The museum collection

Look closer.

Objects that shaped how we see the face.
Follow each one into the ideas, evidence, and debates behind it.

Dürer’s studies of human proportion

A face can take many forms.

Dürer used grids to explore variations in the human head. Follow the history of proportion systems and the later claims made for the golden ratio.

The human skull

Explore the evolutionary context of the human face, including the questions that fossil evidence can help answer.

The classical canon

A sculpture can express a canon of proportion. Explore how perception, interpretation, and culture shape the way we read a face.