The ideal of perfection in the writings of Lavater : the concept of beauty in Orzeszkowa : Lavater’s theory or Greek "kalos kagathos"?

Strona wydawcy: https://www.wuj.pl

The article concerns issues of beauty present in the 1868 debut novel by Eliza Orzeszkowa Last Love, which has been analyzed in the context of: kalos kagathos and Johann Caspar Lavater’s views presented in the famous late eighteenth century treatise "Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beförderung und der Menschenkenntnis Menschenliebe". The novelist in her creative thinking approached the beliefs of Lavater being convinced about the impact of moral beauty on the beauty of the fl esh, as well as kalos kagathos of the ancient Greeks. The literary creations of Orzeszkowa correspond with the views of the Swiss pastor Lavater on perfection and the perfect combination of moral and bodily beauty, in accordance with his opinion: "The better morally, the more beautiful. The worse morally, the uglier?.