Dante’s death mask

palazzo vecchioDante’s death mask is located as the novel states in the Palazzo Vecchio in a small andito, corrider, on the second floor, between the Apartments of Eleanor and the Halls of Priors.  Previously, this death mask was considered to be the actual death mask, carved directly from the face of Dante.  Dan Brown and his publishers utilizes this death mask in both the United Kingdom and the Greek version of the book cover. uk_inferno_cover

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, recent studies suggest that the mask was probably carved in 1483 by Pietro and Tullio Lombardo 162 years after Dante’s death. A reason why people did not believe that the mask was the true mask was because of the nose of the mask. A hooked nose is a sign of intelligence and mischief, and throughout the year Dante’s nose has become more and more hooked in representations such as Botticelli’s portrait of Dante.  In 2007, scientists made a reconstruction of the face of Dante. In 1921, Professor Fabio Frasseto took measurements of Dante’s skull and secretly, without the knowledge of the caretakers of the remains, a plaster model. Rather than the aquiline nose ]that he was famous for, Dante had a pudgy nose.070111_dante_hmed_10a.grid-6x2

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