Animal heads

I just stumbled across a marvelous set of drawings done by the 17thc French artist, Charles Le Brun. Here are a couple to give the flavor of it.




I could not find a book or even a web site that collected all these, but search on "Charles Le Brun physiognomy" and you'll see a whole treasure house full.

 

Found another fellow, Giovanni Battista Della Porta (that's a Pinterest link). Given my historical background, I ought to have thought about this--there was a real fad in fantastical illustrations starting in the later 1500s and lasting through the 1600s. I figure it was an effect of the discoveries in the New World. Once we get well into the 1700s the focus shifted to a realistic depiction of animals and the fantastical dropped away until the Romantics. Anyway, I find those older illustrations great imagination fodder for crafting fantasy creatures.

The interesting exercise for me is capturing the image in words. FWIW, I'm finding I do something analogous do what a sketch artist does--I don't try to describe the head (or full body) in detail or completely; rather, I focus on key elements--large, wide-set eyes, or bristles for hair--and let that serve as a trigger for the reader's own imagination. Or, at least that's what it says here on the box.