A Nose for Leadership?
- sulla80
- Jul 16
- 8 min read
Updated: Jul 20
Aristotle
Physiognomy is the historical practice of judging a person’s character, intellect, or moral qualities based on their outward physical appearance, particularly the face - with special emphasis on the eyes, nose, mouth, and forehead. The term physiogamy comes from the Greek: physis (nature) + gnomon (judge or interpreter), meaning “judging nature” or “interpreting character.”
Today we might call this "judging a book by its cover". Aristotle’s Physiognomonica assumes a fundamental unity between inner character (êthos) and outer form (morphê), arguing that physical traits are reliable signs of moral and psychological qualities. He has a long list of the relationships between noses and characters:
Those that have thick extremities to the nostrils are lazy; witness cattle. Those that have a thickening at the end of the nose are insensitive; witness the boar. Those that have a sharp nose-tip are prone to anger; witness the dog. Those that have a circular nose-tip, but a flat one, are magnanimous; witness the lions. Those that have a thin nose-tip are bird-like; but when it is somewhat hooked and rises straight from the forehead they are shameless; witness ravens; but those who have an aquiline nose with a marked separation from the forehead are magnanimous; witness the eagle. Those who have a hollow nose, rounded where it rises from the forehead, and the rounded part standing above, are salacious; witness cocks. But the snub-nosed are also salacious; witness deer. Those whose nostrils are spread are passionate; this refers to the affection which occurs in the temper.
-Aristotle, Physiognomonica, 811a-30-35Was there a nose for leadership?
Roman portraiture, particularly in the form of sculptures and coins, played a crucial role in expressing and solidifying the auctoritas of Roman emperors and their families.
Auctoritas in Roman society was a powerful concept that can be translated as authority, prestige, and influence. It was not based solely on formal power but also on a person's reputation, achievements, and ability to command respect and inspire others. Emperors used their portraits on coins and public sculptures to spread their image and messages throughout the empire. The visual representation of the emperor could project an image of power, stability, and legitimacy.
Veristic/Realistic portraits focus on realism, showing individual features, wrinkles, and imperfections emphasizing traits like experience, age, and military prowess, contributing to the perceived gravitas and authority of the subject.
Classical portraits aim for the ideal, drawing inspiration from Greek ideals of beauty and perfection. Emperors like Augustus used this style to project an image of timeless youth, strength, and divine favor, reinforcing their authority and lineage.
Portraits were often combined with symbols and inscriptions that further reinforced the emperor's power and authority. Laurel crowns, triumphal cloaks, gods & virtues, and other symbols of imperial power were used to denote the emperor's status and connection to divine power. Here Nerva, as emperor, associates himself with symbols of religious authority and he has a recognizable nose:
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Leonardo da Vinci - had a lot to say about the classification of noses...in his discussion of "how to memorize the form of a face". However he did not subscribe to the theory that the nose defines the character of the man.
If you want to acquire facility in memorizing the appearance of a face, first learn by heart many heads, eyes, noses, mouths, chins, throats, and necks and shoulders.
Let us suppose, for example, that there are ten types of noses in profile: straight, hooked, concave, raised above or below the centerline, aquiline, flat, snub, round, and sharp. These are useful for profiles.
Facing forward, noses fall into eleven types: uniform, thick in the middle, thin in the middle, thick at the tip and thin at the root, thin at the tip and thick at the root, with wide nostrils, narrow, high or low, with open nostrils, or with nostrils obscured by the tip.
For Leonardo, character was most visible not in static features but in how the face moved under the pressure of thought or feeling.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)
Michelangelo was punched in the nose by a fellow painter - and made much of his long term injury. Here one can see his damaged nose. Michelangelo’s biographers, describe how he studied anatomy not only for realism, but also to convey character and spirit. He would have been of the same school of thought as Leonardo da Vinci.
See: Michelangelo's nose : a myth and its maker by Paul Barolsky.
Giambattista Porta (1535-1615): De humana physiognomonia
In the 16th century this idea of form and character had a resurgence. For some entertaining examples of noses and their implications for character see:
Porta, Giambattista della. Io. Baptistae Portae Neapolitani De humana physiognomonia libri IIII. Vici Aequensis [Naples]: Apud Iosephum Cacchium, 1586.
Chapter 9 – On the Nose: The nose is, in the structure of the face, the part that renders a man either beautiful or ugly above all others. In it lies the greatest variety. Indeed, there is no distinguishing of faces without reference to the nose. Among the ancients, according to Lampridius, men with pronounced noses were considered more virile and well-formed. Hence the common proverb about the “wealth of the big-nosed.” Large Nose
* A very large nose is a sign of a respectable man, affirms Polemon.
* A large nose is better, adds Adamantius.
* Albertus: a large nose is always better than a small one.Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac (1619–1655)
An 1897 play by Edmond Rostand is a fictionalized and romanticized story inspired by the real Cyrano. The real Cyrano wrote a philosophical-satirical proto-science-fiction story about a voyage to the moon (L’Autre Monde: Les États et Empires de la Lune) in which he describes why the moon people all have such large noses (and their qualities) - people with small noses are imprisoned.
A voyage to the moon: with some account of the solar world. A comical romance. Translated from the French of M. Cyrano de Bergerac. By Mr. Derrick in 1754.
This is the reason why you see everyone in this country with such large noses. When a matron is brought to bed, the child is carried to the seminary, where, at the end of one year, certain judges assemble to try the length of his nose. If it does not meet a certain measure—carefully preserved by the Syndic, he is judged to be short-nosed and is delivered over to certain persons who imprison him for life.
It may be asked, indeed, whether this barbarity can be defended, and how it happens that we force some to continence and yet hold virginity a crime. But know: this custom was not established until, after thirty years of observation, we found that a large nose is a sure sign of courtesy, affability, generosity, liberality, and greatness of soul. Wherefore we make eunuchs of the short-nosed, for the Republic would rather be uninhabited than overrun with a race of men unworthy of her.By now you are certainly wondering - why so nosy - isn't this a blog about art, ancient coins and history? Well - this whole post started with a coin with a healthy sized nose from Domitian. Roman emperors were very deliberate about their portrayal on coinage to project authority and virtue - did this nose send a message about Domitian's leadership qualities?
His father had a pretty good "aquiline" nose too - looking especially hawkish on thi coin from the Ephesus mint:
Aristotle would have seen Vespasian as a magnanimous leader.
when it is somewhat hooked and rises straight from the forehead they are shameless; witness ravens; but those who have an aquiline nose with a marked separation from the forehead are magnanimous; witness the eagle.Giambattista Porta might even have had Vespasian in mind when he drew this portrait:
When it comes to a good hooked nose - few can outdo Grypos (Antiochus VIII) - but I suppose this is not a Roman nose, but instead a Greek nose.
The Seleucid Kings, Antiochus VIII Epiphanes, Grypus (Greek: Γρυπός, "hook-nose"), AD 121-96, Antiochia, Tetradrachm circa 109-96, AR 27.00 mm., 15.57 g.
Obv: Diademed head r. within fillet border
Rev: Zeus Nikephoros seated left; monogram in left field, all within wreath
Ref: SC 2309
18th Century: Lavater (1741-1801)
Johann Caspar Lavater (1741‑1801) wrote a four‑volume Physiognomische Fragmente popularized physiognomy in Enlightenment Europe and directly influenced art, criminology, and even Kant. This image of 9 noses was designed for a plate to J. C. Lavater’s, ‘Essays on Physiognomy’, trans. Henry Hunter, London 1789–1798, vol.III.ii., facing p.370. In the text Lavater analyses each nose.
Johann Kaspar Lavater's system of physiognomy, which attempted to assess a person's character and moral virtue based on their facial features, assigned significant importance to the nose, Lavater believed the nose was a crucial feature for understanding a person's character and even intellect.
He assigned specific interpretations to various nose shapes, often comparing them to animals to convey specific personality traits. For example:
Thick, bulbous noses suggested insensitivity.
Sharp-tipped noses indicated irascibility.
Rounded, large, obtuse noses represented magnanimity.
Slender, hooked noses were likened to the eagle.
Given the examples above - one can see the earlier influences.
Goethe initially helped his friend Lavater in soliciting silhouettes, however he later objected to the theory on the grounds of scientific rigor. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-99) a satirist called the fad the “physiognomische Raserei” (physiognomic frenzy) and dissected Lavater’s nose rules with wit:
“If a flat nose signifies schadenfreude, will a man become malicious the moment someone presses his nose flat?"
-Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, On Physiognomy; Against the Physiognomists: For the Promotion of Human Knowledge and the Love of Humanity (1778) The original German available on archive.org: Über Physiognomik wider die Physiognomen zu Beförderung der Menschenliebe und Menschenkenntniß. Lichtenberg warned that the Lavater invited social prejudice and charlatanism.
19th-20th Century Physiognomy
Physiognomy was co-opted by phrenology, racial anthropology, and criminal "science", e.g. Criminal Man according to Cesare Lombroso Published in 1911:
If we examine a number of criminals, we shall find that they exhibit numerous anomalies in the face, skeleton, and various psychic and sensitive functions, so that they strongly resemble primitive races. It was these anomalies that first drew my father's attention to the close relationship between the criminal and the savage and made him suspect that criminal tendencies are of atavistic origin.
It was often used to justify racism, eugenics, and classist theories - turning from artful observation to ideological instrument. By the early 20th century, it was debunked by emerging disciplines:
Scientific psychology
Neuroscience
Anthropology
Physiognomy became a pseudoscience, lumped with alchemy and phrenology in the category of discredited knowledge.
Perhaps this is the right moment to turn to Steve Martin as Cyrano de Bergerac giving a tour de force of "big nose" jokes in the Movie Roxanne. Physiognomic imagination still shows up in comedy.
Although, Physiognomy may have been scientifically discredited, it persists today in subtler forms of racial profiling. Modern facial recognition algorithms raise the specter of physiognomy - rating faces for “trustworthiness,” “criminality,” or “employability” based on appearance alone. Reading character from the face has migrated from marble busts and coins to machine learning and surveillance platforms.
Here are two of many articles highlighting abuse and risk of abuse
Back to coins and portraits - this portrait of Constantine the Great from Cyzicus, portrays the emperor with a good nose for leadership.
Perhaps the emperor's noses did not define them and the true sign of greatness is not the length of one’s nose - but the lengths one goes to defend it.