Details
BELL, Charles (1774-1882). Essays on the Anatomy of Expression in Painting. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1806.
4o (298 x 238 mm). 6 stipple-engraved plates, numerous stipple-engraved text illustrations. (Lacks half-title and publisher's advertisements, occasional minor spotting.) Modern calf.
FIRST EDITION. Bell's artistic and literary skills, combined with his knowledge of anatomy and physiology, served to make his essays on the anatomy of expression in painting a tour de force of science, art history and philosophy. Although the expression of emotions had often been treated by artists, it had rarely been studied by someone who excelled in both art and science, and never as completely as in the present work. Bell's exposition of the anatomical and physiological basis of facial expression was probably more useful to artists than scientists. However, it impressed Charles Darwin, who stated in the Expression of the Emotions, that Bell had laid "the foundations of the subject as a branch of science" (p. 2). Garrison-Morton 6604.92; Gordon-Taylor 6; Norman 170.
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FIRST EDITION. Bell's artistic and literary skills, combined with his knowledge of anatomy and physiology, served to make his essays on the anatomy of expression in painting a tour de force of science, art history and philosophy. Although the expression of emotions had often been treated by artists, it had rarely been studied by someone who excelled in both art and science, and never as completely as in the present work. Bell's exposition of the anatomical and physiological basis of facial expression was probably more useful to artists than scientists. However, it impressed Charles Darwin, who stated in the Expression of the Emotions, that Bell had laid "the foundations of the subject as a branch of science" (p. 2). Garrison-Morton 6604.92; Gordon-Taylor 6; Norman 170.