The Nature of the Beast: Charles Le Brun's Human-Animal Hybrids (1806)
13 days ago
- #physiognomy
- #art-history
- #17th-century-art
- Charles le Brun's sketches used human-animal hybrids to depict character and class, aiding in distinguishing figures in grand allegorical paintings.
- Le Brun founded the Gobelins Manufactory and the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, influencing Paris' 17th-century artistic scene.
- His lecture on human-animal physiognomy, reconstructed in the 1806 Dissertation, included 37 etchings and engravings from his drawings.
- Le Brun's Méthode pour apprendre à dessiner les passions (1698) systematized René Descartes' ideas on depicting human emotions in art.
- The Dissertation focused on permanent character markers rather than transient emotions, aiming for artistic advancement, not moral judgment.
- Physiognomic traits like aquiline noses and specific facial angles were linked to heroic or condemnable traits, reflecting classical beliefs.