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unusual facts about death mask



Antoinette Gabrielle Danton

Back in Paris on 17 February 1793, Danton was so affected by her death that he recruited sculptor Claude André Deseine and brought him by night to Sainte-Catherine cemetery to excavate Charpentier's body and execute a death mask.

Claude André Deseine

In the night of 17 February 1793, Deseine was recruited by Danton and brought to Sainte-Catherine cemetery to excavate the body of Antoinette Gabrielle Danton, his recently deceased wife, and execute a death mask of a commemorative bust.

Plaster cast

The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – particularly in palaeontology (a track of dinosaur footprints made in this way can be seen outside the Oxford University Museum of Natural History).


see also

Checkpoint Charlie Museum

Our exhibits include: The Charta 77 typewriter, the hectograph of the illegal periodical “Umweltblätter” (“Environmental Pages”), Mahatma Gandhi’s diary and sandals and from Elena Bonner the death mask of her partner Andrei Sakharov.

L'Inconnue de la Seine

Claire Goll's 1936 short story "Die Unbekannte aus der Seine", in which the protagonist peers into a death mask and dies from a heart attack caused by delusion and guilt as he believes he recognizes the face as his daughter's

Nellie Walker

In 1902, reclusive Colorado Springs millionaire W. S. Stratton died and someone there realized that Walker was in town and asked her to make a death mask, which she did.