Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, February 6, 1736–August 19, 1783, was a German-born sculptor active in Austria and Pressburg, now Bratislava. He trained with his uncles Johann Baptist Straub in Munich and Philipp Jakob Straub in Graz, then studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.

Working independently from 1760, Messerschmidt made portraits and other sculptures for aristocratic, imperial, and middle-class patrons. His commissions included work for the Habsburg court. He visited Rome in 1765 and later taught at the Vienna academy as a substitute professor.

Messerschmidt began his series of character heads around 1770. After leaving Vienna in 1775, he spent time in Wiesensteig and Munich before settling in Pressburg in 1777, where he continued making character heads and portraits until his death. Original heads and later casts are held by the Belvedere in Vienna, the Slovak National Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other collections.

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