Grimacing head No. 9 "Die Einfalt im höchsten Grade" (Alabaster, Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien)

Grimacing head No. 13 "Der Speyer" (verschollen)

Grimacing heads No. 28, 43, 36, 47, 18 and 5 (source: Schmid 2004)

Grimacing heads No. 24, 33, 44, 30, 39 and 46 (source: Schmid 2004)

Messerschmidt: Character Head

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736 - 1783) was a German sculptor most famous for his "character heads", a collection of busts of faces contorted in extreme facial expressions. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 378 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (563 × 892 pixel, file size: 80 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Pötzl-Malikova 1982 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 378 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (563 × 892 pixel, file size: 80 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Pötzl-Malikova 1982 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 310 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (462 × 892 pixel, file size: 60 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Wlha 1902 The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 310 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (462 × 892 pixel, file size: 60 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Wlha 1902 The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 656 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1323 × 1209 pixel, file size: 191 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)Theodor Schmid: 49 Köpfe - Die Grimassen-Serie des Franz Xaver Messerschmidt File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 656 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1323 × 1209 pixel, file size: 191 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)Theodor Schmid: 49 Köpfe - Die Grimassen-Serie des Franz Xaver Messerschmidt File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 712 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2157 × 1817 pixel, file size: 363 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)Theodor Schmid: 49 Köpfe - Die Grimassen-Serie des Franz Xaver Messerschmidt File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 712 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2157 × 1817 pixel, file size: 363 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)Theodor Schmid: 49 Köpfe - Die Grimassen-Serie des Franz Xaver Messerschmidt File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 337 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (608 × 1082 pixel, file size: 290 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Franz Xaver Messerschmidt: Charakterkopf (Alabasterbüste, evtl. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 337 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (608 × 1082 pixel, file size: 290 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Franz Xaver Messerschmidt: Charakterkopf (Alabasterbüste, evtl. ... Events January 26 - Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne. ... 1783 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... A sculpture is a three-dimensional object, which for the purposes of this article is man-made and selected for special recognition as art. ... Photographs from the 1862 book Mécanisme de la Physionomie Humaine by Guillaume Duchenne. ...

Born in southwestern Germany, in the region of the Swabian alps. Messerschmidt grew up in the Munich home of his uncle, the sculptor Johann Baptist Straub, who became his first master. He spent two years in Graz, in the workshop of his other maternal uncle, the sculptor Philipp Jakob Straub. At the end of 1755 he matriculated at the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts, and became a pupil of Jacob Schletterer. Graduated, he got work at the imperial arms collection. Here, in the building's salon in 1760-63 he made his first known works of art, the bronze busts of the imperial couple and reliefs representing the heir of the crown and his wife. With these works he joined the Late Baroque art of courtly representation, which was under the determining influence of Balthasar Ferdinand Moll. To this trend belong two other, larger than lifesize tin statues representing the imperial couple, commissioned by Maria Theresa of Austria and executed between 1764 and 1766. Besides some other portraits he also made works with a religious subject. A number of statues commissioned by the Princess of Savoy have survived as well. Munich (German: , pronounced  ; Austro-Bavarian: Minga[2]) is the capital of the German Federal State of Bavaria. ... View into the choir, showing altars and figures by Straub, Andechs Abbey Johann Baptist Straub (* 1 June 1704 (baptism) in Wiesensteig; † 15 July 1784 in Munich) was an important German Rococo sculptor. ... The Grazer Schloßberg Clock Tower Graz [graːts] (Slovenian: Gradec IPA: /gra. ... Figures by P. J. Straub on the altars in the Graz Cathedral Philipp Jakob Straub (born 30 April 1706 (baptism) in Wiesensteig; died 26 August 1774 in Graz) was an Austrian sculptor from a well-known family of German Baroque sculptors. ... The worlds most famous coin, a silver thaler of Maria Theresa, dated 1780. ...

The Baroque period of his oeuvre ended in 1769 with a bust of the court physician Gerard van Swieten, commissioned by the Empress. At the same time his first early Neo-Classic works appeared, made - characteristically - for the Academy. To these and later works he applied many experiences gained in 1765 during a study trip to Rome. One of these early, severe heads from the years 1769-70, influenced by Roman republican portraits, represents the well-known doctor Franz Anton Messmer. At about the same time, in 1770-72 Messerschmidt began to work on his so-called character heads, obviously connected with certain paranoid ideas and hallucinations from which, at the beginning of the seventies, the master began to suffer. Messerschmidt found himself increasingly at odds with his milieu. His situation worsened to such an extent, that in 1774, when he applied for the newly-vacant office of a leading professor at the Academy, where he had been teaching since 1769, instead of getting it he was expelled from teaching. Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens. ... Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. ... Nickname: Motto: SPQR: Senatus Populusque Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Government  - Mayor Walter Veltroni Area  - City 1,285 km²  (580 sq mi)  - Urban 5...

Embittered he left Vienna, moved to his native village, Wiesensteig, and from there in the same year, following an invitation, to Munich. Here he waited two years for a promised commission and for a permanent employment at the Court. In 1777 he went to Bratislava where his brother, Johann Adam worked as a sculptor. Here he spent the last six years of his life almost in retirement, on the outskirts of the town. He dedicated himself primarily to his character heads. “Wien” redirects here. ... Nickname: Location of Bratislava within Slovakia Coordinates: , Country Slovakia Region Bratislava Region Districts Bratislava I-V City parts 17 city boroughs Cadastral areas 20 cadastral areas First mentioned 907[1] Government  - Type City council  - Mayor (Primátor) Andrej ÄŽurkovský[2]  - Headquarters Primates Palace Area [1]  - City 367. ...

Sources

Maria Pötzl Malikova, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Jugend and Volk Publishing Company, ISBN 3-7141-6794-3 1982 Translation into English: Herb Ranharter, 2006

Michael Krapf, Almut Krapf-Weiler, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Hatje Cantz Publishers, ISBN 3-7757-1246-1, 2003

Theodor Schmid, 49 Koepfe, Theodor Schmid Verlag, ISBN 3-906566-61-7, 2004

External links

• A collection of photographs of many of the heads see the Belvedere Baroque Museum in Vienna
• http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/m/messersc/biograph.html (from http://www.wga.hu/)
• http://insel.heim.at/hawaii/310945/Charakterkopfe.html
• http://www.limmat.ch/schmid/fxm/