Man's head and sheep's head

British artists such as Rowlandson were exposed to Leonardo’s grotesques and to the caricatures of Pier Leone Ghezzi¬ through circulating reproductive prints. Rowlandson developed a significant reputation as a caricaturist during his career, frequently comparing humans and animals in his drawings, either through direct juxtapositions or more oblique associations in narrative scenes. The proximate comparison in this sheet would have held a humorous appeal for contemporaries. It also expanded on the idea that an individual’s character can be read through a study of physical appearances—a theory derived from Renaissance treatises such as Giovanni Della Porta’s De humana physiognomonia of 1587, which drew parallels between men and different animals.