Death mask of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1821

Napoleon's Death Mask, taken a day and a half after he died on the island of Saint Helena at the age of 51. His eyes are closed, lips slightly apart, and his shaved head is tilted back, resting on pillows decorated with a tassel at each corner. Napoleon's original death mask was made on May 7, 1821. Around his deathbed were doctors from France and Britain.

In the time of Napoleon Bonaparte, it was customary to mask the death of a great leader who had recently died. A mixture of wax or plaster was carefully placed on Napoleon's face and removed after the form had hardened.

From this imprint, subsequent copies will be inserted. Contrary to some accounts of Napoleon's death, it was not Dr. Antomarchi who created the original mask or the so-called "parent mould"; It was Francis Burton, surgeon of Britain's Sixty-sixth Regiment at St. Helena.

Napoleon was a charismatic and stylish leader of his time. Her face is quite beautiful and pretty symmetrical. Painters such as Jacques-Louis David said he was "influenced by the classical features of Bonaparte", but he rarely sat for portraits, which is why many of Napoleon's most famous images were not an accurate study of his scene.

Most portrait artists were to base their work on extrapolations of other paintings or busts, not the man himself. However, as long as the commissioned art had the right message, he didn't care.

Napoleon died of stomach cancer, so he may have lost weight, but beyond that, the way this death mask looks is more representative of what a painting depicts him as. The artist was known at the time to positively embellish how powerful and wealthy people appear in the paintings.

Interesting fact: Napoleon was not as young as he was told in the history books. Historians suggest that he was 5'6″ to 5'7″ (1.68 m) while the average height of a French man at the time was 5'6″.