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Hands-On Heads Popular Theories of Portraiture and Personality

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Hands-On Heads Popular Theories of Portraiture and Personality In-Focus Hands-On Heads Popular Theories of Portraiture and Personality The Craze for Physiognomy Portraits Reveal Personality Corresponding Characters In the late eighteenth-century, the When Lavater died in 1801, the leading No political figure or public event was portrait – in two and three dimensions – British periodical The Scots Magazine safe from the biting wit of James Gillray, was seen as the key to understanding acknowledged that he had ‘for many the late eighteenth-century’s leading personality. In 1711, The Spectator years been one of the most famous caricaturist. In 1798, he published concluded that ‘we may be better men in Europe.’ His hugely influential Doublûres of Characters; – or – striking known by our looks than by our words Essays on Physiognomy (1772) had Resemblances in Physiognomy. This ... speech is more easily disguised promoted the idea that the human print played on the recent success of than countenance.’ The ancient study face, or its outline, reflected the mind Lavater’s Essay on Physiognomy. By of physiognomics – the reading of and soul. To allow readers to identify manipulating the principle that heart character from external appearances – the virtues and faults of their fellows, and face were essentially connected, gained new influence and popularity Lavater provided sample profiles and Gillray ironically unveiled the ‘true’ with the publication of Johann Caspar silhouettes based on famous historic faces of the political opposition by Lavater’s Essays on Physiognomy, and contemporary people. Each was pairing their public faces with their Designed to Promote the Knowledge analysed according to a set of one corrupted countertypes. So we see and Love of Mankind (1772). First hundred rules. Emphasis was laid ‘The Patron of Liberty’ is turned into published in English in the 1780s, on the line of the forehead and the ‘The Arch-Fiend’ or a ‘Character of Lavater’s book proposed a method nose as ‘the buttress of the brain’. High Birth’ into ‘Silenus debauching’. for assessing and classifying people’s This etching depicts Lavater’s own personalities on the basis of their profile. Ironically, according to his own Doublûres of Characters; – or – striking facial features. rules, ‘unremarkable’ noses such as Resemblances in Physiognomy by James Gillray, 1798 his ‘may indeed be found with rational, Hand-coloured aquatint and soft-ground etching Johann Caspar Lavater inspecting a bust good and occasionally in some degree, NPG D12663 by an unknown artist, c.1788 superior characters, but never with Engraving from J. C. Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy such as are truly great and excellent.’ NPG Johann Caspar Lavater (1741–1801) after an unknown artist, late eighteenth century Etching NPG D16362 All content © National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG) or The National Trust (NT) as indicated. In-Focus Hands-On Heads Popular Theories of Portraiture and Personality The ‘Science’ of Phrenology Bless Me what a Bump Phrenology and Portraiture IMAGE NOT AVAILABLE A number of painters and engravers Gall promoted the idea that a person’s There is little evidence that people subscribed to the first English edition moral and intellectual capacities were read the bumps on sculpture, but some of Lavater’s Essays on Physiognomy controlled by different organs which life-masks were taken seriously by (1788–9), but there were few if any made up the brain. The size of each phrenologists. James Deville (1776 – sculptors on the list. It was only a organ determined the skull’s shape 1847) was a sculptor, a publisher of generation later that a new branch of and caused swellings and depressions marked-up phrenological busts and the physiognomical study – phrenology – on the head. Although Gall and owner of a museum of phrenological was applied to the three-dimensional Spurzheim resented the way their casts. He made this plaster life-mask portrait. In the 1790s, the German system was treated as ‘an art of of the artist William Blake to be doctor Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828) prognostication’, the practice of ‘representative of the imaginative proposed the separation of the mind reading a person’s character from the faculty’. As was often the case with life into more than thirty distinct ‘faculties’ ‘bumps’ on their head became a craze masks cast directly from the subject’s that corresponded with specific parts of in scientific and popular circles. This face, it was a disappointing likeness. the brain. His theories were popularised satire – Bless me what a Bump – may But Blake’s head was highly regarded in Britain by Johann Caspar Spurzheim represent domestic fun, or one of the by his friend George Richmond who (1776 –1832) in the 1810s. ‘phrenological parlours’ which people believed that his distinctive dome- visited to have their bumps ‘read’. shaped head and small, low-set ears Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828) The marked-up phrenological bust on indicated Blake’s inner wisdom. by an unknown artist, 1805 or after the table shows how knowledge of this Engraving William Blake (1757–1827) NPG D21608 pseudo-science was spread during the nineteenth century. by James S. Deville, before 1823 Plaster NPG 1809 Bless me what a Bump by an unknown artist, c.1820–30 Hand-coloured etching © Science Museum All content © National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG) or The National Trust (NT) as indicated..
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