Franz Xaver Messerschmidt

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt Transformed by Edward Rose and Nick Reynolds. Franz Xaver Messerschmidt was one of the most accomplished sculptors of the Eighteenth Century. Working in a neoclassical style he produced some of the most important works of the German Enlightenment. In 1771 he was struck down with psychological problems and lost his position at the Viennese Academy. It was at this point he devoted himself to the creation of his “Character Heads”, 49 astonishing busts contorted in extreme facial expressions.