I thought Robespierre had damged his jaw in a failed attempt of Suicide

Yes it's true
Robespierre will have been releases until the end

Actually Pim the tableaux that I saw as a child showed Madame Tussaud seated - with a head placed in her lap as she worked on it.

I was so shocked - and this scene wasn`t even to be found in the famous Chamber of Horrors. (I was way to frightened to venture in there !!!!!!)

I felt sick for weeks afterwards. This was more than forty years ago but I have never forgotten it.

Madame Tussaud went on to lead quite an adventurous life as far as I recall. The company that bears her name is now a hugely successful one owning lots of major attractions here in the UK.

Viv

For the record, the one with Antoinette's head on a pike is a death mask (like a cast), so it depicts nearly exactly how she looked at the time. (How her head looked, anyway.)

Is that true, Byron ? Madame Tussaud says that she made this mask in situ. But can we believe her ? Some scholars say that it is a mystification.

What I find strange is the architecture of this face, that seems larger than Antoinette's on her portraits. Could the structure of her face change this way ?

Me too, I have questioning the look. The face with "puffiness" so much, and Antoinette had lost weight rapidly,was ill already etc,bad nutrition, so where are the wrinkles? With sicknesses it is normal to have fluids under the facial skin, but still, to me it is looking "too smooth". The colour of the hair is correctly grey and not the already famous reddish blond like in Claudia's site's picture of this death mask.

On Axel's site, their is a series of pics were this mask has dark hair, quite auburn...
http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/Images ... rowse/82a7

Why is her hair put anything but grey, because it was so reported to be grey or almost white?

According to Rosalie Lamorlière, who saw Marie Antoinette's hair in her cell, it was blond (not red, she says ! ), with just some grey locks on her temples.

Yes, I believe there are multiple independent accounts of this. Madame Tussaud was on the verge of being executed herself -- her hair had already been cut -- when someone decided it'd be better to have her make the masks.

Here's a link to her grandson's account. There are some pictures a few pages down.

http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC00542544&id=hmL-veKrIeYC&pg=RA6-PA87&vq=chapter+vii&dq=tussaud+death+mask

Incidentally, for a better Google Books reading experience, maximize the window, click the "Full Screen" link, hit F11, and click the + button a few times.

Uff... I have just seen these all photos...I think that if there is a heaven and Marie Antoinette looks on the masks, she looks then in the mirror and wonders who is on the masks... Looking only at the masks I would rather think that the queen wasn't beautiful...

When we compare the most favourite painting of Madame Royale to the Tossaud mask there is a difference. Mask can give features quite precisely, but it is important when this mask was done. How long after death, each day more = more changed features, besides I am afraid that just after death feature are not natural. The question is what was the most reliable - paintings or Tossaud mask?

Mme Tussaud always kept telling that she made this mask immediateley after Marie Antoinette's death. The gards left the body on the ground and went for lunch or something. Mme Tussaud did not wait a second and began her job !

That's what she said... Is it true ? Is it a mystification?

However, Torin, you don't like this mask ? I find her beautiful...

I must say Pim I always have doubt if I watch wax masks of other famous persons. Sometimes they are just awful.

But refering to Marie Antoinette, the only one mask which deserve my more attention is the mask after death on the pale. It looks for me more reliable. The rest is rather ...delicately saying...strange. But it is my subjective opinion...anyway I wouldn't want Marie Antoinette look like the mask in California...No...I don't like it. These masks differ one from another, the only thing which is common for them is...the nose of the queen more or less.

Oh, and one thing Pim, you ask if it was just a mistification.
Well...it is difficult to say...There is no reason not to believe her. On the other hand there are always questions - how long did making of the mask last ? Wasn't dangerous to take it for the Mme Tussaud? Was it possible that guards just left the head without any secure ? I just don't know. Maybe after the death of the queen nobody cared about the head as it was trash for them...

But Pim, what arguments have the opponents of Mme Tussaud?

First of all, we even don't know how much time Marie Antoinette's body remained on the grass before they finally bury it. Some sources say that they let her for days and days !

Following others, such a negligence would be impossible, before the revolutionaries did not want people to collect relicts.

So... what ?

You are prefectly right, all these masks are different !