The incredible story of Resusci Anne’s seraphic smile that inspired artists and changed the world of simulation
It’s useless. When we talk about simulation, especially manikins, our memory immediately recalls a face. That of Resusci Anne. Some will certainly already know it, others will learn about it. In any case, I think it’s a story that should be told, since it has inspired artists, designers and even writers. And it also boasts a record: it is the most kissed face in the world!
It is the face of an unknown woman (l’Inconnue) or of whom we only know what happened to her after her death. At the end of the 19th century, the body of a beautiful young woman, who appeared to be 16 years old, was found on the Seine in Paris. As there were no wounds on her body, it was decided that it was a case of suicide. The body was taken to the morgue and, as was customary at the time, left on display for a period of time so that a relative might recognize her. However, no one came to identify her. While preparing the body, the pathologist was struck by the sad beauty of the young woman and had a plaster death mask made of her face. Her half smile is what draws the most attention, as she seems happy in her death or, more surprisingly, seems to be only asleep. For this reason she was nicknamed the drowned Mona Lisa by the philosopher and writer Albert Camus, who had her hung on the wall of his study.
It is known that the fame of this Mona Lisa is due to a Norwegian toy maker, Asmund Laerdal. In 1955 he managed to save his son who risked dying from drowning, resuscitating him and freeing his airways from the swallowed water. When he was invited by the Austrian doctor Peter Safar to take part in a project to create a manikin with a torso and face for practicing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, a technique invented not long before, he wanted the face of the manikin to be as realistic as possible. It was then that he thought of a mask that was in his grandparents’ house, that of the drowned Mona Lisa, and decided to use it for his manikin, which was then given the name Resusci Anne. Anne has been part of our profession since 1960.
What not everyone knows is that the Inconnue served as inspiration for great artists of the time, such as the painter Pablo Picasso, the photographer and painter Man Ray, the poets Rainer Maria Rilke and Louis Aragon, and the writer Vladimir Nabokov. She also served as inspiration for some of François Truffaut’s films and works such as The Worshipper of the Image by Richard Le Gallienne, from 1900, which told the story of a mask with a dark and evil force, explicitly inspired by the Unknown Woman.
Two mysteries surround the face of the young woman found in the Seine.
There is much debate about the perfection of her features. According to the Parisian River Brigade, the young woman would not have been dead by the time the cast was made. The face would appear, in fact, too relaxed and healthy to be that of a drowned person, who instead would have been swollen as the process of decomposition occurs more rapidly in water. Some therefore suggest that the mask was retouched to obtain the perfect expression. Or that she was a professional model, very good at maintaining an expressionless face for a long time.
And of course the identity of the woman. John Goto, an artist from Oxford, constructed an apparently factual account of the detective work and a series of clues that led to the discovery of a carte de visite from the beginning of the century in a Buenos Aires junk shop. This and other evidence finally and indisputably proved the identity of the Inconnue: she was a Hungarian actress named Ewa Lazlo, killed by her lover, Louis Argon. Jeremy Grange, a BBC reporter, says that during a visit to the photographic studio of the famous Edward Chambre Hardman in Liverpool, he saw the mask of the Inconnue on the wall of the waiting room and learned from the guide the story of two identical twin sisters born in Liverpool over a century earlier. One of them had started a romantic relationship with a rich suitor and had fled to Paris, from where she never returned. Many years later, the other sister, who had gone to Paris on vacation, was shocked to see the mask of the Inconnue drowned hanging outside the modelers’ workshops. She immediately recognized the girl as her long-lost twin sister, condemned – or blessed – to remain forever young, while her sister grew old.
Since 1871, the Lorenzi workshop, located in the suburb of Arcueil, south of Paris, has continued to produce the mask of the drowned Mona Lisa. Laurent Lorenzi Forestier, who runs the workshop, claims to have in his hands the original mask of the Unknown Woman. And that this mask was made by one of his ancestors. Probably, it is the enigmas surrounding its origin that have made it so fascinating and popular. It is possible that once a name and a true story are assigned to the plaster mask with the Mona Lisa smile, the mystery will end, and so will its enigmatic charm. In any case, Anne’s face, her seraphic smile, has made the history of simulation. On the other hand, a face without characteristic features is like a book from which nothing can be quoted (Joseph Joubert).
PLI
