Death mask

A death mask is a cast of a person's face that is made after they have died.

People made death masks to remember people or create portraits of them after their death. Sometimes, they have been used as relics of important people. In the 17^thcentury, death masks were used to preserve the memory of the deceased. They were often displayed at funerals.

In the 19^th and 20^th centuries, death masks were also used to recreate the faces of dead people who needed to be identified. This was later replaced by photography. Ethnographers also used death masks and casts of living people for scientific and pseudoscientific purposes.