The Physiognomic Busts of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt

The 18th-century Austrian court sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt created his 52 “physiognomic heads” between 1770 and 1783, at a stage of life when he was deemed by the Austrian Prime Minister to be afflicted with a “confusion in his head.” From the book Spectacular Bodies:
“Apparently based upon mystical ideas that his own body was subject to ‘pinching’ by malicious ‘invisible spirits’ which governed the ‘forces of nature,’ the busts immortalize the expressions induced when Messerschmidt ‘pinched’ specific parts of his own body to propitiate the assaulting ‘powers.’”
They feel astoundingly modern.

[Del.icio.us | Reddit | Digg]
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.











