Rome
Messerschmidt
The Character Heads
Messerschmidt created the Character Heads between 1770 and his death in 1783. Their distracting, if amusing, titles—such as A Hypocrite and a Slanderer and The Difficult Secret—were not his invention. Instead, they were assigned after 49 heads were exhibited at the Citizen's Hospital in Vienna in 1793.
The titles, with descriptive text, were printed in the exhibition catalogue The Peculiar Life History of F. X. Messerschmidt, Royal and Imperial Sculpture Teacher (published anonymously in 1794), the same year that they were first referred to as "Character Heads" in a Viennese newspaper. Subsequently, they were often displayed as curiosities at the Prater, an amusement park in Vienna, and wax and plaster copies were available for purchase.
Messerschmidt called the works Kopfstücke (head pieces), and they were to represent the full range of human expressions, which he reckoned to be 64. They may also have functioned as apotropaic objects, designed to protect him against menacing spirits—specifically, the "Spirit of Proportion"—that "so frightened and plagued him at night."
 The Vexed Man |  Just Rescued from Drowning |  A Strong Man |
|---|---|---|
 A Hypocrite and a Slanderer |