Studie van een mannenhoofd 1684 - 1731

Lambert ten Kate created this pen and ink drawing, "Study of a Man’s Head" sometime between 1694 and 1731. Ten Kate was a linguist and art theorist, and his interest in the universality of language perhaps fueled this study into the universal proportions of the male head. Marked with a meticulous grid and precise measurements, the artwork is a scientific approach to the human form. During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the concept of the "ideal" human form was very much enmeshed with gender and race. While seemingly objective, the standards of beauty were, in reality, rooted in cultural biases that privileged European features. Consider how the scientific nature of this drawing may have reinforced then-contemporary notions of beauty, or, did it challenge them? What do you feel when you contemplate this attempt to capture the universal in a portrait of a man?