that accurately conveyed the deceased's appearance for posterity. Thanks to these casts from the past, we now know what many famous historical figures looked like. This collection features death masks of some of those who made history.







Isaac Newton (1643-1727)

The method for creating a death mask remained unchanged for many years. The face of the deceased was smeared or protected with gauze, and then clay or wax was applied to make a mold.





Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer (1860-1911)

After the material dried, the resulting mask was removed. Such casts were made from the faces of deceased members of the royal family and nobility, as well as prominent figures such as composers, playwrights, military and political figures, philosophers, poets, and scientists.



Horatio Nelson, English naval commander, vice admiral (1758-1805)

As in Ancient Rome, death masks were often used to create sculptures, busts, or portraits of the deceased.



A mask believed to belong to William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

In other cultures, death masks were "funerary" masks—they were buried with the deceased.



William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

The most famous of these are masks from Ancient Egypt, which were part of the mummification process (Tutankhamun's mask), and masks from Mycenaean Greece (Agamemnon's mask).



Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

Death masks fell out of favor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.



Martin Luther (1483-1546)

After the death of Queen Victoria of Great Britain, her grandson, Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany, attempted to make a death mask for her, but members of the royal family stopped him—they knew how much the queen disliked them.



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

With the advent of photography, death masks virtually disappeared.



Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)



John Keats, a 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-German 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) — composer, second wife of the German composer Richard Wagner.



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



Gustav Klimt, Austrian artist (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)