Franz Xaver Messerschmidt
Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (born February 6, 1736 in Wiesensteig , then Bavaria , † August 19, 1783 in Pressburg ) was a German - Austrian sculptor between Baroque and Classicism . Messerschmidt was best known for his sometimes quite curious works.
Life
After training in Munich with his uncle Johann Baptist Straub and in Graz with his uncle Philipp Jakob Straub, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt came to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1755 , where he studied with Jakob Christoph Schletterer and Matthäus Donner, among others . His mentor was Martin van Meytens , Maria Theresa's court painter , who got him a job as a “stucco cutter” (= chaser of cannon casts) in the Imperial Armory . In 1765 he traveled to Rome for a study visit .
In the 1760s he was offered a professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts, which was not carried out due to later objections from State Chancellor Kaunitz . He was very much appreciated by Maria Theresa , so that he became a kind of “ court sculptor ”. In the Sala Terrena of the Austrian Gallery in the Belvedere there are life-size bronze statues (of Maria Theresia and Franz Stephan von Lothringen ) showing them at the coronation. The ruling couple is depicted simply and realistically, the character of an apotheosis only emerges from the environment. Before that, bronze reliefs of Joseph II and his wife Isabella of Parma were made .
Around 1770, Gerard van Swieten's busts were made , which are already caricatured . Messerschmidt initially left Vienna in the direction of Wiesensteig and Munich and finally retired to his brother in Pressburg . There he mainly continued to work on the characters , on which his fame goes back.
Character heads
The sculptor himself only called them “heads” or “head pieces”. This is a series of around 52 self-portrait busts in alabaster , some of which have only been preserved as plaster casts or are known from photographs and lithographs .
All kinds of physiognomic states ( affects ) are shown - right up to extreme grimaces. It is known that Messerschmidt made many of his own studies with the mirror. But he did not shy away from more drastic measures: He jumped in front of passers-by, held out a pistol and studied the horror on the faces of those affected. The doctrine of animal magnetism by his friend and doctor Franz Anton Mesmer was incorporated into both his sculptures and his imagination.
The names under which the busts have been known since an exhibition catalog for the series from 1794 may not have been coined until after his death. It is also uncertain whether the artist himself has already attached the numbers that correspond to this catalog to the metal objects. The busts, which fascinate with their grotesque, ambiguous and irritating facial expressions, reflect the newly formulated ideals of the art of the Enlightenment of the late 18th century. The widespread view that Messerschmidt suffered from a mental illness has no basis and cannot be substantiated by sources.
The Belvedere in Vienna has the largest collection of characters. Twelve of these are shown in the permanent exhibition. The following topics can be developed as groups of works with the approximately 50 heads:
- Eyes open / mouth normal
- Eyes open / eyebrows down
- Eyes open / eyebrows raised
- Eyes open / eyebrows raised / neck stretched
- eyes closed
- Eyes closed / nose and chin forward (smelling)
- Eyes closed / constipation
- mouth open
- overstretched beak heads
Other works (excerpt)
- Portrait bust of Field Marshal Josef Wenzel Prince of Liechtenstein , before 1783, bronze / gray marble, 70 × 70 × 88 cm, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum , Vienna.
- Bronze relief of Joseph II as Archduke with counterpart Isabella of Parma, 1760/1763, bronze, 125 × 98 × 8 cm (oval), Belvedere , Vienna.
- Second Schnabelkopf, 1770/1783, brown spotted alabaster, 43 × 25 × 23 cm, Belvedere, Vienna.
- The Schaafkopf, 1770/1783, brown spotted alabaster, 43 × 23 × 32 cm, Belvedere, Vienna.
- Maria Theresa as Queen of Hungary, 1764–1766, tin-copper alloy, 202 × 110 × 60 cm, Belvedere, Vienna.
- Emperor Franz I Stephan von Lothringen, 1765–1766, tin-copper alloy, 216 × 110 × 80 cm, Belvedere, Vienna.
reception
In 1894, Messerschmidtgasse in Vienna- Währing (18th district) was named after him.
Among many others, Arnulf Rainer was also fascinated by the characters' heads, and he repeatedly used pictures of them as the basis for overpainting actions.
On January 28, 2005, one of Messerschmidt's sculptures was auctioned by representatives of the Louvre at Sotheby’s for the record sum of 4.8 million dollars (3.7 million euros) .
In 2011, a documentary film about Messerschmidt was shot in Bratislava under the direction of Peter Dimitrov with the title Čas grimás ("The Age of Grimaces ").
literature
- Hans-Georg Behr , Herbert Grohmann, Bernd-Olaf Hagedorn: The art of facial expression. Franz X. Messerschmidt and his characters. 2nd newly equipped edition, Beltz, Weinheim et al. 1989, ISBN 3-407-85098-0 .
- Maraike Bückling (Ed.): The fantastic heads of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. Hirmer, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-77743365-9 .
- Otto Glandien: Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783). Expression studies and character heads . Dissertation at the University of Cologne 1981. Research center of the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University, Cologne 1981.
- Albert Ilg : Messerschmidt, Franz Xaver . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 497-499.
- Ernst Kris : a mentally ill sculptor. Imago 19/1933, pp. 384-411.
- Michael Krapf (Ed.): Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. 1736-1783. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit 2002, ISBN 3-7757-1245-3 .
- Brigitte Kronauer : The wasteland and its prophet. About people and pictures. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-608-93406-5 .
- Ulrich Pfarr: Franz Xaver Messerschmidt: 1736 - 1783; Image of man and self-perception . Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-7861-2525-9 .
- Maria Pötzl-Malikova: Messerschmidt, Franz Xaver. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 219 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Maria Pötzl-Malikova: Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. Jugend und Volk, Vienna et al. 1982, ISBN 3-7141-6794-3 .
- Maria Pötzl-Malikova: Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783) - monograph and catalog raisonné. Verlag Bibliothek der Provinz , Weitra 2015, ISBN 978-3-99028-449-0 . (Belvedere catalog raisonnés; 4).
- Strange life story of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, kk public teacher of sculpture. Editor: Author of the frank letters about the breeding of sheep in Bohemia and Austria. Vienna 1794. Facsimile edition of the Vienna Bibliophile Society with an afterword by Maria Pötzl-Malikova. Vienna 1982.
- Theodor Schmid: 49 people. The grimace series by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. Dissertation at the University of Zurich 2004. Schmid, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-906566-61-7 .
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Messerschmidt, Franz Xaver . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 17th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1867, pp. 441–450 ( digitized version ).
- Frank Matthias Kammel: Character heads: the portrait bust in the age of the Enlightenment. Verlag des Germanisches Nationalmuseums , Nuremberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-936688-75-7 .
Web links
- Works by and about Franz Xaver Messerschmidt in the German Digital Library
- Literature by and about Franz Xaver Messerschmidt in the catalog of the German National Library
- Konstanze Crüwell: The face negotiation . (With a series of character heads.) FAZ.NET November 17, 2006. FAZ , November 17, 2006, accessed on July 27, 2020 .
- Works by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt In: Digitales Belvedere
- Belvedere Vienna, character heads, pictures
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ilse Krumpöck: The images in the Army History Museum. Vienna 2004, p. 120 f.
- ^ Time of Grimaces - a documentary about the eccentric sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt on Radio Slovakia International on March 8, 2011, accessed on May 3, 2011.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Messerschmidt, Franz Xaver |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian sculptor |
DATE OF BIRTH | February 6, 1736 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Wiesensteig ( Bavaria ) |
DATE OF DEATH | August 19, 1783 |
Place of death | Pressburg |