Introduction
Physiognomy is any attempt to correlate an individual's look with aspects of their personality or character. The earliest attempts at this date back at least to Pythagoras, and notable recent attempts include those by William Herbert Sheldon. While inner personality has ceased to be consistently linked with outer looks, the interest in physiognomy over the centuries demonstrates that many are still keenly aware of the associations we form between human appearance and various personality characteristics and psychological archetypes.
More broadly, physiognomy should be understood as any attempt at linking looks and physical traits to aesthetic concepts and archetypes.
Physiognomy can be seen as a precursor to anthropometry and physical anthropology (in the sense that it is a study of physical features); although unlike these disciplines, it incorporates aesthetic archetypes and the
subjective impression we receive from a face. While there is no doubt that many claims made by historic physiognomists were outlandish, we subconsciously evaluate the association between a character's personality and physical features any time we watch a film or read a comic book.
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You can immediately tell who the hero and villain are. It's not just their clothes.
While physiognomy is often called a "pseudo-science" and compared to phrenology (a pseudo-scientific forerunner to psychology and neurology), we must keep in mind that the study of human beauty and aesthetics is much more of an
art than a science. Anthropometric measurements of a face may be more "objective", but the way we perceive faces is highly subjective and cannot be detached from the emotions which viewing a face evokes. Faces are not merely dull tables listing bizygomatic diameter, bimastoideal diameter, orbital breadth, cephalic index, etc.--they are living pieces of art, and their aesthetics must be studied as such.
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Artists don't need to use callipers and hyper-realistic measurements to draw a striking face, nor can the use of hyper-realistic measurements alone impart emotion into a drawing.
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A skull by itself cannot reveal everything about an individual.
Providing statistical backing for what we already intuitively know, psychological and anthropometric studies have shown that different facial features do indeed connote different meanings and trigger different emotions to the viewer.
External Link:
Your facial bone structure has a big influence on how people see you
Sometimes explicit physiognomic conjectures have been backed up by scientific studies.
Scientific study:
External Link:
Wide Faced Men are More Aggressive
What is "It"?
In fashion and modelling, many successful individuals are described as being "it girls"--that is, in addition to having the good looks required to become a model, they also posses some peculiar and difficult to describe trait which sets them apart. In the past few decades, "it" has been increasingly used to describe a sense of fashion or lifestyle associated with high class socialites, but originally it described personality traits which transcended class.
The term "it" began to be used as a vague quality descriptor around the late 1800s and early 1900s, and its position in popular culture was popularized by the writings of Elinor Glyn and films based upon her work.
An even better example of this "it" quality happens when we view a film where the character's personality complements the actor's look. In such a case, it is much easier to forget one is watching a professional actor and instead become so engrossed in the performance that it feels like the actor is "living" their character. The opposite is true when an actor's look and mannerisms do not correspond with their character's personality (even if their talent is top notch)--it causes us to be painfully aware of the actor's presence.
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What causes some famous faces to remain household names for decades, while others fade into obscurity?
While many people have suggested that the quality of "it" is merely a euphemism for what is today called "sex appeal" (and certainly this aspect was played up in films and novels in order to appeal to a wide audience) this is far from the only meaning given to it by Glyn.
Perhaps some of the mystery around this vague term can be cleared up if we consider that physiognomists had been trying to describe precisely what "it" was (with varying degrees of success)! Could it be that the most successful models possess the rare combination of psychological traits which aesthetically correspond with their physical appearance (in other words, they approximate phsyiognomic archetypes)? The strange feeling that someone has "it" is our subconscious whispering to us about the splendid rarity of such an individual.
Whether we realize it or not, every fashion designer, painter, photographer, etc. has an intuitive understanding of physiognomy. Choices of certain face and body shapes in cartoons, advertising, novels, and so forth are often deliberate in order to evoke certain emotions. Fashion designers and photographers choose their designs and compositions in order to complement their models' looks, or else create sharp contrast. Advertisements choose models of certain appearances not only to create a sense of familiarity among their target audience, but also to create associations between the model's look and the product itself. The list could go on and on. Such choices would be impossible to make and archetypes unable to be conveyed if there was not a real, intuitive emotional response behind them.
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Physiognomy of emotions: old vs new.
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Caucasian - looking faces are often perceived as being more emotionally-sensitive and spiritually transcendent than non-Caucasian-looking faces.
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Why did the artist choose to combine Snorlax's personality with this particular face and body shape?
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Why are people with "neurotic" personalities typically portrayed as ectomorphs and people with outgoing and "carefree" personalities portrayed as the opposite?
Physical features have been associated with certain temperaments and personalities throughout history. While face and body shape cannot predict with certainty what an individual's personality is like, we nevertheless intuitively associate certain looks with various archetypes. Studying the human form is more than just studying biological traits; it's about studying aesthetics and subjective perceptions.
The Profile View
Generally speaking, there are 3 different angles from which we can view a face and receive a different impression: frontal, profile, and semi-profile. All three of these significantly contribute to the overall "look" of an individual's face. As previously discussed, the most striking feature of the frontal view is the geometric shape that the face most closely resembles: Square, Oblong, Oval, Pentagon, or Round.
The profile view's most striking element is whether the face appears vertically straight and flat or sloped and protruding. In determining the shape of the profile, there are two important aspects: the facial angle (which is determined by the shape of the skull) and the facial features (which includes skeletal features such as the forehead and chin, as well as fleshy features like the nose).
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The skull on the left has noticeable protrusion in the jaw region. The skull on the right is remarkably flat.
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While both of these skulls have vertical/straight facial angles (no protrusion in the jaw region), their facial features would have looked quite different.
In life, the individual on the left would have had a sloped forehead, strong brow-ridges, a protruding nose, and heavy chin. Their face shape would have been a Square.
In life, the individual on the right would have had a straight forehead, minimal brow-ridges, a light nose, and light chin. Their face shape would have been an Oval or Oblong.
The facial angle is only part of what makes a profile appear straight. Heavy fleshy features will give the face a protruding look and prevent the profile from appearing straight. Women's faces tend to be less angular and have less bone growth than men's. Because of this, women's profiles are often straighter than men's.
While many Ovals have straight profiles, not everyone with a straight profile is an Oval. The most important indicator of whether someone is Aryan-looking is the face shape when viewed from the front.
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It is not always possible to determine an individual's frontal face shape by looking at their profile.
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Oval-leaving faces with vertical facial profiles.
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Sloped facial profile (left) and facial straight profile (right).
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Sloped profile (left) and straight profile (right).
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Sloped profile (left) and straight profile (right).
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Who looks more heroic?
The difference in forehead profile is not caused by simple tilting of the head, as some claim, but an actual physical difference in the shape of the forehead.
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Skull with sloped forehead (left) and vertical forehead (right).
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Could this skull have fit her forehead if it was heavily sloping instead of vertical?
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To give an ultimate example of the aesthetic difference between a straight and a sloped forehead, we can transform Gandy. A robust face with a protruding profile (left) photoshopped to have more gracile features, resulting in a straight profile (right).
The original face on the left has a sloped forehead, strong browridge, heavy nose, and heavy chin. The photoshopped version has a straight forehead, no browridge, light nose, light chin, and the jaw region itself appears to have been made smaller.
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