Blake, Lavater, and Physiognomy

Blake, Lavater, and Physiognomy
Author: Sibylle Erle
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2017-12-02
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1351193694

"William Blake never travelled to the continent, yet his creation myth is far more European than has ever been acknowledged. The painter Henry Fuseli introduced Blake to traditional European thinking, and Blake responded to late 18th century body-theory in his Urizen books (1794-95), which emerged from his professional work as a copy-engraver on Henry Hunter's translation of Johann Caspar Lavater's Essays on Physiognomy (1789-98). Lavater's work contains hundreds of portraits and their physiognomical readings. Blake, Fuseli, Joshua Reynolds and their contemporaries took a keen interest in the ideas behind physiognomy in their search for the right balance between good likeness and type in portraits. Blake, Lavater, and Physiognomy demonstrates how the problems occurring during the production of the Hunter translation resonate in Blake's treatment of the Genesis story. Blake takes us back to the creation of the human body, and interrogates the idea that 'God created man after his own likeness.' He introduces the 'Net of Religion', a device which presses the human form into material shape, giving it personality and identity. As Erle shows, Blake's startlingly original take on the creation myth is informed by Lavater's pursuit of physiognomy: the search for divine likeness, traced in the faces of their contemporary men."

Physiognomy in Profile

Physiognomy in Profile
Author: Melissa Percival
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2005
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9781611492378

"Essays are arranged in chronological order so that the reader can gain a sense of the shared preoccupations of Lavater's contemporaries and successors. But the book may also be read thematically."--Jacket.

Lavater's Essays on Physiognomy. with Ornamental Caricatures, and Finished Portraits. Translated from the Last Paris Edition, by the Rev. C. Moore, ... of 4;

Lavater's Essays on Physiognomy. with Ornamental Caricatures, and Finished Portraits. Translated from the Last Paris Edition, by the Rev. C. Moore, ... of 4;
Author: Johann Caspar Lavater
Publisher: Gale Ecco, Print Editions
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2018-04-22
Genre:
ISBN: 9781385218761

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Medical theory and practice of the 1700s developed rapidly, as is evidenced by the extensive collection, which includes descriptions of diseases, their conditions, and treatments. Books on science and technology, agriculture, military technology, natural philosophy, even cookbooks, are all contained here. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ Countway Library of Medicine N009355 Originally written in German. With separate engraved and letterpress titlepages for vols. 1 and 2; all titlepages except the letterpress titlepage for v.1 omit 'Lavater's' from the title statement. Letterpress titlepage for v.2 dated 1793. Vols. 3 and 4 are paged consecutively and have only engraved title pages. London: printed by and for W. Locke, [1797]. 4v., plates: ports.; 8°