   New Acquisition: Messerschmidt's A Hypocrite and Slanderer
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts chairman Ian Wardropper
comments on the powerful new acquisition A Hypocrite and
Slanderer. This bust was created by the Austrian sculptor Franz
Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783) for his series of character
heads, depicting different states of mind and pointing the way
toward a modern sensibility.   Ian Wardropper: My name is Ian
Wardropper. I’m chairman of the Department of European Sculpture
and Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I’d
like to introduce you to a new acquisition in my department. It
is a striking image of a balding, blocky man. He sinks his chin
into his chest, and the wrinkles there are realistically
detailed, but at the same time very abstract, a series of
concentric circles. His eyes are vacant and they’re looking away
from us,  they’re downcast.  So as we try to come to terms with
him, we move around him, lowering our head perhaps to look up
into his eyes. He’s introspecti