A few more thoughts on the so-called Max ‘death mask’
I’ve been looking at the photos of it from books and screen-capped from a TV appearance of it. While it’s probably a life-mask, the facial proportions aren’t quite right for the physionotrace or the Deseine bust, and the nose shape isn’t right for the physionotrace (which is accurate because of the tracing method used). There is, however, a superficial resemblance to the most commonly engraved 3/4 portrait (best known from the ‘stripy’ copy in the Carnavalet) which has also always struck me as slightly ‘off’ in proportions, especially when compared to Gérard’s original drawing. The face is shorter and wider than the bust or the physionotrace indicate, and the engraved versions emphasise this. We know enough of Deseine’s other work to see that he doesn’t flatter unduly (his Mirabeau and Gabrielle Danton, for example.)
Possible theory: Tussaud, or whoever made the mask, deliberately chose a model who had some resemblance to a commonly reproduced engraving - otherwise how would it convince the audience? It had to be ‘recognisable’.
