An 1830 Death Mask The death mask and clay work-up
A 3/4 view of the death mask of 1830 as compared to the heroic sized piece done to represent the subject at 45 years of age. The subject, a founder of a priestly order, was made for a priest who was to have this head cast in bronze and placed upon a body in bronze. Capable of doing the robed body but unable to do the head he asked for my expert help in using the death mask to do an age approximate piece for the headless body. As an aside: after laboring over the details of this head the priest returned and asked me to make the piece a smiling one. Educated guesses are important since at 45 years of age in those times could mean that he was toothless. Nevertheless I gave him a full set of beautiful teeth. Needless to say, this was a labor of love as I was never offered any compensation. The death mask subject was in his late sixties at the time of death.
I used a 4x4 piece of spruce, heavily varnished, for the armature.It was set on a 12x12 piece of redwood as a base. The varnished wood kept the oils from the plastilene clay from soaking the armature. Iused calipers to transfer the basic dimensions to the ball of clay that I had started on the armature. I used Roma grey plastilene, medium consistency.

The musculature of the face was fairly prominent. Taking into consideration the aging process and assumed illness that would rob the face of moisture, I built the bony structure and upon this base laid the muscles of the face in 3/8 inch strips of clay 4" long.The prominent square jaw and heavy brow were carried over into the new head details.

The picture of the subject above shows a skull cap being worn. This was removed later at the clients request and a receding hairline shown with heavier growth indicated at the temples. This bust took 40# of clay as it was done in "heroic" proportions, hence the heavy armature.

A sketch of the armature for the above follows.
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