(Based off of a radio piece by Radiolab)
Back in the late 1800s, it was a common custom for people people in upper-class European society to create death masks out of the faces of their loved ones to save their image.
However, there is one well-known face that does not have any high-class associations. That is the face you see above.
Where did this mysterious woman come from, and how did she become so famous? L'inconnue de la Seine literally translates to The Unknown of the Seine. The theory is a common French story. A woman comes from the country side to Paris, meets a beaux, has a passionate love affair, and is later left in despair after she becomes pregnant. Most likely, the inconnue threw herself into a river.
Another common aspect of the funeral process in those days was to display each corpse found in a glass case, in order for family members to identify them. The inconnue was never identified, but everyone was so taken back by her beauty, the mortician decided to create a plastic mold of her face.
Eventually this mask because distributed throughout mask maker's workshops and households. The face became so esteemed that it attracted the attention of writers such as Rilke and Muschler. Everyone wanted to know what made this beautiful woman take her own life, and this mystery perpetuates her mysticism.
Here's where the story gets even weirder.
The Norweigan toy maker Åsmund Laerdal found this face and decided to use it in his newest invention: the first CPR mannequin in history.
The mannequin is known as Resusci Anne. The image of the Inconnue is slightly distorted in Resusci Anne because CPR requires an open mouth, but the resemblance is still clear. Three hundred million people have been trained in CPR using this same face since 1960.
It's almost ironic that the face of the Inconnue was chosen as the visage of the CPR mannequin. Decades ago, people tried to bring this woman back to life through their writings and appreciation, and now, we try to breathe her back to life with cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Still, all of our interest and all of our actions are ultimately futile, for death is a binding sentence.
This entire blog post is beautiful and haunting and thought-provoking. I had not heard of L'inconnue de la Seine before now, and yet this is the type of story that will always draw me in.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but wonder how she was treated for her looks in her life. Was she seen as beautiful in life as well? Or treated poorly? Had she been gangly thin and malnourished, but floating in the Seine bloating her up and giving her skin a radiance unseen?
Was the beauty people saw in her really just her death? I can't help but think of teen suicides and how entire schools will show up at the services and make these speeches of how wonderful the kid was when, really, they had never spoken to or even acknowledged the teen's existence.
When someone doesn't have emotions, we project. It's human nature. This woman doesn't have a story. So we can't help but write one.