Resemblances, amazing faces

Charles Le Brun was a Frenchman who achieved prominence as an artist during the reign of Louis XIV; but it is his curious physiognomy studies and the "scientific" theories he evolved from them that are far more interesting to modern audiences than the vast allegorical paintings he contributed to Versailles, the Louvre, and other collections. The physiognomy studies illustrated a dissertation delivered by Le Brun before the Academy of Painters and Sculptors (of which he was a founding member), but unfortunately the notes that originally accompanied the drawings disappeared centuries ago. Scholars have pieced together-from the drawings and from other writings-the theories that Le Brun had worked out, and it is from their work that we are able to draw further conclusions. Le Brun's physiognomy studies are an offshoot of man's continuing fascination with the congruities that can be found between human and animal "faces" and our seemingly irresistible desire to equate physical features with personality.