Welcome to One High-quality Present, the place Observer highlights a not too long ago opened exhibition at a museum not in New York Metropolis, a spot we all know and love that already receives loads of consideration.
One of many worst Instagram posts in recent times was, in fact, made by Mark Zuckerberg himself. In it, he debuted a sculpture of his spouse and exhorted us all to “deliver again the Roman custom of constructing sculptures of your spouse.” Zuck’s sweaty makes an attempt to appear human are, at this level, somewhat charming, however the art work in query was so banal that anybody who noticed the picture grew to become extra within the dwelling girl standing beside her reward as she sips espresso in her bathrobe. The mug hides her face, which is probably content material, maybe embarrassed, however undoubtedly not proud.
The character heads of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736-1783) have additionally been mysterious to students, although solely partially due to the subtlety of the expressions depicted. Extra curious is why the in-demand artisan made them, a query probed by the brand new exhibition “Franz Xaver Messerschmidt: Extra Than Character Heads,” which opened not too long ago on the Belvedere in Vienna and seeks to position his unusual and interesting busts within the context of each his different work and that of 18th-century and late-Enlightenment contemporaries engaged on facial features and physiognomy—the brand new concept of making an attempt to seize character somewhat than portrait likeness.
In case you’re new to the physique of labor, you may not want “greater than” the Character Heads, that are on the heart of the exhibition. Beginning within the 1770s, Messerschmidt started to make these with out fee or sitters, working outdoors his wholesome profession capturing Austria’s elite in Baroque, Zuckerbergian pomp. His character heads present intense and common feelings, a recognition maybe of the rising energy of the fickle bourgeoisie.
The Belvedere boasts a set of 16 character heads, the most important held by any single establishment. It’s laborious to speak about particular ones as a result of these got here to the Belvedere from Messerschmidt’s non-public assortment after his demise, in order that they don’t have particular person titles (all are simply “Charakterköpfe”). On this present, the trio of bald males feels exemplary. By the usage of little greater than jowls, Messerschmidt conjures a baffled pleasure, pure anguish and leering sadism, all throughout the identical face. His courtroom sculpture of Maria Theresia als Königin von Ungarn (1764-1766), queen of Hungary, relegates all this expertise for folds to her gown. Her face is placid and inscrutable.
Who else needed to work on this mode at the moment? The portraitist Joseph Ducreux (1735-1802), who got here to Vienna to do a portrait of Marie Antoinette, and maybe William Hogarth (1697-1764), who equally used humor and melodrama to mine bigger themes.
Then there was Messerschmidt’s shut good friend, Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), whose pseudoscientific theories in regards to the “animal magnetism” that bedevils people laid the groundwork for the sphere of psychology. Some assume the character heads symbolize Mesmer’s theories. Others assume that they could have emerged as a result of he was handed over for a promotion on the Academy of High-quality Arts Vienna. The chronology does match, however do the angst-ridden need to research angst? No matter their origins, these works symbolize main leaps ahead within the subject of sculptural expertise. Zuckerberg, however, could need to contemplate hiring an artwork advisor who lives within the twenty first Century.
“Franz Xaver Messerschmidt: Extra Than Character Heads” is on view on the Belvedere in Vienna by means of April 6, 2026.
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