These sculptures are the work of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736-1783). Messerschmidt was German-Austrian, and sculpted the heads in 1770-72. At this time he suffered from delusions and hallucinations, or a “confusion in the head” as his employer, the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts, described it. In 1774, Messerschmidt was expelled from the academy.
In 1781, Messerschmidt stated that the heads had been created as a record of his facial expressions on pnching himself to alleviate the pain of an illness he suffered, known now to be Crohn’s Disease. He intended to sculpt the 64 “canonical grimaces” of the human face using his own as a template.
Messerschmidt also claimed that he was physically tortured by “the Spirit of Proportion”, an ancient being who guarded the knowledge of harmony and who was angered by Messerschmidt’s disharmonius work.
Saw those at Belvedere in Wien
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Looks like he was one of the world’s first genius cartoonists. Way ahead of his time, unfortunately!
I want to touch them.
Love this work ……..
Clearly, these works do not escape into reality or the aesthetic realm, but remain finely worked surfaces firmly set in the psychological.
I can totally relate to his work and see similarities in my own work.