Physiognomy - the notion that there is a relationship between character and physical appearance - is often dismissed as a marginal pseudoscience; however, The Appearance of Character argues that it is central to many disciplines and thought processes, and that it constantly adapts itself to current patterns of thought and modes of discourse. This interdisciplinary study determines the characteristics of physiognomical thought in France during the previously neglected period leading up to the reception of Johann Caspar Lavater’s physiognomy in the early 1780s. It establishes a corpus of physiognomical texts, juxtaposing ‘mainstream’ figures such as Buffon and Diderot with a host of minor writers. It then considers the representation of the passions in art, examining the legacy of Charles LeBrun, and revealing an aesthetics of facial representation where the passions are conceived in terms of multiplicity, speed, and nuance. The contribution of the Comte de Caylus to the development of the ‘tête d’expression’ is analysed, as well as the innovations of Greuze in the field of expression. Physiognomy in portraiture is also addressed through the work of La Tour. Facial expression in painting is found to have strong parallels with contemporary acting theory and stage practice. Finally, The Appearance of Character addresses the notion of character, outlining various predominant theories, and analysing the complex relationship between character and passions. In this respect, the study has ramifications for theories of the self and individualism in the Enlightenment and beyond.
This book, originally published in paperback in 1999 under the ISBN 978-1-902653-07-5, was made Open Access in 2025 as part of the MHRA Revivals programme.
Contents:
i-x, 1-235
The Appearance of Character: Physiognomy and Facial Expression in Eighteenth-Century France Melissa Percival Complete volume as single PDF
Physiognomy has always been controversial, largely because of its perennial claim to scientific status. If people can agree in a vague, indeterminate sense that we all judge by appearances, they are less convinced by attempts, however enthralling, to classify or systematise human features according to a particular scientific method. One of the greatest problems of physiognomy has been the misapplication of the principles of the 'hard' sciences to a more unquantifiable human science. Yet the boundaries between science and pseudo-science are notoriously difficult to draw, a fact which is most obvious in physiognomy's persistent and pervasive relationship with medicine over the centuries.
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13-40
1. Enlightened Physiognomics: The Terms of the Debate Melissa Percival doi:10.59860/td.c48abd5
An examination of physiognomy in the eighteenth century might well begin as late as 1775. It was then that Johann Caspar Lavater published the first volume of his Physiognomische Fragmente, sparking what Georg Christoph Lichtenberg described as the 'Raserei für Physiognomik', or popular 'physiognomical frenzy' which lasted until well into the following century.
Charles Le Brun's Conférence sur l'expression générale et particulière is one of the most comprehensive and influential analyses of facial expression in painting: through both text and image, it synthesises a contemporary Cartesian physiology of the passions and pre-existing expressive traditions in painting and rhetoric. The lecture, which was first delivered to the Paris Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1668, had a resonance in art theory and practice for over two centuries, and the text and its accompanying illustrations were widely reproduced, both as a whole and in parts. As well as being of use to practising artists, Le Brun's work reached a non-specialist audience through its incorporation into the Encyclopédie entry 'Dessin'.
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65-82
3. Theories of Expression in Mid-Eighteenth Century France Melissa Percival doi:10.59860/td.c6a93ff
Expression in mid-eighteenth century France, as in Le Brun's day, was considered to be the source of life, movement and eloquence, the very soul of painting and the ultimate intellectual and spiritual challenge to the artist. Le Brun shaped the terms of discussion on expression for succeeding generations of artists, and how they derived in particular from his work a focus on the head and face, and a functional system of specifically labelled and instantly recognisable passions. Yet despite Le Brun's hegemony over artistic theory and practice, a very different aesthetic took shape in mid-eighteenth century France. Part of this arose directly out of Le Brunian theories and formed a dialectic, both approaching and deviating from him. In turn, what was constituted as ‘Le Brunian' became further refined, not to say restricted, and formed a point of opposition to the prevailing theories. Yet other aspects of this new aesthetic differed sharply from Le Brunian co-ordinates.
Maurice-Quentin de La Tour (1704-1788) has more than once been labelled a 'physiognomist'. As one of the most successful and prodigious pastel portraitists of his time, he had uniquely privileged access to the key figures of mid-eighteenth century Paris: Voltaire, Rousseau, Buffon, d'Alembert, Crébillon, the actress Clairon, the composer Rameau, the Maréchal de Saxe and Madame de Pompadour all sat to him.
The Prix Caylus, also known as the 'Prix de la tête d'expression', which was launched in 1759 at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture and first successfully awarded the following year, is a crucial reference point for the debate on facial expression in the mid-eighteenth century. In what was envisaged as an opportunity to improve on their treatment of facial expression, trainee artists drew or sculpted an expressive head in a three-hour sitting with a live model who was posed by the teacher in charge to represent a particular named passion.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) is famous as a painter of expression. His genre paintings are seen as evocative tableaux of domestic drama which record the gamut of the human passions and which seemingly lend themselves to clear and unambiguous moral readings. In a different vein, there are his numerous studies ofyoung girls which mingle the sentimental and the erotic, and which, superficially at least, recall aspects of the Prix Caylus. Greuze is also known for his têtes d'expression, even if the definition of such a type of painting is not always clear.
The actor's performance has three main components: voice, gesture and facial expression. Of all these, facial expression has probably been given the least consideration by dramatic theorists and historians of theatre; however, in eighteenth-century theatre, the face had a particularly active role in conveying information and emotion to the audience. Contemporary accounts of acting repeatedly talk of the jeu de physionomie, by which was meant the rapid play of facial parts, the feats of physical agility and mercurial swiftness by which the actor expressed the manifold passions, an operation which often took place independently of the body.
Lavater's Fragments are multi-faceted, looking simultaneously in many different directions. Critics have tended to seize upon single aspects of the work without acknowledging the breadth and multiplicity of its standpoints. As a result, Lavater has been labelled ingenious and pernicious, liberal and reactionary, highbrow and lowbrow, cautious and dogmatic, a representative of the Sturm und Drang and of Neo-Classicism. In some measure, Lavater is all of these things and it is necessary to accept the plurality and diversity of his thinking rather than dwelling on its more obvious shortcomings.
Physiognomy is a constantly changing phenomenon, which readily adapts itself to the prevailing discourse of a discipline or a historical period. Unsurprisingly, therefore, in the eighteenth century the relationships between external appearance and inner essence were viewed and articulated via common trends in Enlightenment thought. This involved a detachment from what were seen to be the superstitious beliefs of past ages, and an adaptation of physiognomical theories to a new conception of man as independent and self-determining. Physiognomy was seen as a spontaneous and universal human activity, an amusing parlour game for idle aristocrats , or a skill to be cultivated by the refined connoisseur. In a more serious guise, it formed part of contemporary debates on self- improvement and social harmony.
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Bibliography entry:
Percival, Melissa, The Appearance of Character: Physiognomy and Facial Expression in Eighteenth-Century France, MHRA Texts and Dissertations, 47 (MHRA, 1999)
First footnote reference:35 Melissa Percival, The Appearance of Character: Physiognomy and Facial Expression in Eighteenth-Century France, MHRA Texts and Dissertations, 47 (MHRA, 1999), p. 21.
Percival, Melissa. 1999. The Appearance of Character: Physiognomy and Facial Expression in Eighteenth-Century France, MHRA Texts and Dissertations, 47 (MHRA)
Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Percival 1999: 21).
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