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Temperamental!: Prints in the Collection of Bryn Mawr College

Jacques Philippe Le Bas (French, 1707-1873), after Carel van Falens (Flemish, 1683-1733); Departure for the Hunt (1742). Etching & engraving; VP.259.

Gift of Abbey A. K. Turner Van Pelt Grimscom, Class of 1952, Katherine Drexel Van Pelt Beaver, & Charles B. P. Van Pelt. Both the lustful, sanguine temperament and the hunt, the privileged act of hunting for sport, are traditionally aligned with masculinity. In Departure for the Hunt, however, aristocratic women are at the forefront of this idealizing scene, atop their horses alongside the men they seem prepared to accompany into the hunt.

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Checklist of the Exhibition 64 structured_gallery 2020-08-17T20:31:29+00:00
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Checklist of Rare Books in the Exhibition
- Robert Burton (English, 1577–1640) The Anatomy of Melancholy: What it is, with all the kinds, causes, symptomes, prognostickes & seuerall cures of it. In three partitions, with their severall sections, members & sub-sections. Philosophically, medicinally, historicallly, opened & cut vp. Printed in English Oxford: Printed for Henry Cripps, 1638, fifth edition
- Johann Caspar Lavater (German, 1741–1801) Physiognomy, or, The corresponding analogy between the conformation of the features, and the ruling passions of the mind. Printed in English London: Printed for H.D. Symonds, not before 1790
- Johann Caspar Lavater (German, 1741–1801) The Pocket Lavater, or, The Science of Physiognomy: To which is added, An inquiry into the analogy existing between brute and human physiognomy, from the Italian of Porta. Printed in English Hartford: Andrus & Judd, 1832
- Charles Le Brun (French, 1619–1690) Expressions des Passions de L’Ame. Printed in French Paris, 1727
- Cesare Ripa (Italian, 1560–1645) Iconologia di Cesare Ripa Perugino, caure. De’Sti. Mauritio e Lazzaro: Nella quale si descriuono diuerse imagini di virtù, vitij, affetti, passioni humane, arti, discipline, humori, elementi, corpi celesti, prouincie d’Italia, fiumi, tutte le parti del mundo, ed altere infinite materie: ... Printed in Italian Siena: Appresso gli geredi di Matteo Florimi, 1613 Purchased with Seymour Adelman fund
- Cesare Ripa (Italian, 1560–1645) Iconologia di Cesare Ripa: Divisa in tre libri, ne I quali si quali si esprimono varie imagini di virtù, vitij, affetti, passioni humane, arti, discipline, humori, elementi, corpi celesti, prouincie d’Italia, fiumi, & altire materie infinite vtili ad ogni stato di persone. Printed in Italian Venice: C. Tomasini, 1645
- Hartmann Schedel (German, 1440– 1514) Liber Chronicarum (Nuremberg Chronicle). Printed in Latin Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 1493. Deposit of Phyllis Goodhart Gordon (BMC 1935)
- Otto van Veen (Dutch, 1556–1629) Amorum emblemata, figuris aeneis in cisa. Antuerpiae: Venalia apud auctorem, 1607
Gender

Prints, such as the enlarged reproduction of a woodcut from the Swiss physician and alchemist Leonhard Thurneysser’s book Quinta Essentia (1574) seen here, could function as teaching tools, diagraming the four temperaments as gendered attributes of bodies. The temperaments developed masculine and feminine associations that reinforced the idea that melancholic and phlegmatic temperaments were more appropriate for women, and the choleric and sanguine temperaments were better suited to men.
Read in a contemporary light, this illustration also suggests that the potential for all temperaments (and genders) resides within a single body. Prints in this section nuance the four humors as not strictly masculine or feminine. Like gender, the temperaments are fluid. These prints further suggest that issues of labor, class, race, and sexuality are inherently tied to gender performativity and thus temperamental interpretation.