OmNomination

littlemousedeer:

A while back I had found an image of one of Charles LeBrun’s physiognomic head studies on tumblr with no source info and couldn’t remember what it was from (art historical shame on me, I know).  While doing research for a presentation I gave today, I remembered where it was from!  I felt at least a couple of you might be interested so here you go, guys: 

LeBrun was a painter and art theorist active during the 17th c in France.  One of his points of interest had to do with the importance of depicting emotion in art and physiognomy, or the ability to judge a person’s character from their outward anatomical appearance.  Of course, this has since been disproven, but it’s still interesting to look back at the work done in the field.  During a series of lectures given at the French Academy, LeBrun illustrated how people’s facial types can be related to animals and thus to personality types, i.e. people with goat-ish faces were lustful and tricksters, while people with a lion-like appearance were noble and just, etc.  These are obviously greatly exaggerated here, but it was done to get the point across more clearly. 

 Above are a few examples of his physiognomy studies. 

(via blacksheepwhitecrow)