There is a technique or an art, as it is considered by some, of interpreting people’s character, personality and state of health through their faces, known as physiognomony (or physiognomy). Giovanni Battista Della Porta (1538-1615) and Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801) were well-known physiognomists with impressive techniques of interpreting character and guessing the future, with works that were published and have been widely studied.

Figures taken from the book De Humana Physiognomonia by Giovanni Battista Della Porta.

However, these researchers were not the first physiognomists. Human faces had fascinated the peoples of Babylonia, the Egyptians and ancient China, were this art had emerged over 2,000 years ago as an aid to medicine.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was the first person to grant a scientific character to humans’ and animals’ expressions of emotion. In 1872 he drew up the general laws covering expression in the whole animal kingdom with his work The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Thus, throughout the centuries, investigators, scholars, doctors and scientists have used physiognomy in order to interpret and know a person. As an example, since the XVIII century some physiognomists have used their method to detect criminal characteristics, believing that certain physical features corresponded to certain mental perversions, yet this aspect do not survive modern analysis.

Although physiognomy still has connotations of charlatanism, the idea that physique and personality are linked cannot be completely rejected. Nowadays there is scientific proof that corroborates the relationship between bodily and facial characteristics and psychological ones. Research on the genetic and embryonic level confirms that genes play a predominant role in the development of the face. For example, Down’s syndrome, which, due to a chromosome alteration, is associated to easily identifiable facial characteristics.

“Faces don’t lie!” might be the motto of the physiognomists, who believe they can describe the personality of a person they do not know. We all have a little of the “physiognomist” in us, as who has never assessed or judged someone by their appearance? There is nothing scientific in this, only a purely human, rational and elementary reaction. We are quick to judge other people by their expressions. Indeed, as children we interpret our parents’ reactions by their faces, with this being the form of communication that is possible at a tender age. Sadness, joy, rage, disheartenment, passion, disappointment, etc., are feelings that it is difficult to disguise, because they are shown on a person’s face.

But physiognomy goes further; it is based not only on an analysis of the face, but on a set of signs visible on the body, head, skin, in the voice, on the hands, in the gestures, psychological state, etc., even resulting, in the area of medicinal physiognomy, in a diagnosis of several illnesses.

In other fields of this subject it is generally believed that an oval face, eye set apart and a large, wide forehead are synonymous with an imaginative person; low, narrow forehead indicates avarice; thick, clearly marked eyebrows indicate a strong personality; horizontal eyebrows, virility; round cheeks show strong ideas; straight nose with a rounded point means a good capacity for earning money; large mouth means frank, impulsive people; small mouth, not a very sensitive person; large earlobe, tendency to materialism; large eyes, calm but energetic person; small, round eyes, a curious person; a happy face reflects harmony and prosperity; etc… A quick check in the mirror will show us some of these characteristics, but, wait … Before turning to plastic surgery, I remind you that it is the physical and emotional interior that is reflected on the outside … Faces can’t lie, but neither can peace of mind!

Ana Silva (acsilva@fm.ul.pt)
Academic Nucleus
217985100 (Ext.: 41003)
Works and sites consulted:
Viagem ao Desconhecido, Selecções Reader’s Digest, 1999
http://papiros.bravehost.com/ciencias_ocultas/fisiognomia/Fisiognomia.html
http://www.leituraderosto.com.br/
Pictures taken from:
http://www.summagallicana.it/lessico/d/Della_Porta_Giambattista.htm
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin