This audiobook undertakes nothing less than a brief history of the mask from antiquity to the twentieth century. Mask were initially casts made from nature. They could be found in any artist’s studio, sometimes even whole piles of them. Masks often served as models for the execution of a portrait. Even death masks were collected: Napoleon, Géricault, Beethoven. Their very special expressiveness, the fragmented face, inspired numerous sculptors to produce hallucinatory representations.This guided audio tour tells of masks’ “alarming strangeness” and their fantastically designed forms based on about forty masterpieces from various cultures dating from between 1860 and 1930. Literary sources by writers such as Oscar Wilde or Claude Lévi-Strauss round off the picture. The accompanying book presents annotated works by, among others, Auguste Rodin, Paul Gauguin, and Arnold Böcklin in large-format color illustrations. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-2391-6)Exhibitions: Musée d’ Orsay, Paris, October 21, 2008–February 10, 2009 · Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt, March 8–June 7, 2009 · Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen, August 6–October 25, 2009In conjunction with this exhibition a  catalogue (978-3-7757-2387-9 ) is also available.