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The royal procession of Piedigrotta seen from the west
The royal procession of Piedigrotta seen from the east
Portrait of Louise Loy Smart
Portrait of Louis Dufort-Duras Earl of Feversham
King David and the water carriers, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
Night snow in Kambara
Mario Furio Camillo arrives in Rome to negotiate with the Gauls
Mystical marriage of Saint Catherine
Madonna
Prayer before the storm
Portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte
Portrait of Michele Coronini Cronberg
Pair of glasses
Spoil
Shelf clock
Pair of cafes
Pair of salt cellars
Pitcher and sugar bowl
Spring
About the game of chess
Shelf clock
Desk service
Shotgun
Cup with saucer
The man who looks at the sun
The sneeze
Bureau-cabinet
Spoil
Wedding fan
Folding fan
Dress with tailcoat, breeches and waistcoat
Cup with saucer
Glass
Bracelet with miniature portrait of Count Edwin de Fagan
Soup bowl
Etagère with mirror
The Visitation
The royal procession of Piedigrotta seen from the west
The royal procession of Piedigrotta seen from the east
Portrait of Louise Loy Smart
Portrait of Louis Dufort-Duras Earl of Feversham
King David and the water carriers, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
Night snow in Kambara
Mario Furio Camillo arrives in Rome to negotiate with the Gauls
Mystical marriage of Saint Catherine
Madonna
Prayer before the storm
Portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte
Portrait of Michele Coronini Cronberg
Pair of glasses
Spoil
Shelf clock
Pair of cafes
Pair of salt cellars
Pitcher and sugar bowl
Spring
About the game of chess
Shelf clock
Desk service
Shotgun
Cup with saucer
The man who looks at the sun
The sneeze
Bureau-cabinet
Spoil
Wedding fan
Folding fan
Dress with tailcoat, breeches and waistcoat
Cup with saucer
Glass
Bracelet with miniature portrait of Count Edwin de Fagan
Soup bowl
Etagère with mirror
The Visitation

The man who looks at the sun

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt

Displayed in:

Palazzo Coronini Cronberg Foundation

Palazzo Coronini Cronberg Foundation

Viale XX Settembre, 14, Gorizia

Closed today: open tomorrow at 10:00

Verified profile

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt was one of the most fascinating sculptors of the Enlightenment. An academically trained artist, he obtained widespread approval in Vienna thanks to some original portraits, made for the Empress Maria Theresa and her court. After a study trip to Rome he was among the first sculptors to break with the sumptuous works of the Baroque tradition in favor of the more composed rhythms of Neoclassicism. At the height of his success, around 1770, Messerschmidt's life was shaken, however, by a profound personal crisis, perhaps caused by mental problems, which led him to leave Vienna and move to Pressburg, today's Bratislava. Here, while continuing to make portraits on commission from time to time, he devoted himself mainly to his most famous works, the character heads. According to witnesses of the time, these portraits, characterized by expressions ranging from a firm classical impassivity to the most exaggerated and grotesque grimaces, constituted for Messerschmidt a means of keeping at bay and exorcising the demons by which he felt persecuted. Of the approximately 69 heads that were in the artist's studio at the time of his death in 1783 and that were inherited by his brother, 49 were exhibited in Vienna in 1793, and later went missing. Currently only 44 heads, preserved in museums and private collections, have been traced. The two heads of the Coronini collections were not included in the group of 49 works repeatedly exhibited since 1793, as they were probably previously sold by Messerschmidt's brother, who affixed the initials “F. M. Sch. " and perhaps even intervened with some cold finishing. Contrary to the other works in the series, which are able to stand autonomously on a base directly incorporated into the bust, those from Gorizia, following a subsequent alteration, instead rest on a wooden support, inserted in an alabaster pedestal. Identified by scholars as a variant of the greater simplicity of spirit, this head was called by Count Guglielmo Coronini the Man who looks at the sun.
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Details

Title: The man who looks at the sun

Author: Franz Xaver Messerschmidt

Date: 1775 - 1783

Technique: Cast pewter, wood, alabaster

Displayed in: Palazzo Coronini Cronberg Foundation

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