Franz Messerschmidt - part 2

Franz Messerschmidt, the leading sculptor at the court in Vienna in the 1760s, was forced, for personal and professional reasons, to leave for the provinces and by 1777 had settled in Pressburg (today Bratislava). There he concentrated on a private series of heads, completing more than sixty in his preferred medium of tin alloy or in alabaster.

While acknowledging the artistic tradition of exploring facial expressions and emotions, these Kopfstücke, or head pieces, as he called them, were highly original for their combination of realism and abstraction. Visitors to his studio observed the artist studying himself in a mirror. Some of the heads are straightforward self-portraits, smiling or frowning; others are satirical or comic, the sitter reacting to a strong odour or yawning widely. A few, called “refusers” by an early critic for the way they deny contact with their surroundings, are deeply introspective.

The meaning of the series has been long debated. The titles were conferred after the sculptor’s death, when forty-nine works were exhibited in 1793. Messerschmidt was aware of contemporary medical theories, such as Johann Caspar Lavater’s 1775

study of physiognomy’s relation to human character, and he certainly knew his Viennese neighbour the physician Franz Anton Mesmer, who believed that outward senses connect to inner emotions and developed related therapies to treat his patients. However one assesses it, the series of is exceptional in eighteenth-century sculpture, stylistically advancing beyond Neoclassicism to a reductive

simplicity, forecasting modern minimalism, and psychologically rendering serial states of mind in a project that was novel for the pre-Freudian world.

This is part 2 of 3-part series on the works of Franz Messerschmidt:

1771-81 The Yawner
tin cast 42 x 21.5 x 26 cm

1771-83 A strong man
tin-lead cast 44.5 x 26.7 x 22.9 cm

1771-83 Character Head
tin-lead-inorganic material (size not given)
Louvre Museum, Paris

1771-83 Character Head

1771-83 Character Head

This Character Head, exhibited in Vienna in 1793 belonged in Vienna towards the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, to the anatomist Emil Zuckerkandl, then until 1939, to the writer Richard Beer-Hofmann (1866-1945). Seized by the Nazis and transferred to the Vienna Historical Museum in 1939 (Inv. 59895); returned in 2003 to the collector's heirs. Sotheby's New York sale, January 27, 2005, no. 12. Acquired thanks to the assistance of the Friends of the Louvre and the Heritage Fund.

1771-83 Childish Weeping
tin-lead alloy 45 x 22 x 25 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

1771-83 Just rescued from drowning
 alabaster 20 x 20 x 25.5 cm
Private collection, Belgium

1771-83 Just rescued from drowning

1771-83 The Constipated One
lead 30.5 x 21 x 21 cm
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg

1771-83 The Constipated One

1771-83 The ill-humoured man
lead-tin cast 39 cm high
Private Collection

1771-83 The Vexed Man
alabaster 39.4 x 27.3 x 26 cm
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

1771-83 The Vexed Man

1771-83 The Vexed Man

The Vexed Man bust portrays a middle-aged man with a sour expression, which seems to fall somewhere between a grimace and a scowl. The most telling aspect may be the furrowed brow above squinting eyes and a scrunched nose. But natural cracks in the bust's alabaster surface seem to echo the topography of his skin, both softened by age yet hardened by the extreme expression. The man's receding hairline, wrinkles, and sagging jawline contrast with tensed cheek and neck muscles. Although the character seems to express irritation and annoyance, it is not certain whether Messerschmidt intended that interpretation, because he did not give the bust a title.

1771-83 The Yawner
tin 42 x 21.5 x 26 cm
photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

1771-83 The Yawner

1773-74 Bust of Prince Joseph Wenzel von Liechtenstein
(1696-1772)
tin alloy, vestiges of fire silvering; original black marble base
37.5 x 27  x 23 cm (bust without base)
 Palais Liechtenstein, Vienna, Austria

1775-77 The "religion" of Theresia Straub's tomb
white marble
Bavarian National Museum, Munich, Germany

1775-80 A Hypochondriac
lead 42.6 x 25 x 23 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

after 1777 Bearded old man
alabaster 42 cm high
Liebhaus sculpture collection, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

after 1777 Bearded old man

1777-81 Self-Portrait laughing
tin cast (size not given)

1777-83 A Mischievous Wag
gysum alabaster 42 cm high
© Belvedere, Vienna

1777-83 A Mischievous Wag

1777-83 An arch villain
 tin-lead casting 39 x 26 x 25 cm

1777-83 An arch villain

1777-83 An arch villain