A series of heads shading by degrees from a man's face toward an animal's — the owl, the ox, the lion — the old physiognomic conceit that a person's features betrayed the beast in their nature. The comparison runs back to Giambattista della Porta's De humana physiognomonia of 1586 and was drawn most memorably by the painter Charles Le Brun a century later. It is a striking, unsettling idea rendered with genuine artistry: the face as a scale between human and animal. We frame it strictly as history — a belief long discredited, preserved for the graphic invention of its plates and the window they open on an older way of seeing.

Maker: Giambattista della Porta, after Charles Le Brun
Date: 1586
Medium of the original: Plate
Original held by: After Charles Le Brun · scan: Wikimedia Commons
Credit: After Charles Le Brun · scan: Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00475

As chosen: 8 x 10 in, art print, classic frame
Picture	8 x 10 in
Outside size	9.6 x 11.6 in
Depth	0.9 in (22 mm)
Weight	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]]
Hanging	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]]
Material	Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing
Made in	Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes offered
Size	dpi	Grade	How it fits
8 x 10 in	153	Good	Trimmed 3.1%

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
8 x 12 in	Wrong shape: a 14% crop
11 x 14 in	111 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
12 x 16 in	98 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
12 x 18 in	Wrong shape: a 14% crop
16 x 20 in	76 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
16 x 24 in	Wrong shape: a 14% crop
18 x 24 in	65 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
20 x 30 in	Wrong shape: a 14% crop
24 x 30 in	51 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
24 x 36 in	Wrong shape: a 14% crop
30 x 40 in	39 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
36 x 48 in	32 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
40 x 60 in	Wrong shape: a 14% crop

Scanned: 2026-10-07
Master file: 1,226 x 1,582 px, srgb
Tone: Darks 56, lights 245 of 255; 0.1% clipped light, 0.1% clipped dark
Colour: 0% vivid
Sharpness: 108.76