Franz Xaver Messerschmidt

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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.

Character head ("Heraklit", alabaster bust, Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart)

Life

Character head ("Democritus", alabaster bust, Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart)

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

Web links

Commons : Franz Xaver Messerschmidt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ilse Krumpöck: The images in the Army History Museum. Vienna 2004, p. 120 f.
  2. ^ 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