Death mask of Napoleon
During the time of Napoleon Bonaparte, it was customary to cast a death mask of a great leader who had recently died. A mixture of wax or plaster was placed over Napoleon's face and removed after the form had hardened. From this impression, subsequent copies were cast. Much mystery and controversy surrounds the origins and whereabouts of the most original cast moulds. There are only four genuine bronze death masks known to exist. History Napoleon's original death mask was created on 7 May 1821, a day and a half after the former emperor died on the island of St. Helena at age 51. Surrounding his deathbed were doctors from France and the United Kingdom. Some historical accounts contend that François Carlo Antommarchi (one of several doctors who encircled Napoleon's deathbed) cast the original "parent mould", which would later be used to reproduce bronze and additional plaster copies. Other records, however, indicate that Francis Burton, a surgeon attached to the British Army's Sixty-Sixth Regiment at St. Helena, presided at the emperor's autopsy and during that postmortem procedure cast the original mould. Antommarchi obtained from his British colleagues a secondary plaster mould from Burton's original cast. With that second-generation mould, Antommarchi in