Academic literature on the topic 'Physiognomic theories'

Summary This article stages a confrontation between latent nominalist attitudes about inherent expression in perception—physiognomy—and new affective modes. In a classic analysis, Gombrich warned of the lack of veridicality of physiognomic perception, a sentiment endorsed by postmodern theories. At the same time, affect theory affirms a level of directly available intensities. Using the example of Rudolf Arnheim, it can be seen that the two are really specular opposites of each other, each merely valorizing different poles of the affect-cognition scale. Arnheim’s Gestalt theory shows how immediate percepts can have a generic structure, which is differentiated with further acquaintance. Arnheim, however, shows how perception can never account for all the power of expressive seeing. Perception and cognition is always embedded in a social matrix. Using an example of racist antisemitic propaganda used by Gombrich, the political implications of Arnheim’s position are demonstrated.

This article explores the intersections of physiognomic knowledge and drama in the works of Neapolitan naturalist and playwright Giovan Battista Della Porta (1535–1616). It first looks at references to theatre—classical drama in particular—in Della Porta’s writings on physiognomy, thus showing that Latin comic plays provided the naturalist with a gallery of stock characters able to summarize the alleged interdependence of physical and moral traits. The article then analyzes the various ways in which Della Porta—who was a prolific author of comedies—brought his physiognomic expertise into his own experience as a playwright. The study of these two different perspectives on the relation between physiognomy and drama reveals that, far from being a direct translation of physiognomic theories, Della Porta’s dramatic production deploys an ironic and almost paradoxical take on physiognomy that aims to challenge (if not actually subvert) the very principles of the discipline. Cet article explore les interactions entre la physionomie et le drame dans les oeuvres du naturaliste et dramaturge napolitain Giovan Battista Della Porta (1535–1616). On examine d’abord les références que fait Della Porta au théâtre — en particulier à la tragédie classique — dans ses écrits sur la physionomie, avant de montrer que le théâtre comique latin a fourni au naturaliste une panoplie de personnages stéréotypés lui permettant de mettre en avant l’interdépendance présumée entre traits physiques et traits moraux. L’article poursuit en analysant les diverses façons dont Della Porta, auteur prolifique de comédies, a exploité dans son travail ses connaissances en physionomie et son expérience de dramaturge. L’étude de ces deux aspects de la relation entre physionomie et théâtre montre que l’oeuvre dramatique de Della Porta déploie une approche ironique et presque paradoxale de la physionomie qui, bien loin d’être une traduction littérale des théories physionomiques, vise à remettre en question, voire à inverser, les principes fondamentaux de cette discipline.

The present research investigated an often presumed but rarely assessed construct named the physiognomic belief—a generic belief that various traits can be inferred from faces. Studies in Japan and the United States have demonstrated that this belief can be measured reliably and invariantly across cultures and that those having stronger beliefs make more extreme trait inferences from faces. Of note, in both countries, the physiognomic belief is positively associated with a biologically deterministic view of personality traits and a belief in a just world. These findings suggest two types of naive justifications for the physiognomic belief: faces and traits should be related because they are both manifestations of biological essences and because the world is an orderly place wherein people get faces they deserve. This highlights an understudied role of folk concepts involving faces and traits in the popularity of face-based trait inference among laypeople.

A distinctive feature of the biographies of Suetonius is his methodical and detailed description of the physical appearances of the emperors. This feature was adopted by two fourth-century Latin writers, Ammianus Marcellinus and the anonymous author of the Historia Augusta. This study will explore how ancient theories of the relationship between appearance and character intersect with the physical descriptions of emperors the authors provide. These authors reveal themselves to be engaged with contemporary approaches to the question without being bound by any one theory, and thus presuppose a readership for whom physiognomic questions were both interesting and debatable. The approaches of the authors to this minor feature in their work also offer broader insight into their biographical style and purpose.

The human species transforms the landscape to meet its needs, but landscape resources and valuable features at the same time affect wellbeing in the context of human activity. In these mutually conditioned interactions, two processes playing a key role are the so-called landscape perception and landscape projection. This article presents: (1) a review of theories playing a key role in the development of knowledge on landscape perception; (2) the basis for landscape projection as a logical and creative continuation of perception processes; (3) an outline of the theory of physiognomic landscape structure and of possibilities for it to gain practical application; (4) the results of the first Polish research into the public’s expectations where quality of the landscape is concerned. Perception of the landscape entails the receipt of stimuli from surrounding space with the help of the senses. It serves primarily in knowledge-based transformation of landscape systems, in a manner that meets ever-more exacting requirements on the part of society when it comes to living in an environment of the highest quality. Only a little scientific work has been devoted to the process of landscape projection. This is therefore a new research field, just opening up, which has the potential to give rise to a group of space-projection theories.

В статье проводится анализ нарративного потенциала царского монетного портрета эпохи эллинизма. В отличие от портретов в скульптуре, на мозаиках и фресках, монетный портрет занимает в системе классического искусствоведения подчиненное положение и чаще служит в качестве вспомогательного средства для идентификации портретов в других изобразительных жанрах. Между тем появление и тиражирование монетного портрета, снабженного индивидуальными чертами, в период раннего эллинизма свидетельствует о переходе от коллективного (полисного) сознания к индивидуальному (монархическому). Для эллинистических государств портрет правителя на монете являлся не просто главным средством политической пропаганды, но и визуальным воплощением царской власти. Особое значение при исследовании царского монетного портрета имеет анализ эстетических и физиогномических теорий Аристотеля и перипатетиков, оказавших большое влияние на философию искусства эпохи эллинизма. Тело как единая знаковая система становится важным инструментом визуального нарратива, использовавшегося государством в целях репрезентации образа правителя и власти. Трактат «Физиогномика», написанный неизвестным последователем Аристотеля, демонстрирует яркие параллели с некоторым художественными приемами, широко использовавшимися художниками периода эллинизма: «томный» взгляд Александра, вьющиеся волосы царей, анастоле. Одним из центральных мотивов «Физиогномики» является так называемый «львиный стиль», подчеркивающий мужество и благородство. Элементы «львиного стиля» можно обнаружить в портретах Александра, а затем и в монетных изображениях многочисленных эллинистических правителей, подражавших образу Александра. Царский монетный портрет выполнялся в соответствии со строгим иконографическим каноном, где важное место занимал декорум. Так, известны несколько вариантов царского портрета (в диадеме, кавсии, шлеме, шкуре льва, лучистой короне и головном уборе в виде головы слона), каждый из которых обладал собственным символизмом. Весьма важным аспектом изучения нарративности монетного портрета является соотношение текста легенды и изображения. В монетном деле восточно-эллинистических монархий в период эллинизма происходит одновременно процесс художественной деградации портрета и увеличение текста легенды за счет включения божественных эпитетов правителя. Данный процесс демонстрирует смещение визуально-текстовых приоритетов: от имплицитного характера изобразительного нарратива к эксплицитному. Еще одним элементом художественного нарратива является изображение правителя в образе божества. Эта тенденция является отражением развивавшегося в эллинистическом мире культа правителя. Визуализированный вариант образа обожествленного монарха широко тиражировался на монетах. The present paper focuses on analysis of narrative of the Hellenistic royal portraits depicted on coins. Unlike most of the portraits in sculpture, mosaics and frescoes, coin portrait has traditionally received only an additional scholarly attention. Coin portraits were usually integrated into research as an optional means to identify portraits of other visual genres. However, the representation and replication of coin portrait with individual traits in the Early Hellenistic period shows the shift from the collective (polis) mind to the individual (monarchy). For Hellenistic kingdoms, the royal coin portrait was not only a key tool of the political propaganda, but also a visual representation of the kingship. For the study of royal coin portrait, the analysis of aesthetics and physiognomic theories of Aristotle and Peripatetics is of a great importance. The Aristotelian heritage highly influenced the Hellenistic art and was of a great importance for all artists. The body as a single sign system becomes an important means of visual narrative exploited by the power for creating positive image of the king and kingship. The ‘Physiognomy’, attributed to unknown follower of Aristotle, reveals some striking parallels with artistic devices, widely used by Hellenistic artists - ‘melting’ eye of Alexander, curly hairstyle of kings, anastole. One of the key motifs of ‘Physiognomy’ was a so-called ‘lion’ style, which indicated virtue and generosity. Some traits of this ‘lion’ style could be found in the Alexander’s portraits and then in the coin portraits of many Hellenistic kings, who to some extend imitated the image of Alexander. The royal coin portrait was made under a strict iconographic canon, where the decorum was important. Thus, it is well known some variations of royal coin portrait – in a diadem, in a helmet, in a kausia, in lion and elephant skin and in a radiate crown. Each of this headwear has its own symbolism. An important aspect of the study is a correlation between legend and image. For the Eastern Hellenistic coinage the process of artistic degradation of coin portrait and simultaneous process of growth of the legend occurs. This process shows a shift of visual and textual priorities from implicit nature of visual narrative to explicit one. Another component of the artistic narrative is a presentation of a ruler as a goddess. This tendency represents a ruler cult, which was widely developed in Hellenism. The visualized image of deified king was widely depicted on coins.

This study aims to determine the relationship between facial physiognomy, body shape, and visualization of animated film character designs. Characterization in an animated film is inseparable from the characters who are placed to fulfill the film’s role. In the creation of physiognomy and body shapes can be combined as an approach to design. The characters are modified through simplifications in the form of cartoons. This is done so that the visualization of the character gets closer to the role added, in addition to emphasizing the characteristics of one character to another. Even in animated films, characters become important elements to direct the understanding of stories. The approach used is interdisciplinary, given that in characters there is a merging of visual elements that need to be approached using different theories. The combination of theories used is personality theory through somatotype to find characters through body shapes, physiognomy from Ar-Razi and ming xiang to obtain character traits and the theory of simplifying shapes into cartoons. The result is a match between the characters played by the three reference elements. The interesting thing that was found was the application of different physiognomy between one character and another to reinforce the characteristics. So that in the film, these figures can represent roles, which are human presentations in real life.

The taste for classical art that induced museums in the West to acquire masterpieces from ancient Greece and Rome for their collections was stimulated largely by the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann. In the past decade, a number of articles have claimed that Winckelmann’s glorification of marble statues representing the white, male body promotes notions of white supremacy. The present article challenges this view by examining theories prevalent in the eighteenth century (especially climate theory) that affected Winckelmann’s views on race. Through an examination of different types of classicism, the article also seeks to demonstrate that Winckelmann’s aesthetics were opposed to the eclectic use of ancient models typical of the fascist regimes of the twentieth century.

The aim of this dissertation is to analyze the representations of rulers, in Italian and Chinese history and biography, in the light of antique physiognomic theories. The description of rulers, with the reference of physiognomy, is used as one of the methods of propaganda or persuasion of the legitimacy or power of the ruler. The physiognomy of ruler may be considered from two perspectives. One is the ruler’s body, that is, what physical appearances of the rulers are described, sometimes at the expense of likeness, both in Italian and Chinese history and biography, and how these features are similar and thus might make the rulers in one type. The other is the body of ruler, that is, what kind of physical features makes the particular person ruler and how these features are exclusively established as templates and help to legitimate the heaven-given or god-given power. In the same framework, through the comparison of the Chinese and Italian physiognomy of rulers, figuring out their similarities and differences, analyzing possible causes of such description, we demonstrated the cultural and political diversities as well.

This chapter shows that pantomime undermines the ostensible dichotomy of art and text by engaging in visual narration. It examines the perception of dance as a superior form of rhetoric, arguing that Lucian’s On Dancing cleverly deploys traditional ideals of rhetorical versatility (Proteus and the octopus) to show that the dancer embodies them more perfectly than the orator, because his skill is physical. The dancer’s body language is situated in the context of ancient theories of gesture and physiognomy as well as in the discourse on works of art (ekphrasis), from which the motif of silent speech and the use of notions such as ēthos and pathos are adopted. Finally, the chapter examines the possible role of Hellenistic sculptural groups emphasizing motion and narrative developments in preparing the path for pantomime’s empire-wide success.

This book discusses Aristotle’s biological views about character and the importance of what he calls “natural character traits” for the development of moral virtue as presented in his ethical treatises. It provides a new, comprehensive account of the physiological underpinnings of moral development and thereby shows, first, that Aristotle’s ethical theories do not exhaust his views about character, as has traditionally been assumed, and, second, that his treatment of natural character in the biological treatises provides the conceptual and ideological foundation for his views about habituation as developed in his ethics. This manuscript thus takes seriously Aristotle’s claim—often ignored—that nature is one of the factors through which men become “good and capable of fine deeds.” Part I (“The Physiology and Science of Natural Character”) analyzes, in three chapters, Aristotle’s notion of natural character as it is developed in the biological treatises and its role in moral development, especially as it affects women and certain “barbarians”—groups who are typically left out of accounts of Aristotle’s ethics. I also discuss its relevance for our understanding of physiognomical ideas in Aristotle. Part II (“The Physiology of Moral Development”) explores the psychophysical changes in body and soul that one is required to undergo in the process of acquiring moral virtues. It includes a discussion of Aristotle’s eugenic views, his identification of habituation as a form of human perfection, and his claims about the moral deficiencies of women that link them to his beliefs about their biological imperfections.

The chapter theorizes the logic of a postcolonial black elite appropriating cultures of white colonial power to define itself, while cultivating a secular worship of ancestors who vanquished white supremacy. It reads a history of the whiteness/blackness binary phenomenologically and discovers culture irreducibly guarding the boundaries of privilege indexed by whiteness in the Atlantic. These boundaries become transracially permeable between the transmissibility of culture and the need of capitalist modernity to reinvent itself continually, making hitherto “white” privilege accessible to people “of color” with requisite competence in cultures of whiteness. The chapter notes the central importance accorded a Western “education” by other black Atlantic postcolonial elites, by way of arguing that, in the (post)colony as much as in Europe, such education produces a certain subjectivity, not a certain physiognomy. The chapter then engages critically with discourses and practices around French cultures that articulate with a privileged class situation in Haiti.