Physiognomy

Physiognomy connects the external appearance of human beings with their inner character traits. Ancient physiognomy developed in connection with humoral medicine, which provided the theoretical underpinning for the association between mental and physical features. In early modern Europe, physiognomic notions existed in a wide variety of contexts, from popular culture to medicine, literature, and art. This physiognomic consciousness was shaped by Galenic medicine and Aristotelian philosophy, but there was also a more contested strand of physiognomy associated with divination and the hermetic tradition. From the seventeenth century onward, the rise of new perspectives on the relation between mind and body undermined the basic assumptions of physiognomy; this affected its intellectual status, but not necessarily its