Physiognomy in Profile: Lavater's Impact on European Culture

Abstract

Johann Caspar Lavater's richly illustrated Physiognomische Fragmente was published in Germany between 1775-78 and was rapidly translated into the major European languages. Presenting his theories on how the configuration of facial features may be held to show qualities of mind or character, Lavater's work triggered a physiognomical frenzy (to quote his adversary Georg Christoph Lichtenberg) in late eighteenth-century Europe, and people are said to have chosen their spouses and servants according to his precepts. Though some dismissed his work as cranky pseudoscience, Lavater's theories had a vital influence on art, literature, medicine, and the emerging social sciences throughout the nineteenth century. Today Lavater is no longer a household name, but his physiognomy continues to resurface in the most unlikely places.