"Messerschmidt, who created conventional portraits of dignitaries such as Empress Maria Theresa and Joseph II while working at the Imperial Academy in Vienna, began to turn exclusively to character heads in around 1770, a fact that quickly gained him the reputation of a maverick. This extensive monograph about an exceptional artist attempts an interpretation of the "deeper meaning" in an oeuvre which is as unusual as it is uncompromising."--Jacket.