{"id":1761,"date":"2011-08-04T17:17:13","date_gmt":"2011-08-04T17:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/?p=1761"},"modified":"2016-03-02T20:53:44","modified_gmt":"2016-03-02T20:53:44","slug":"new-leaves-when-looks-deceive-or-not-lavaters-physiognomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/2011\/08\/04\/new-leaves-when-looks-deceive-or-not-lavaters-physiognomy\/","title":{"rendered":"New Leaves: When Looks Deceive, or Not – Lavater’s Physiognomy"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Leaves is a series highlighting acquisitions in Special Collections and Archives.<\/small><\/p>\n

Did you know that Voltaire’s sharply pointed nose and chin were the physical manifestations that indicated his cynical wit? This is according to Johann Caspar Lavater (1741-1801) in his popularly received 18th century study of physiognomy which describes how one’s outer appearance can reveal one’s inner character.<\/p>\n

With origins in the classical era, physiognomy is a blend of aesthetics, psychology, and theology used in a “scientific” manner to assess how a person’s bodily, mental, and moral components exist in dynamic relationship to one another. Lavater, a Swiss theologian, believed that the head and face could reveal the often disguised secrets of one’s nature. By reviving the study of physiognomy, he hoped that the resulting moral analysis would promote mutual understanding among diverse individuals. His equation of moral worth with physical beauty, however, created as many critics as enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

\"Lavater
Portrait CXXIV in volume III, “snub nose.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 1789 English translation contains 360 engravings in three volumes and includes a “how-to” section, consisting of one hundred physiognomic rules and numerous examples so that readers might learn to practice his system. For example, when looking at the engraved portrait CXXIV in volume III, Lavater acknowledges that not all snub noses “denote folly”. However, he goes on to conclude that when the nose is turned up in an exaggerated degree in combination with very small nostrils, scarcely visible eyelids, and a pronounced chin that the subject while of the “benevolent kind,” exhibits a “native dullness”.<\/p>\n

A significant cultural figure during the Age of Sensibility, Lavater’s theories created an impact on European literature and thought that persisted well into the nineteenth century, particularly so in Germany and England. Some of his physiognomic ideas are thought to have exerted influence on character creation by such diverse writers as Charles Dickens, Matthew “Monk” Lewis, Emile Zola, Honore de Balzac, Ivan Turgenev, and Charlotte Bronte.<\/p>\n

Lavater, Johann Caspar. Essays on Physiognomy: For the Promotion of the Knowledge and the Love of Mankind<\/em> \/ written in the German language by J.C. Lavater, and translated into English by Thomas <\/span>Holcroft ; illustrated by three hundred and sixty engravings. London : Printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson, Paternoster-Row, MDCCLXXXIX [1789]. Call Number: SpC. 138 L397p1789<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information about this text or other titles from the Age of Enlightenment<\/a>, contact <\/a>DePaul’s Special Collections and Archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Leaves is a series highlighting acquisitions in Special Collections and Archives. Did you know that Voltaire’s sharply pointed nose and chin were the physical manifestations that indicated his cynical wit? This is according to Johann Caspar Lavater (1741-1801) in his popularly received 18th century study of physiognomy which describes how one’s outer appearance can <\/p>\n

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