SOURCE: Shortland, Michael. “The Power of a Thousand Eyes: Johann Caspar Lavater's Science of Physiognomical Perception.” Criticism 28, no. 4 (fall 1986): 379-408.

In the following essay, Shortland briefly summarizes the history of physiognomy, then concentrates on Lavater's approach to facial analysis as described in his Physiognomischen Fragmente.

In the classical age, a common point of reference in discussions of aesthetics, psychology, medicine and religion was the doctrine of physiognomy. In the earliest literature, the notion that a correspondence exists between the outer appearance of man and his inner character was advanced, deepened and extended to suit a variety of ends. The Homeric poems carefully monitor expression, but go little way beyond providing rudimentary correlations between both momentary and permanent appearance and character: Thersites's repulsiveness of body (his game foot, bandy legs and rounded shoulders) denotes a vicious nature, just as surely and as simply as the handsomeness of Achilles signals...