The Signs of Faces

Leonardo da Vinci's engagement with the ancient science of physiognomy has been noted by several scholars, but most studies have provided tendentious accounts of his attitude to the discipline. There has, in short, been too great a willingness to view Leonardo as ‘proto‐modern’ in his outlook, and to detach him artificially from earlier conceptual models of physiognomic science. The purpose of this article is to suggest, with reference primarily to his sketchy writings on the subject but also to certain drawings and paintings, that Leonardo's attitude to ancient physiognomy cannot be so categorically fixed. In particular, the present discussion calls into question earlier interpretations of a paragraph in Leonardo's writings where he condemns ‘falace fisonomia’, stressing that there can be no certainty as to what he considered ‘fallacious’. Detailed attention is given in this article to Leonardo's use of the theory of the four humours, in both his writings on physiognomy and his approach to facial variation in his images. The possible impact of Leonardo's humoral interests on other artists is also briefly considered

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Certainty · Epistemology · Literature · Painting · Paragraph · Physiognomy · Political science · Sociology · Subject (documents · Variation (astronomy · Anthropology · Computer Science · Historical Philosophy and Science · History of Medicine Studies · History of Science and Medicine · Law · Philosophy

• The Simian Man in Mantegna’s Minerva Expelling The Vices and the Promotion of Physiognomy and Comparative Anatomy in the Renaissance

  Simona Cohen•Viator•2025

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