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The Art and Science of Reading Faces: Physiognomic Theory and Hans Holbein the Younger
Berry Drago, Elisabeth Michelle
Berry Drago, Elisabeth Michelle
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2010
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Art History
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http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/766
Abstract
This project explores the work of Hans Holbein the Younger, sixteenth-century printmaker and portraitist, through the lens of early modern physiognomic thought. This period's renewed interest in the discipline of physiognomy, the art and science of "reading" human features, reflects a desire to understand the relationship between outer appearances and inner substances of things. Physiognomic theory has a host of applications and meanings for the visual artist, who produces a surface representation or likeness, yet scholarship on this subject has been limited. Examining Holbein's social context and artistic practice, this project constructs the possibility of a physiognomic reading of several major works. Holbein's engagement with physiognomic theories of appearance and representation provides a vital point of access to early modern discourse on character, identity and self.
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