Going to Extremes: Physiognomy, Caricature, and Studies of Expression
Long before scientists started to systematically investigate facial expressions in the nineteenth century, artists explored facial features, created caricatures, and observed faces in movement. This selection of prints, drawings, and photographs speaks to a human fascination with depicting and reading faces and to the rich possibilities of a face's arrangements and their resulting impressions on a beholder. The works by Guercino, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and Thomas Rowlandson on view here demonstrate the influence of Leonardo da Vinci's grotesque figures and the development of caricature in early modern Europe. The art of caricature (from the Italian caricatura, meaning a "loaded portrait") featured an exaggerated and humorous representation of a specific individual and often built upon Renaissance theories of physiognomy, which claimed that an individual's character could be judged through his or her facial attributes. Later artists across diverse cultures continued to manifest an interest in extreme expressions using a variety of media. The opposite wall features a range of animated faces, moving from Clarence White's photographs of fear and grief to Japanese woodblock prints depicting kabuki actors and Ana Mendieta's distorted self-portraits.
Veronica White
Curator of Academic Programs
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Thirteen headsThirteen heads,
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Plate from Mechanisme de la Physionomie HumainePlate from Mechanisme de la Physionomie Humaine, 1862
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Untitled (Woman laughing)Untitled (Woman laughing), ca. 1900
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Fear—A StudyFear—A Study, 1899
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Grief—A StudyGrief—A Study, 1899
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Mitate: Arashi Rikan II as Hachiman Taro and Nakamura Utaemon III as Abe no Sadato (見立 「八幡太郎」二代目嵐璃寛、「安部貞任」三代目中村歌右衛門)Mitate: Arashi Rikan II as Hachiman Taro and Nakamura Utaemon III as Abe no Sadato (見立 「八幡太郎」二代目嵐璃寛、「安部貞任」三代目中村歌右衛門), 1832
Edo period, 1615–1868
Japanese -
Nakamura Utaemon IV as Ishikawa Goemon and Mimasu Daigoro IV as Mashiba Hisayoshi (「石川五衛門」四代目中村歌右衛門、「真柴久吉」四代目三枡大五郎)Nakamura Utaemon IV as Ishikawa Goemon and Mimasu Daigoro IV as Mashiba Hisayoshi (「石川五衛門」四代目中村歌右衛門、「真柴久吉」四代目三枡大五郎),
Edo period, 1615–1868
Japanese -
The Cushion (Der Polster)The Cushion (Der Polster), 1903
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UntitledUntitled, 1984
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Untitled (Glass on Body Imprints – Face)Untitled (Glass on Body Imprints – Face), 1972
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Untitled (Glass on Body Imprints – Face)Untitled (Glass on Body Imprints – Face), 1972
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