Editing Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (section)

==Early years==
Born February 6, 1736, in the southwestern town of thence Bavarian Wiesensteig, located in the region of (now) Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Messerschmidt grew up in the [[Munich]] home of his uncle, the sculptor [[Johann Baptist Straub]], who became his first master. He spent two years in [[Graz]], in the workshop of his other maternal uncle, the sculptor [[Philipp Jakob Straub]]. At the end of 1755 he matriculated at the [[Academy of Fine Arts Vienna]], and became a pupil of Jacob Schletterer. Graduated, he got work at the imperial arms collection. Here, in the building's salon in 1760-63 he made his first known works of art, the bronze busts of the imperial couple and reliefs representing the heir of the crown and his wife. With these works he joined the Late [[Baroque]] art of courtly representation, which was under the determining influence of [[Balthasar Ferdinand Moll]]. To this trend belong two other, larger than lifesize tin statues representing the imperial couple, commissioned by [[Maria Theresa of Austria]] and executed between 1764 and 1766. Besides some other portraits he also made works with a religious subject. A number of statues commissioned by the Princess of Savoy have survived as well.