Wax death mask of Oliver CromwellEnglish, between AD 1658 and 1753The death mask of Oliver Cromwell

Wax death mask of Oliver CromwellEnglish, between AD 1658 and 1753The death mask of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) was taken after the embalmment of his body and it shows the cloth bound around his head to cover the cincture. The face has a beardlet and moustache, but Cromwell’s famous wart has either been pared off or has disappeared due to the action of the embalming fluid. Several casts of Cromwell’s death masks exist. Although the identification of this example has been questioned, it certainly entered the Museum as a representation of Cromwell. Cromwell was initially buried in Westminster Abbey but his body was exhumed after the Restoration and hung on Tyburn gallows and his head was displayed on a pole. Apparently, his head was later sold many times until it came into the possession of the Wilkinson family in the nineteenth century. It was finally buried in a Cambridge college in the 1960s. -- source link

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