Death Masks
By: Salha Obeaid
Tags: Death, Masks, Dante, Beethoven, Art

Death Masks

How would it seem if we exploited Death?

In her Unwomanly Face of War, the Belarusian Svetlana Aleksievich, a Nobel laureate, recorded one of the Soviet nurses’ testimony on the last moments in the life of the Second World War’s injured soldiers, saying: “Some of them died in silence, making no noise at all; whereas others cried: “I do not want to die!”, verbally abusing your mother; while others suddenly started singing a Moldovan song. Man is actually in his agony, yet he does not want to believe or even think that he is dying. You see how dark yellow infiltrates from beneath the hair. Like a shadow, it moves first to the face, and then extends from under his clothes (to the rest of his body). He is dead now, with a strange surprise shown on his face, as if he was sleeping and thinking, “I am dead now?! Is it conceivable that I have died?!”

At that point, I stopped for a long time contemplating the permanent surprise which death is always able to grant to mankind. I wondered about the first time when the first man ever experienced the idea of mortality, firmly believing that he was always unable to expect his reaction to it, even when he was fully aware that he was on its brink. I also wondered if that man had thought of the possibility that his agony might have been easier if death had had a defined face- a tangible, material one, for example- through which he could touch it and blend with its components, so that his impression of surprise would be easier each time- this impression which death naturally leaves on living creatures. I felt as if that nurse was making a Mask of Words for the faces and features of those dead-to-be before their imminent agony and death; this mask was not, in some epochs of history, a mere description but rather a very common tradition flourished in the period between the fifteenth (15th) and the very end of the seventeenth (17th) centuries wherein death traditions in Europe and its surroundings including Russia and some parts in Asia include casting the features of the dead into a gypsum mould, as if people of that time were taking a photo for him to serve as a last memory and also to be used by others in conducting researches in some fields of science like anatomy. This tradition has yet declined in the post-medieval ages; however, it flourishes from time to time. For example, the last features of some authors, artists, and political figures like Napoleon Bonaparte, Heinrich Himmler, Samuel L. Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, and many others were engraved.

In his Death and Resurrection in Art, Enrico de Pascale dedicates an independent chapter to Death Masks throughout history, portraying them as one of the original kinds of arts and placing them meanwhile on equal footing with the artworks and sculptures made by the ancient man in his attempt to explain death, starting from old caves’ inscriptions and ending up with today’s attempts to do this with the help of some 3D arts. In this chapter entitled “Death Masks”, De Pascale stated that people specialized in making these masks originally practiced these traditions as part of their art plans including sculpture and drawing, and that some of the Death Masks retained in some museums and galleries around the world bear the name of the artist that made it along with the name of this famous dead figure. It is as though we are standing here before a piece of sculpture briefly telling us about a complete artwork. The French novelist Victor Hugo’s Death Mask retained in Musée d’Orsay is a case in point; in addition to the name of the Mask’s owner “i.e. Hugo”, it bears another name, that is, “Aimé-Jules Dalou” who was one of the most skillful sculptors of that time, as he is the sculpted many of the pieces of sculpture widely-known today in France, in particular, and Europe, in general, as art icons. In this Mask of Hugo, he appears as if he is trying to complete a particular story; he closes his eyes, reminding thereby the events of this story, yet it was the last blink that would not allow his imagination to carry stories so that they would be narrated in public.

How it seemed:

The young Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s golden mask with its characteristics showing no striking features represented the first material idea about the Death Mask, regardless of the fact that the potential motive behind the making of this mask is different. In that era, Pharaonic mythology offered a complete idea about death in the Book of the Dead which casts light on that life that would come in the aftermath of death; it is that kind of life starting at the hands of the god of death “Osiris” who was killed by his brother “Set” after which his wife “Isis” brought him back to life, and was thereby appointed as the Governor of the Afterlife. It is at that point that a totally complete and new life started- a life that believed that death is but a mere gate through which man passes to another life for which he should prepare himself in the best way. Under these traditions, Tutankhamun, after being mummified, was buried with a special golden mask that took his shape in the most flourishing phase of his life- the shape in which he would be resurrected before “Osiris”, according to the conviction.

Their last features want to say something:

I confessed that I deeply inhaled when I realized that I was watching the last features of one of them molded in a complete mask, showing the entire features of death in the 3D technique. It was totally different from the idea that you are watching a documented image or a personal portrait; the point is that you actually feel that you see him in his last moments, allowing his features to accompany your imagination to try to accurately explain his feeling of that moment as it appears before you.

Beethoven … Does Music brings about final peace?

In the House of Music (Haus der Musik) in the Austrian capital, Vienna, the statue of Beethoven was the first to face. The gypsum mask depicted Beethoven who has just left life in a way totally different from those pieces of sculpture portraying him as a gloomy person in a moment of anger, which is totally consistent with his indignation resulting from his deafness; anger that looks like his music that was never calm except in rare cases. Yet, he, in his Death Mask, finally appears with bright features, surrendering to what comes. I believe I can imagine that if his soul had been granted few seconds, it would have unveiled a final smile, so did music finally bring him about peace? … Or has he mentally reached the desired symphony through which he wanted to express all the rushes of his madness, petulance, anger, indignation, and happiness? In actuality, there is something in this simple mask that makes you stand for long trying to exist with Beethoven in this historical moment of his death.

Dante Alighieri … How many deaths does he have?

I examined two (2) different masks for Dante Alighieri’s, author of the Divine Comedy, last features. The first existed in the museum and house of the Italian Dante in Florence, Italy; it is made of dark gypsum and briefly narrates his last moments in life. Surprisingly, I found the second also in the “Palazzo Vecchio” in the same city; it is made of the white gypsum widely used in most of Death Masks. Even though the where of the first mask remained unknown until Dante’s museum was opened in 1994 C.E., the second mask was recognized worldwide, as it used to move from one artist to another until it reached its final destination in 1911 C.E. It is actually this second mask that is usually examined by students of art as the model showing the closest features of the Italian Dante in spite of the recently discovered fact that this mask did not portray Dante’s face upon his death, but rather was part of another piece of sculptor that tried to portray Dante’s last features. Anyway, Dante, in these two masks, appears in the same way always conveyed to us about him in these portraits that personified him: a man completely overwhelmed with silence. Here in these two masks, he blinks his eyes as if he is trying to endure his private agony. Even though his eyebrows are frown, he never lost his known dignity. Resembling his Divine Comedy in his last moments, Dante, in a way or another, managed to gather between the sharpness of his features and the clarity of what they express, pain and endurance in the same frown mentioned previously.

Having examined these two models, among many others awaiting around the world, I found out my own new fondness in attempting to discover, exactly as I do when reading a pure art book, what the last moments in people’s life might indicate, because these last moments may tell everything about the beginning, the post-beginning phase, and what the human imagination, which tried hard- and still is- to exploit death after the last departure of the owners of these retained features, might bring about … So, did any person from this long list mange to exploit the actual face of death?