Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntniß und Menschenliebe
Physiognomische Fragmente is a German treatise on reading character from faces, written by Johann Caspar Lavater with engraved portraits arranged by Philipp Erasmus Reich and Heinrich Steiner, published in Leipzig in 1777 for readers interested in human understanding and benevolence. Its plates are small engraved head-and-shoulders portraits, mostly in profile or three-quarter view within ovals or circular frames, showing men in eighteenth-century wigs and coats; a designer might take from them the clean oval vignette format and the disciplined line hatching used to model faces.
