ABSTRACT
According to the young neapolitan humanist Pomponius Gauricus, whose De Sculptura was published in Florence late in 1504, some few months after Michelangelo’s David had been set in place, physiognomy is “a certain manner of observation by which we recognize from the signs of the body the qualities of the soul.” 1 We recognize the invisible soul in the visible body, he continues by way of illustration, just as we recognize a craftsman by his tools or the character of a lord by his palace. This relationship is reversible—we might also deduce the tools of the craftsman from a knowledge of his craft or the appearance of his palace from the status and character of a lord. So, since the sculptor does more than merely duplicate appearances, the science of physiognomy is of great use to him, “and indeed to all mankind” for it makes it possible to resurrect the great men of antiquity, truly to envision the features of Catullus, Vitruvius, and Pliny from what we know of their natures. 2
