The History of Physiognomy

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PHYSIOGNOMY from DELLA PORTA to LAVATER (17 th - 18 th Centuries)

Thursday 6 November - Saturday, 8 November 2008

held at Queen Mary University of London (Thursday) and the British Academy (Friday & Saturday)

PROGRAMME:

THURSDAY 6 NOVEMBER (at Queen Mary University of London)

Session 1 (4.00-6.30): Introduction. Appearances and Civility

CHAIR: Colin Jones (QMUL):

Introduction

Jon Snyder (University of California, Santa Barbara):

' Against Physiognomy? Confounding Appearances in Baroque Europe' - Abstract

Nicole Pellegrin (IHMC/CNRS-ENS, Paris)

'Les marques du corps ou la physiognomie offensante'- Abstract

FRIDAY 7 NOVEMBER (at the British Academy)

Session 2 (9.15-10.15): 'The Renaissance Face' in Physiognomic Perspective .

Round-Table discussion on the National Gallery Exhibition, 'The Renaissance Face'. Chaired by Luke Syson (National Gallery)

We are awaiting authorisation from the speakers before putting these on-line.

                        10.15. COFFEE

Session 3 (10.30-12.45):   Rethinking Physiognomy

CHAIR: Johannes Thomann (Zurich)

Mark Greengrass (Sheffield University)

'Bodily Eloquence: the ethics and politics of emotion in the sixteenth century' - Abstract

Colette Nativel   (Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne (CHAR)) 

'Franciscus Junius and Physiognomy' - Abstract

Sebastien Schutze (Queen's University, Kingston)

'Bernini and the Physiognomy of Spirit and Soul' - Abstract

12.45-2.00. LUNCH

Session 4 (2.00-3.30): Perspectives from the Grand Siècle

CHAIR: Jennifer Montagu (Courtauld Institute)

Thomas Kirchner (Frankfurt)

'The Truth of the Image. Physiognomy and Portrait Painting in French Seventeenth-Century Art' - Abstract

Martin Porter (Lyon)

'The "Physiognomy" of the Courtier: the Case of Saint-Simon' - Abstract

3.30. COFFEE

Session 5 (4.00-5.30): Issues of Difference

CHAIR: Lina Bolzoni (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa)

Jean-Jacques Courtine   (Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle -Paris III)

' The Physiognomy of Monsters/ La physiognomie des monstres' - Abstract

Shearer West (University of Birmingham and Arts and Humanities Research Council)

'Portraiture, Caricature, Eccentricity' - Abstract

SATURDAY 8 NOVEMBER (at the British Academy)

Session 6 (9.00-10.30): Reason and Feeling

CHAIR: Marian Hobson (QMUL)            

Jean Dagen (Université Paris-Sorbonne)

'Qu'en pensent les Encylopédistes et les philosophes'? - Abstract

Caroline Warman (Jesus College, Oxford)

'Looking for physiognomy: the classification of physiognomical texts from "technologies mystériques" to "sciences médicales". - Abstract

  10.30 COFFEE

Session 7 (10.45-1.00): Enlightenment Representations

CHAIR: Martial Guedron (Strasbourg)

George Rousseau (Oxford University)

'Liotard's Beard and Tristram's Nose: The Anthropological Gesture of Eighteenth-Century Physiognomy' - Abstract

Melissa Percival (Exeter University)

'Imagining the Face in the Eighteenth Century' - Abstract

Malcolm Baker (University of California, Riverside)

' "The Marble Index": Physiognomy and the Sculptural Portrait in the Eighteenth Century' - Abstract

1.00-2.00   LUNCH

Session 8 (2.30-4.00): Towards Lavater

CHAIR: Thomas Dixon (QMUL)

Benoîte Legeais (Université de Montréal & Université de Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle)

'La pilosité dans les traités de physiognomonie de della Porta à Lavater' - Abstract

David Bindman (UCL)

' Lavater and and Race: Public Tolerance and Private Prejudice' - Abstract

CONCLUSIONS (Colin Jones, QMUL)

CONFERENCE LOCATIONS (directions)

THURSDAY: Arts Building, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road (tube: Mile End Road)

FRIDAY & SATURDAY: The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London (tube: Piccadilly Circus OR Charing Cross)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Conference is organised under the auspices of a Leverhulme Trust International Network Grant on the 'History of Physiognomy, 1500-1850', which the conference organisers acknowledge with gratitude.

The conference organisers also acknowledge with thanks financial assistance from:  

            History Department, QMUL

            Graduate School, QMUL

            École Normale Supérieure (Paris)

            Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa)

            The British Academy