What the Face Reveals, Placing Muscles, and the Throat-Pit's Balance
The signs of temperament, expressive acts, and how attitude shifts the body
A fair-copy text page, unillustrated, that qualifies the previous rejection of physiognomy: the marks of a face do in part reveal a man's nature, so that pronounced folds mean cheerfulness, faint ones a thoughtful temper, deep relief a bestial and irascible one, while palmistry is refuted because whole armies die in one hour yet no two hands are alike. Three short notes follow on placing muscles only where a member labors, on making figures whose acts reveal their soul, and on how the pit of the throat shifts over the foot with every change of attitude.
On this page
What the marks of the face reveal of temperament
Pronounced folds separating cheeks, lips, nostrils, and eye sockets mark cheerful, often-laughing men; faint ones mark thoughtful men; parts of great relief and depth mark bestial, irascible men of little reason. Lines set between the brows signal anger, and strong transverse forehead lines signal a man full of hidden or open lament.
Muscles only where the member labors
Make muscular the members that endure fatigue, and render soft and without prominent muscles those that are not used.
A figure must show what it holds in its soul
Make your figures in such an act as suffices to demonstrate what the figure has in its soul; otherwise the art will not be praiseworthy.
The throat-pit shifts over the foot with every attitude
The pit of the throat falls plumb over the foot; throw an arm forward and the pit leaves that foot; throw the leg back and the pit moves forward. Thus it changes with every attitude of the body.