Petrus Camper, Theory of Facial Angle,1770

Petrus Camper, Theory of Facial Angle,1770

On the first canvas the head of a child, the head of an adult man, and the head of an old man were shown with their skulls above them, all in profile. Facial Angles refers to the content of two lectures by Petrus Camper on August 1st and 8th in 1770 to the Amsterdam Drawing Academy. Camper's main points in his first lecture were that classical drawing lessons from the time of Vitruvius, including the teachings of Dürer and Perreault, were based on an incorrect assumption that the human head was oval at all ages, and he proceeded to prove this with his dimensions of the skulls. He then demonstrated on his sketches, by shortening the chin he could transform a likeness of a man to an old man, and by adjusting the facial angle, he changed a Moor into a European. Camper's work was later quoted again and again, and his engraved drawings were used to prove that he had tried to show a hierarchy of facial angles from the orangutan to the European, but this was never part of either of the two lectures. In fact, he was only trying to help artists make better portraits. Petrus Camper (May 11, 1722 - April 7, 1789) was a Dutch physician, anatomist, physiologist, midwife, zoologist, anthropologist, paleontologist and a naturalist.

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4320 x 2851 px | 35.2 MB

36.6 x 24.1 cm | 14.4 x 9.5 in (300 dpi)