The "Wax Head"
The most celebrated work of art in the collections is the Wax Head (Tête de Cire), which has so often been reproduced in engravings, photographs and casts. This funeral souvenir, which stands in a golden niche in the middle of a room draped with red plush, was made to perpetuate the memory of a young girl 15 to 18 years of age. The pedestal and draperies are of terra-cotta, and date from the 18th century.
THE WAX HEAD
(Cliché LL.)
Of Italian origin, the head is attributed by some to Raphael, by others to Leonard de Vinci. The possibility of its being antique is no longer admitted. According to Gonse, it came from the Tuscan studio of Orsino Benitendi, and dates from about 1480. The wax was tinted at a later date.
Leaning to one side, the face is pensive in expression. The neck is flexible and sits with easy grace on the shoulders. The cheeks are rather broad and somewhat flat, the chin round and short. A faint smile hovers round the delicate mouth. The eyes are considered by some to be rather small. The waving hair is divided into two graceful masses, which are rolled up on the back of the neck.
The expression of the face is enigmatical and changes with the angle from which it is regarded. Psychologists and artists alike will long discuss its charms.
When the two German experts Herr Demmler and Herr Professor Klemen "requisitioned" the collections of the Museum (p. [39]), what they took away was a copy of this head, the original having been hidden in one of the underground vaults. It narrowly escaped destruction in October, 1918, when the Germans, previous to evacuating the town, cut the water-mains, so that the sub-basement of the Museum was flooded. Fortunately, the water did not rise high enough to do serious damage, and the head was eventually restored intact to its velvet pedestal.
Near the Museum, at the corner of the Rue Jeanne Maillotte and the Rue Denis Godefroy which opens on the Boulevard de la Liberté, in line with the Museum, is the house where M. Eugène Jacquet lived (his apartment was on the 1st floor, see photograph below and page [16]).