Monk’s Head

• Design: Michael Powolny (1871–1954)
• Execution: Wiener Keramik
• c. 1906
• Ceramic, light body, colored glazing
• Leopold Museum, Vienna

Michael Powolny, an Austrian ceramicist and sculptor, established the ceramics workshop Wiener Keramik in 1906 with graphic designer Bertold Löffler. They were profoundly inspired by the aesthetics and principles of the Vienna Workshop and often collaborated with them. Monk’s Head, recognizable by the typical tonsure, is striking with its emaciated face and sunken eyes. The dark cowl frames the face. Powolny wanted to create a memento mori, the reminder of eventual death. The pensive monk seems in deep resignation to the inevitable fate.