Bronze Character Head after Messerschmidt (1 of 3)

This bronze character head after Messerschmidt is built around a shout: the mouth hangs wide open and the eyes are squeezed so tightly shut that the lids swell. Creases fan out from the eye corners to the temples, and two hard furrows cut down between the brows.

Inside the mouth the tongue and lower teeth are modelled; the skull is shaven bald, with a faint incised hatching over the crown. Each new bust is lost-wax cast (cire perdue) by hand and given a near-black patina that gathers in the hollows of eyes, cheeks and mouth. It rests on a rectangular plinth of dark stone.

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783) made his Charakterköpfe between 1770 and his death: sixty-nine heads, of which forty-nine survive, the originals in alabaster and a tin-lead alloy. The shaven heads, like this one, are thought by some to show the sculptor himself.

At 60 cm high and only 19 cm wide, this bronze bust can take the top of a low bookcase, where the open mouth meets the eye of anyone coming into the room. Of the three heads after Messerschmidt in the collection, it is the one thrown furthest open.

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