# Death masks of composers



## Felix Mendelssohn (Jan 18, 2019)

Beethoven: http://i.imgur.com/IbD0z.jpg

Mozart: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4a/a6/93/4aa693ce05ee08a3f76e3ffcf4ffea69.jpg

Haydn: http://www.interlude.hk/front/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Haydn-death-Mask-225x300.jpg

Liszt: http://www.interlude.hk/front/wp-co...iszt-death-mask-from-the-original-210x300.jpg

Mendelssohn: https://i.pinimg.com/236x/46/0e/05/460e05e396f0b8548d99e901d0b74f77.jpg

Chopin: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...n_death_mask_(collection_of_Jack_Gibbons).jpg

Wagner: http://conductorscorner.com/!Extras...th-mask_of_wagner_files/Wagner death mask.jpg

Debussy: http://www.marilynztomlins.com/wp-content/uploads/SaintGermenLaye-Debussy-FRi-4-aug-2017-3.jpg

Mahler: https://imgc.allpostersimages.com/i...911-plaster-b-w-photo_a-G-9035691-4985950.jpg

Schoenberg: https://www.gustav-mahler.eu/images/Contemporaries/Schoenbergdeathmastbyannamahler600.JPG


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

And don't forget the deathbed portrait of Mussorgsky, which has the capacity to frighten small children.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Max Reger


----------



## paulbest (Apr 18, 2019)

at 1st, pre viewing, I had my doubts,,,but seems , its true a picture tells a thousand words,,or something like that the line goes..
UNREAL..Intuitively, I am pretty good at reading a pic. 
Beethoven,,,unreal, , that face, his music.
Mozart, now there is something,,,how accurate is Mozart,,,I have my doubts on that pic.

The rest seem very accurate. 
But Mozart,,,not sure if I'm buying.


----------



## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Schoenberg looks gaunt. His last years in America may not have treated him too well. Apparently, he spent the whole day of his death terrified that something awful would happen (it was a Friday the 13th, and he was a major triskaidekaphobe). 

These are fascinating, good call! I agree with Paul's words about Beethoven.


----------



## paulbest (Apr 18, 2019)

yeah , but exactly what am I saying about Beethoven;'s last image on earth,,,, ,,,what is IT that you see in Beethoven's image? 
Remember he suffered from a few hangups in life, which dogged him, more than he would have liked.

If Mozart's image is really in that mask,,which I still have some reservations to believe its authentic,,,Mozart just does not seem to be that image...Just can't accept that image. based upon caricatures I've seen past


----------



## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

^I find the Mozart believable. Look at the two side by side. They're not too different, are they? Eh, I've never been good with faces, I don't know.

Re: Beethoven, he looks like a dead guy who suffered over more than a few hangups in life. One can see where his great music came from (hint: a totally different source from where Mozart's great music came from). Some people are motivated by fierce inner struggle toward extreme creativity. I have a couple of very talented friends who are living proof. To play off of another recent (and controversial) thread, it's a different source of creativity than so-called "natural talent".


----------



## paulbest (Apr 18, 2019)

No, the Mozart mask ain't Mozart,,its a fake, 
Not why all mask would be authentic, except Mozart,,,now I understand the painting is Mozart in his mid/late teens. ..
Unless he had plastic surgery , there are no resemblances twix the 2. 
Yet once again, The elusive mystery of Mozart The Magician.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Clearly Mozart, on his deathbed, was just not himself.


----------



## paulbest (Apr 18, 2019)

yeah but my Q is why are all the other masks nearly accurate whereas Mozart is not?
The answer is quite simple,,its a forgery ,,,a lousey one at that..had it been closer in resemblance , I may have gone for it,,,,Mozart had no mask at time of death.


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

flamencosketches said:


> ^I find the Mozart believable. Look at the two side by side. They're not too different, are they? Eh, I've never been good with faces, I don't know.


Except that portrait isn't 100% authentic. After Mozart's death, Constanze said that the portrait that resembled him the most closely was the unfinished one by his brother-in-law, Joseph Lange.

_"His 7-year-old son, Karl, noted that a few days before Mozart died his entire body became so swollen that the smallest movement was almost impossible. He also noted that there was an awful stench, which after death made an autopsy impossible."_

If this is true, casting of death mask also would have been impossible because of the awful stench. Even if they managed it, the death mask would show the swelling on his face.


----------



## paulbest (Apr 18, 2019)

Thanks for the solid proof its a forgery...all the others seem authentic,,based on paintings we have of the listed composers. 
But the Mozart, at first sight, was clearly a fraud.


----------



## Guest (Jun 13, 2019)

Am I the only one who loves Mahler's death mask? 
Maybe it's the lighting.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

HSW said:


> Am I the only one who loves Mahler's death mask?
> Maybe it's the lighting.


I love it too. It seems alive. So does Wagner's. They both seem to be thinking, and we're waiting for them to open their eyes and speak.


----------



## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

I find a fascinating and creepy delight in looking at death masks that generally look so authentic if they are well done. I do not find the Mozart a lousy forgery. It may not be real but looks very similar to one of his portraits whether it’s considered the most accurate portrait or not. The most disappointing masks are Liszt and Debussy, scarcely recognizable as them, and they look crude and poorly done. Though probably accurate, I find Mendelssohn‘s disappointing with his benign smiling face. The two most stunning are Chopin and Mahler. When Chopin’s properly lighted, he looks positively alive. Mahler’s seems to show the pain and agonies of a lifetime etched into his face. Beethoven’s death mask also looks strikingly authentic with his strong and determined chin. Yes, there’s a creepy delight in looking at such masks that can remind one that these were actual real people… real flesh and blood people who walked the earth and were not mythological creatures from out of a textbook only as historical figures.


----------



## Felix Mendelssohn (Jan 18, 2019)

Larkenfield said:


> When Chopin's properly lighted, he looks like he's positively alive


I could totally imagine how he looked like

Another angle


----------



## Felix Mendelssohn (Jan 18, 2019)

Some more Mahler, if you guys love it so much.

Side view

Top view

I love this

Look of defiance


----------



## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Felix Mendelssohn said:


> Some more Mahler, if you guys love it so much.
> 
> Side view
> 
> ...


Powerful images, what a shame his wife was by many accounts such a lousy person.


----------



## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

HSW said:


> Am I the only one who loves Mahler's death mask?
> Maybe it's the lighting.


No, you are not, obviously!


----------



## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Totenfeier said:


> No, you are not, obviously!


Awesome avatar. I'd been wondering who that was :lol:


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

One of the saddest is that of Anton Bruckner - so frail, no teeth, looking totally shagged out and aged about 90. People seemed to age much sooner back then, even though Bruckner lived to what was a good age for the time.


----------



## Felix Mendelssohn (Jan 18, 2019)

mikeh375 said:


> Powerful images, what a shame his wife was by many accounts such a lousy person.


Not to say she wasn't, but how does this relate to his death mask?


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Alban Berg. Out of morbid curiosity I would love to know what kind of insect it was which bit/stung him.


----------



## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

elgars ghost said:


> Alban Berg. Out of morbid curiosity I would love to know what kind of insect it was which bit/stung him.


I did not know that's how he died! What are the odds. Probably completely caught him and his loved ones by surprise.


----------



## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Felix Mendelssohn said:


> Not to say she wasn't, but how does this relate to his death mask?


A theory I read somewhere that she might have been part responsible for his demise because of her affair with Gropius. If I'm not mistaken, he was also overheard in his local saying "that woman'll be the death of me, who's round is it?".... Here's the background....

https://hyperallergic.com/491972/the-untold-story-of-alma-mahler-and-her-relationship-to-the-bauhaus/


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Well, the insect itself didn't kill him - the story goes that the bite or sting left a swelling on AB's back which wouldn't heal properly. His wife allegedly pierced it for him but it led to blood poisoning to which he rapidly succumbed. By then the Bergs weren't well off so they probably couldn't afford to get the right surgery done, plus penicillin wasn't marketed until some years later.


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

flamencosketches said:


> I did not know that's how he died! What are the odds. Probably completely caught him and his loved ones by surprise.


Rupert Brooke, the British poet, died the same way -- sepsis from an infected mosquito bite. In the days before antibiotics, you _really _didn't want to get any kind of infection.


----------



## Guest (Jun 14, 2019)

paulbest said:


> at 1st, pre viewing, I had my doubts,,,but seems , its true a picture tells a thousand words,,or something like that the line goes..
> UNREAL..Intuitively, I am pretty good at reading a pic.
> Beethoven,,,unreal, , that face, his music.
> Mozart, now there is something,,,how accurate is Mozart,,,I have my doubts on that pic.
> ...


I agree; it's a fake. The rest show how much disease had ravaged their bodies; entirely depressing. It isn't death; it's the JOURNEY!! That's the frightening bit.


----------



## Guest (Jun 14, 2019)

flamencosketches said:


> ^I find the Mozart believable. Look at the two side by side. They're not too different, are they? Eh, I've never been good with faces, I don't know.
> 
> Re: Beethoven, he looks like a dead guy who suffered over more than a few hangups in life. One can see where his great music came from (hint: a totally different source from where Mozart's great music came from). Some people are motivated by fierce inner struggle toward extreme creativity. I have a couple of very talented friends who are living proof. To play off of another recent (and controversial) thread, it's a different source of creativity than so-called "natural talent".


Yes, much more than 'a few hangups'. The man was a hopeless alcoholic, for starters.


----------



## Guest (Jun 14, 2019)

A morbid topic, to say the least of it.


----------



## Guest (Jun 14, 2019)

elgars ghost said:


> One of the saddest is that of Anton Bruckner - so frail, no teeth, looking totally shagged out and aged about 90. People seemed to age much sooner back then, even though Bruckner lived to what was a good age for the time.


90 is a good innings for ANY time!! But always remember; it's quality, not quantity.


----------



## Guest (Jun 14, 2019)

elgars ghost said:


> Well, the insect itself didn't kill him - the story goes that the bite or sting left a swelling on AB's back which wouldn't heal properly. His wife allegedly pierced it for him but it led to blood poisoning to which he rapidly succumbed. By then the Bergs weren't well off so they probably couldn't afford to get the right surgery done, plus penicillin wasn't marketed until some years later.


Which all suggests that Berg probably had an underlying condition to begin with. In these case it's rare for there to be one single factor in a death.

This is the comparatively modern equivalent of the death mask:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-36389581


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Christabel said:


> Yes, much more than 'a few hangups'. The man was a hopeless alcoholic, for starters.


Beethoven was a serous drinker, it seems. But a hopeless alcoholic? I don't think so. Such a person would never have been able to compose his last works. And there is no evidence from friends and associates to support this.


----------



## Guest (Jun 14, 2019)

KenOC said:


> Beethoven was a serous drinker, it seems. But a hopeless alcoholic? I don't think so. Such a person would never have been able to compose his last works. And there is no evidence from friends and associates to support this.


Alcoholics can continue to function for quite a while before becoming overwhelmed. There is evidence of this in the state Beethoven kept himself in and the condition of his living quarters. These surroundings were all signs of depression and alcoholism.


----------



## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Chopin's stunning death mask from another angle:









I find it amazingly lifelike and well done.


----------



## Guest (Jun 14, 2019)

Larkenfield said:


> Chopin's stunning death mask from another angle:
> 
> View attachment 120101


 Did he have swelling in the jaw or something of the sort?

I love this one, by the way. He looks really human here.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Christabel said:


> 90 is a good innings for ANY time!! But always remember; it's quality, not quantity.


Sorry if I didn't make it clear - what I meant is that in death Bruckner LOOKED about 90 - he was in fact 72.


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

KenOC said:


> Beethoven was a serous drinker, it seems. But a hopeless alcoholic? I don't think so. Such a person would never have been able to compose his last works. And there is no evidence from friends and associates to support this.





Christabel said:


> Alcoholics can continue to function for quite a while before becoming overwhelmed. There is evidence of this in the state Beethoven kept himself in and the condition of his living quarters. These surroundings were all signs of depression and alcoholism.


Evidence points to Beethoven being addicted to alcohol. That's the most neutral way I can put it, and the term alcoholic didn't come into use until later.

Just google "Beethoven autopsy" and you'll find relevant information including from credible sources. I'm not joking but the mans liver had shrunken to the size of a walnut.

I think a person can function, even to a fairly high level, and be an addict of some sort. Augusten Burroughs described his struggle with alcohol while being a high level executive in his memoir Dry. It's shocking, and the squalor in which he lived outdid those depictions of Beethoven's messy apartment. He was able to hide it up to a point when a colleague noticed the signs and he had to go to rehab.


----------



## Guest (Jun 15, 2019)

You've really nailed this, Sid.


----------

