Heads of Birds

Original Etching from J.C. Lavater's "Essays on Physiognomy, Designed to promote the Knowledge and the Love of Mankind", London, Bensley, 1810. 

This artwork portrays heads of birds.

Good conditions, except for some stains.

Johann Caspar Lavater was a swiss theologian and philosopher known throughout Europe for his studies on physiognomy. Following the physiognomy tradition of Della Porta and of many Renaissance and Baroque philosophers, he believed that the character of a person could be elucidated through examining their “lines of countenance" i.e. tracing a profile outline portrait. Being able to "read outside" was the key to "know the inside". Lavater's thought largely influenced Art in the late 18th and early 19th century, as in the case of Johann Fuseli and William Blake (who realized two etchings for Lavater's english edition of his Essay).