Progressive Muscle Relaxation Exercise with The Vexed Man

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Announcer: This is a Getty podcast.

[Rising, meditative music]

Lilit Sadoyan:  Today we’re discovering an incredibly expressive sculpture head, The Vexed Man, made in the late 18th century by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt.

[Theme music begins]

 Welcome to Our Museum Mindfulness Meditation podcast, or OMMM. Part art history and part meditation, we use works of art from the Getty collection as inspiration for mindfulness and deep reflection.

Hello, I’m Lilit Sadoyan. I’m a longtime meditation practitioner and museum educator at Getty. Thanks for joining me as we bring mindfulness out of the gallery and into our daily lives.

Today, we’re exploring tension and ease inspired by an alabaster bust, The Vexed Man, made sometime between 1771 and 1783 by a German artist active in Austria, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt. This episode begins with a breathing exercise to help relax your body and mind. We’ll then give a bit of history and context for the sculpture, and we’ll close with a progressive muscle relaxation exercise. This series is also available as an audio podcast. If you’d like to step away from a screen for a few minutes, listen on your favorite podcast app. Now, if you’re ready, let’s jump in.

[Gong chimes and meditative music begins]

Go ahead and find a comfortable meditation posture, whatever that means for you today. Maybe you’re sitting, lying down, something that allows you to feel relaxed, yet alert.

Let’s start by taking a few deep breaths together.

In through the nose. [inhales]

Out through the mouth. [exhales]

Deep breath in. [inhales]

Deep breath out. [exhales]

One more inhale.

And exhale.

Let your breathing resume its natural rhythm as we explore today’s work of art.

[Bells chime]

 Facial expression is a powerful means of communication. It operates both consciously and unconsciously. Unlike most muscles in the human body, facial muscles directly attach to skin rather than bone, which allows for subtle movement and nuance. Emotions and rapid shifts in feeling visibly register on the surface of the face. And expressions are deeply social too. Smiles can be contagious. Worry can spread in a crowd. So how do you feel when you come across the following deeply emotive sculpture?

A middle-aged man squeezes his face into a dramatically distorted expression. Eyebrows furrow inward and downward. Eyelids shut tight and narrow beside the extreme wrinkles of his crow’s feet. Cheeks tighten sharply against the cheekbones. The nose is compressed with folds of skin around the nasal bridge. Tight pursed lips curve downward towards the chin. The jaw, visibly clenched, juts forward as the facial muscles and skin tighten over it. And the neck tendons strain upward from the collarbones and over the throat. Vexed Man is sculpted out of alabaster, which is a soft stone that can be carved with wooden tools. The medium itself has striations in it, which blend into the veins on the sculpture’s skin. The bust is sharply truncated mid-shoulder. Altogether eliminating the rest of the body focuses our attention on facial expression alone. The expression can be read as pain or irritation or displeasure. It is marked by an intense contraction of muscles. But is he forcibly holding in these emotions or releasing them? What does this expression even mean?

The title, Vexed Man, implies that this man is agitated, frustrated, or experiencing such internal discomfort that it shows in his face. However, the title was only assigned after Messerschmidt’s death. Messerschmidt himself called this type of sculpture Kopfstücke, or head pieces. Vexed Man is one of a series of at least 49 portrait busts, or character heads, that Messerschmidt sculpted in his exploration of intense facial expressions.

These were psychological studies made during the Enlightenment era as people across Europe and North America sought to understand something true about human nature. These character heads demonstrate the artist’s obsession with exploring the extremes of human expression, and by extension, what it means to be human. Seeing these sculptures now, hundreds of years later, we still look in awe, not only at the lifelike, sometimes perplexing emotions Messerschmidt immortalized on the faces of the individual figures, but also at what he reveals of their characters.

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt was born in the village of Wiesensteig in what is now southern Germany in 1736. He learned his trade from two uncles, a court sculptor in Munich, and an artist based in Graz, Austria. Later, Messerschmidt attended the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts and assisted at a foundry. His spectacular ability to work in stone and metal soon brought him portrait commissions from imperial and aristocratic clients. In his early 40s, Messerschmidt taught at the Viennese Academy and established his own workshop. Those outward signs of success were short-lived as colleagues and friends observed changes in his behavior. After failing to gain a professorship of sculpture position at the academy, Messerschmidt left Vienna and returned to Wiesensteig, and he died in 1783 at age 47.

Messerschmitt sculpted his character heads during the last 13 years of his life when he was suffering from mental illness. Many of the heads resemble the artist, although they’re not self-portraits, and there’s no evidence to suggest that he had any intention of exhibiting or showing these works publicly, as he kept them in his studio. Rather, the artist’s own interpretation of these heads suggests that he viewed them as an exploration of the full range of human expression. In addition, he felt that they were cathartic and warded off evil, expelling the threatening spirits he believed had overtaken his mind. Sometimes he would even pinch himself beneath the rib to observe his reaction in a mirror.

Looking at this sculpture, you can’t help but have a visceral reaction to it. As humans, we are deeply tuned to respond to facial expressions. It’s a kind of sensitivity that is fundamental to social life that also helps us assess danger or safety, anger or trust, pain or pleasure. Sometimes facial expression can even trigger bodily reaction before conscious interpretation sets in. Mirror neurons ignite, the brain rapidly detects emotions, and emotions spread from one person to another. We partially recreate them in our own bodies, too. This is part of the reason why Messerschmitt’s exaggerated heads are so compelling. They isolate the musculature of the face to such a degree that the viewer becomes acutely aware of their own.

In the galleries, children are constantly mimicking the face, and adults immediately pause for a selfie with their own grimace. The sculpture invites your nervous system to participate in this exchange. Take a moment now to notice your facial expression as we transition into our meditation for today. This sculpture lends itself to a body-based awareness practice called progressive muscle relaxation, or PMR. Through this exercise, we intentionally tighten and then release different muscle groups, not only to relax the body, but also to become more aware of the contrast between tension and ease. If any of these exercises cause discomfort, or if you have a history of serious injury, muscle spasm, or back problems, stop or skip the body part or consult with a doctor before doing this practice. Above all, take care of yourself.

Take a moment now to set yourself up for relaxation. This meditation is most commonly and effectively practiced lying down to maximize relaxation. However, you can also do this in a sitting position. Find ease in your body and establish a sense of comfort, whatever you need today.

If you feel comfortable, you’re welcome to close your eyes. Use this time to go inward.

[Slow, meditative music begins]

We’ll begin by taking a few deep breaths together.

In through the nose. [inhales]

Out through the mouth. [exhales]

Deep breath in. [inhales]

Deep breath out. [exhales]

One more inhale.

And exhale.

Just let your breathing resume its natural rhythm. No need to force or extend the in-breath and out-breath. Let your body do what it does very naturally.

And bring your attention to the way that the breath moves in and out of the body. You can get very specific and granular about the temperature around your nostrils. Is it warm or cool on the inhale and exhale? What’s the texture like today?

And see if you can follow that breath through your nasal passage and into your chest. Notice the subtle rise and fall of your chest. And if your breath is deeper than that, again, without forcing it, feel your belly inflate and deflate like a balloon.

And as you focus on your breathing, your mind may wander. That’s okay. Your brain is doing its job. The objective of meditation is never to clear or empty the mind. Rather, it’s to become aware of those thoughts as they arise. So if you catch yourself thinking, just notice it, let it go, and come back to your breath.

Use your breath as your anchor to the present moment.

[Music ends]

I invite you to expand your awareness to your bodily sensations. You can do a quick scan from the crown of your head all the way down to the soles of your feet. And notice any physical sensations that are present.

We will now move into the progressive muscle relaxation exercise to cultivate greater awareness of bodily tension and the calm that follows when contracted muscles are relaxed. Pay attention to not holding the breath when tensing muscles, but instead inhale when contracting and exhale when releasing tension. You might even silently repeat the word “relax” with each exhale.

I invite you to begin by curling your toes and holding them tight for five seconds. Four–three–two–one, and release.

Next, move up to your ankles and feet. Tense and hold for five–four–three–two–one, and relax.

Up to the shins and calves. Tighten the muscles and hold for five–four–three–two–one, and let go.

Now move up to your thighs. Squeeze and hold for five–four–three–two–one, and relax.

Notice what is already shifting in your body as you work your way through. Visualize your tight muscles and how they differ when they’re relaxed.

Bring your attention to your buttocks. Squeeze and hold for five–four–three–two–one, and relax. Just sink into the surface upon which you’re seated or lying down.

Up to your abdomen, inhale and contract the muscles for five–four–three–two–one. Let it go.

Now your fingers and hands. Take a breath in and make a clenched fist for five–four–three–two–one. Relax.

Next, squeeze your arms, forearms, biceps, triceps, and hold for five–four–three–two–one. Release.

Raise your shoulders up towards the ears and squeeze. Five–four–three–two–one, and drop them.

And now your neck. Strain the muscles for five–four–three–two–one. Loosen.

Tighten and clench the jaw. Five–four–three–two–one. And let it soften.

Squeeze your eyes shut and hold. Five–four–three–two–one. Release.

And tighten and wrinkle the muscles in your forehead for five–four–three–two–one, and relax.

Feel the weight of your body supported by the surface upon which you are lying down or seated. Just melt into it. With each exhale, release what no longer serves you.

[Meditative music resumes]

Notice how you feel right now.

If your eyes are closed, I invite you to gently open them. Stretch your body. Come back to your environment.

As we return to the world, let’s carry this sense of ease with us, and I would like for us to see if we can find opportunities to practice releasing tension. Throughout your day and week, if you catch yourself clenching or holding onto something, consider it an invitation to soften. Feel the shift in your body and maybe even in your expression or mood.

Let’s return to our breath and close our practice by taking a full deep breath together, the biggest breath you’ve taken all day.

Inhale.

Sigh it out. [loud exhale]

Thank you so much for joining me.

[Meditative music slowly fades out]