Smirking, dim-witted, grimacing or disgusted - the fascinating character heads by the baroque sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, which are cast in lead or cut into alabaster, do not adhere to any classical ideal of beauty, but never cease to amaze with their aggressiveness; confronting the viewer with the typology of the ugly. Messerschmidt, who created conventional portraits of dignitaries such as Empress Maria Theresa or Joseph II while teaching at the Imperial Academy in Vienna, began to turn to character heads around 1770, a fact that quickly gained him the reputation of a maverick. Having taken early retirement due to a psychological disorder that was never clearly defined, he spent the rest of his life as a recluse in Pressburg. This extensive monograph about an exceptional artist attempts an interpretation of the "deeper meaning" of an uvre which is as unusual as it is uncompromising.
- ISBN10 3775712461
- ISBN13 9783775712460
- Publish Date 27 February 2003
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 2 June 2008
- Publish Country DE
- Imprint Hatje Cantz
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 304
- Language English