LIVING MASKS

Evening Star, Issue 20846, 16 July 1931, Page 15

LIVING MASKS

THE HEW ART IN GERMANY Death-masks have long been with us, but they remind us just a bit too much of mortality, says the ‘ Literary Digest.’ They are put away in museums, and studied only by the experts ju phrenology. A new art_ has arisen in Germany, and its practitioner, Paul Hamann, the sculptor, has lately visited England and made living masks of some of her contemporary celebrities. If one feels the urge to look like an emperor, Paul Hamann seems to bo tho man to go to, for a London newspaper, speaking of his recent exhibition there, says: “ Ho makes emperors of us all.” The artist himself, writing in ‘Die Wocho ’ (Berlin) confirms the observation;— “In making my living masks, it had often occurred to me that in I heir stylo they seemed to bo much more classical than those which I had actually modelled. Nevertheless, I was astonished when tho pen of an English art critic confirmed my own opinion. “ 1 think that I have found the explanation for this fact in that people of our times are prone to look at things, and also at themselves and their portraits, in a more impressionistic, illusionarily coloured and two-dimen-sional manner, rather than plastically, three-dimensioned.

“ This would mean that in a portrait made by a sculptor, colour would be translated in a flaky surface, a certain ronhness, and other minute details. On the other hand, in a living mask, only the purely plastic form of tho object rather than tho artistic, would result.

“ And this is why. in my living masks, the unusual attraction of Uh classical is evident. And since oui galleries are filled with statues of the emperors, great persons, and great artists of the classical period, wo are inclined to say that the living masks of persons of lesser importance look like Roman emperors, Greek gods. “ At that, my London portraits represent anything but the mediocre class of that country. Among them wore some of her greatest authors, statesmen, and lords and ladies. They were all content to submit to the rather pleasant process of having a mask made, fascinated by the technical possibility of having a plastic document of their own heads, naturally life-like, and devoid of all forced expression. “ The process itself is somewhat like a plastic photograph, and differs from the usual plaster cast m that a gela-tuio-likc material is used which has a balsamic effect on the skin, and docs not remove a single hair. The material is applied to the skin at blood temperature, in the same manner that a sensitised photographic plate is exposed to its object It is carefully applied, layer upon layer, and hardens after a few minutes to a consistency similar to soft rubber, and then i? easily removed, resulting m a negative which shows the finest line? and pores of tho object from which it was made Thereupon, a positive is made, in bronze, stone, stucco, plaster, or any other media desired. “My many sitters, well over 100, have all had the patience to endure the necessary three-quarters of an hour Particularly patjent and interested were my English models. The painter of the Royal family. Sir John Lavory, sat as quietly as if he had been made of stone, and his first eager question was. ‘When can 1 see it?’ One can readily understand that these living masks are of much greater imporance than the hurriedly-taken photograph. to say nothing af their f/crmnnent value."

‘‘Lord Wellesley, the grandchild of Wellington, told me that he much preferred to have a mask made during his lifetime, and that tiio death mask ol ins illustrious grandfather always had a curious effect upon him. It seemed a pity, ho said, to have a mask which only retained the moment of death.”