# Messerschmidt Heads, Extreme Facial Expressions, Getty Museum

**By Nina Christensen** · 2015-09-04

Here in Los Angeles, the **Getty Museum** is having an art show through mid-October 2012 which surveys the **[Character Heads](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Xaver_Messerschmidt "Franz Xaver Messerschmidt") (1770-1783)** created by **F.X. Messerschmidt**. We learned about Messerschmidt's studies of human facial expressions when we added four bust reproductions to our Museumize.com collection: Ultimate Simpleton, Vexed Man, Yawner Man, and Strong Man.

[![Messerschmidt-portrait-head](http://arthistoryinfo.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83420883253ef01676919d24b970b-320wi "Messerschmidt-portrait-head")](http://www.museumize.com/caricature-portrait-heads-messerschmidt-s/311.htm "messerschmidt heads for sale at museumize.com")

Reproductions of [Messerschmidt Portrait Heads](http://www.museumize.com/caricature-portrait-heads-messerschmidt-s/311.htm "messerschmidt character heads parastone replicas") are available for purchase at [Museumize.com](http://www.museumize.com "museum web store"). [Parastone Museum Collection](http://www.museumize.com/parastone-museum-collection-3D-mouseion-s/301.htm "parastone museum collection, museum replicas").

From the Getty's description of the show, "The exhibition demonstrates how Messerschmidt's intriguing heads are linked to the 18th and 19th centuries' fascination with expression and the "passions," as well as with the pseudosciences of physiognomy and pathognomy."

We enjoy Messerschmidt's depiction of the extreme looks and exaggerations of the human face. Sculpted in the round, they certainly evoke comments from visitors to our gift store!

If you're visiting LA, we hope you'll take a little time to stop by the Getty Museum and see their show!

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From the [Getty Museum Website](http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/messerschmidt/character.html "messerschmidt show at getty museum") about the show:

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."

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> Source: [Museumize.com](www.museumize.com/blogs/museum-store-news/61831619-messerschmidt-heads-extreme-facial-expressions-getty-museum)