ABSTRACT
The idea that external form corresponds to internal qualities in the sense of a hidden human blueprint, which can be discerned through signs in the outer appearance, can be traced back to scattered statements by ancient philosophers such as Pythagoras, Aristotle and Hippocrates. This concept was particularly popular in the early modern period. This chapter brings together natural philosophy, medicine and physiognomy to focus on this concept in the influential work De humana physiognomia (On human physiognomy, 1586) by the Neapolitan scholar Giovan Battista Della Porta. Situating Della Porta's treatise within the Galenic theory of humours, it shows how medical and aesthetic concepts merged in a model that linked beauty, health and moral virtue. By defining bodily harmony and moderation as indicators of physical and moral integrity, Della Porta's physiognomy reveals the close interconnection between medicine, artistic theory and anthropology in early modern thought.
