Beethoven Life Mask - Item #258

  10.5 Inches High x 7 Inches Wide x 5.5 Inches Deep In 1812, Austrian sculptor Franz Klein (1779-1840) made a life mask of Ludwig van Beethoven, the famed German composer who lived from 1770 to 1827. Beethoven was 42 years old when he had the plaster cast taken of his face. The sculptor created the mask in preparation for a bust commissioned by Beethoven’s friends - the piano manufacturers Andreas and Nannette Streicher - for their concert hall. Masks of famous figures, especially composers, were popular wall decorations in middle-class homes in the 19th century. This trend arose from the interest in the physiognomies of famous artists. Possessing and displaying a mask as homage or as a memorial to the person depicted signaled the owner’s social class and their high regard for culture. Beethoven’s mask served this same function in Germany and Austria, where consumers purchased the mass-produced plaster casts and placed them in their homes, especially in their music rooms. This life ma