Lo specchio e la statua: fisiognomica rinascimentale e terapia

Abstract

This essay compares the physiognomic works of Giovan Battista Della Porta (1535-1615) and Abramo Colorni (c. 1544-1599). While Della Porta’s is well known, Colorni’s treatise on the physiognomic reading of the hand, entitled Nova Chirofisionomia, was never printed and its circulation must have been limited. Della Porta and Colorni share an understanding of physiognomics as a deeply ethical practice. The key physiognomic principle, influentially formulated in the Pseudoaristotelian Physiognomonica, envisions a sympathy between the body and the soul. Traditionally, the physiognomist could use a variety of images, including statues, to diagnose another person in their absence. But by using a mirror, physiognomists could even diagnose themselves. Indeed, this essay shows that for both Della Porta and Colorni the main benefit of physiognomics is that it allows the practitioner not only to observe the body-soul interaction, but to actively modify it. Physiognomics is therefore conceived as a practice for healing the individual and by extension society more broadly.