The lost art of the death mask

On 7 May 1821, two doctors were engrossed in a frantic search. There was a decomposing body at stake – and if they didn't find some plaster soon, its features would be lost forever.

Mere hours earlier, the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had succumbed to a brief illness, after six years in exile. Those in attendance were keen to create a death mask, an impression of the face usually taken soon after the person has died. But there were two small glitches to the plan.

Firstly, the hunt was unfolding on the tropical island of Saint Helena, a barren speck in the South Atlantic, 807 miles (1,299km) from any other land. There were no shops on this "miserable and dreary rock", as Napoleon described it, that could supply highly specialist products such as plaster. Secondly, neither of the doctors present had ever made a death mask before.

The history of death masks stretches back millennia, deep into antiquity. Most of them were not exact replicas taken from moulds, but artworks created for elite members of society – protective armour that could help the deceased to navigate the afterlife or ward off evil spirits.

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