Johann Kaspar Lavater Summary

Lavater, Johann Kaspar(1741–1801) Johann Kaspar Lavater, the German-Swiss poet, physiognomist, and theologian, was born in Zürich. He studied at the gymnasium there under the literary cr... Read more

A religious enthusiast verging on zealotry, Johann Kaspar Lavater lived the life of a pastor in Zurich--counseling prisoners on death row, working in an orphanage, and preaching Sunday sermons. At the... Read more

In the following essay, Graham chronicles the reception and influence of Lavater's works in England. When Johann Caspar Lavater died in 1801, a leading British periodical, The Scots Magazine... Read more

In the following essay, Shortland briefly summarizes the history of physiognomy, then concentrates on Lavater's approach to facial analysis as described in his Physiognomischen Fragmente. In... Read more

In the following excerpt, Berland argues that an evaluation of Lavater's comments on images of Socrates indicates that his method of physiognomy is not empirical, but instead “pseudo-ind... Read more

In the following essay, Tytler considers the immense, if generalized, influence of Lavater's Physiognomischen Fragmente on the nineteenth-century English novel. It is curious to reflect that... Read more

In the following essay, Berland highlights Georg Christoph Lichtenberg's criticism of Lavater's physiognomy, using the example of Samuel Johnson to elucidate contradictions and weaknesse... Read more