Fissare le emozioni. Mantegazza e Darwin e la fotografia delle espressioni

On occasion of his study on expressions of pain, Paolo Mantegazza inaugurates a new way to use photography in anthropological research. This paper takes a close look at images taken and collected for the Florentine scientist by photographer Brogi and analyses them in relationship to works of the same period by Duchenne de Boulogne and Charles Darwin, in an attempt to point out the methodological premises and cultural implications of the physiognomy, a confused meeting place in positive science, theatricality and art.