Aquiline nose

"Roman nose" redirects here. For the Cheyenne warrior, see Hook Nose.

A woman with an aquiline nose

An aquiline nose (also called a Roman nose) is a human nose with a prominent bridge, giving it the appearance of being curved or slightly bent. While some have ascribed the aquiline nose to specific ethnic, racial, or geographic groups, and in some cases associated it with other supposed non-physical characteristics (i.e. intelligence, status, personality, etc.—see below), no scientific studies or evidence support any such linkage. As with many phenotypical expressions (e.g. 'widow's peak', eye color, earwax type) it is found in many geographically diverse populations.

Etymology

A comparison of an aquiline nose and an eagle's beak

The word aquiline comes from the Latin word aquilinus ("eagle-like"), an allusion to the curved beak of an eagle.[1][2][3]

In Literature

From parody nose classification Notes on Noses: "It indicates great decision, considerable Energy, Firmness, Absence of Refinement, and disregard for the bienseances of life".[4]

In some fictional works, especially that of post-Enlightenment Western writers, a Roman nose has been characterized as a marker of beauty and nobility.[5] A well-known example of the aquiline nose as a marker contrasting the bearer with their contemporaries is the protagonist of Aphra Behn's Oroonoko (1688). Although an African prince, he speaks French, has straightened hair, thin lips, and a "nose that was rising and Roman instead of African and flat".[6] These features set him apart from most of his peers, and marked him instead as noble and on par with Europeans.[7][8][9]

Racism

In the context of scientific racism, writers have attributed aquiline noses as a characteristic of different "races"; e.g. Jan Czekanowski claimed that it was characteristic of the Arabid race, Armenoid race, Mediterranean race, and Dinarid race.[10] In 1899, William Z. Ripley claimed that it was characteristic of peoples of Teutonic descent.[11] The supposed science of physiognomy, popular during the Victorian era, made the "prominent" nose a marker of Aryanness: "the shape of the nose and the cheeks indicated, like the forehead's angle, the subject's social status and level of intelligence. A Roman nose was superior to a snub nose in its suggestion of firmness and power, and heavy jaws revealed a latent sensuality and coarseness".[12]

Notable examples

Cleopatra

An ancient Roman portrait head, c. 50–30 BC, now located in the British Museum, which may depict Cleopatra, or a woman who closely modelled herself on her[13]

In ancient portraiture, Cleopatra is typically depicted with a prominent aquiline nose.[14][15][16] The French polymath, Blaise Pascal, believed that the queen's nose was an element of the physical attraction with which she seduced both Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, writing in his Pensées that, "The nose of Cleopatra: if it had been shorter, the whole face of the earth would have changed".[17][18]

See also

References

  1. ^ Eliza Cook (1851). Eliza Cook's Journal. J. O. Clark. p. 381.
  2. ^ John C. Fredriksen (1 January 2001). America's Military Adversaries: From Colonial Times to the Present. ABC-CLIO. p. 432. ISBN 978-1-57607-603-3. He matured into a powerfully built man, tall, muscular, with an aquiline profile that gave rise to the name Woquni, or 'Hook Nose'. The whites translated this into the more familiar moniker of Roman Nose. In his early youth, Roman Nose ...
  3. ^ Henry Neuman; Giuseppe Marco Antonio Baretti (1827). Neuman and Baretti's Dictionary of the Spanish and English Languages: Spanish and English. Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins. p. 65. Aquiline, resembling an eagle; when applied to the nose, hooked.
  4. ^ Jabet, George (1852). Notes on Noses. Richard Bentley. p. 9.
  5. ^ Adams, Mikaëla M. (2009). "Savage Foes, Noble Warriors, and Frail Remnants: Florida Seminoles in the White Imagination, 1865-1934". The Florida Historical Quarterly. 87 (3): 404–35. JSTOR 20700234.
  6. ^ Behn, Aphra (1987). Adelaide P. Amore (ed.). Oroonoko, Or, The Royal Slave: A Critical Edition. UP of America. p. 10. ISBN 9780819165299.
  7. ^ Gates, Henry Louis (1998). "Introduction". In Henry Louis Gates; William L. Andrews (eds.). Pioneers of the Black Atlantic: Five Slave Narratives from the Enlightenment, 1772-1815. Civitas. pp. 1–30. ISBN 9781887178983.
  8. ^ Popkin, Richard Henry (1988). Millenarianism and Messianism in English Literature and Thought, 1650-1800: Clark Library Lectures, 1981-1982. Brill. p. 206. ISBN 9789004085138.
  9. ^ Bohls, Elizabeth (2013). Romantic Literature and Postcolonial Studies. Oxford UP. p. 52. ISBN 9780748678754.
  10. ^ Czekanowski, Jan (1934). Człowiek w Czasie i Przestrzeni (eng. A Human in Time and Space) - The lexicon of biological anthropology. Kraków, Poland: Trzaska, Ewert i Michalski - Bibljoteka Wiedzy.
  11. ^ Winlow, Heather (2006). "Mapping Moral Geographies: W. Z. Ripley's Races of Europe and the United States". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 96 (1): 119–41. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.2006.00502.x. JSTOR 3694148. S2CID 145454002.
  12. ^ Cowling, Mary (1989). The Artist as Anthropologist: The Representation of Type and Character in Victorian Art. Cambridge. Cambridge UP. Quoted in McNees, Eleanor (2004). "Punch and the Pope: Three Decades of Anti-Catholic Caricature". Victorian Periodicals Review. 37 (1): 18–45. JSTOR 20083988.
  13. ^ "portrait head |". British Museum. Archived from the original on 13 February 2026. Retrieved 18 April 2026.
  14. ^ Walker, Susan; Higgs, Peter (3 June 2001). Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth. Princeton University Press. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-691-08835-8. Retrieved 18 April 2026. The strong, aquiline nose and hair tied back in a bun identify the subject as Cleopatra VII.
  15. ^ Sanghani, Radhika (5 January 2018). "Cleopatra had a big, beautiful nose. So let's see it onscreen". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 June 2024. Retrieved 18 April 2026.
  16. ^ Toynbee, J.M.C. (1978). Roman Historical Portraits. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801410116.
  17. ^ van Oppen, Branko (20 January 2020). "Cleopatra's Nose, Blaise Pascal". World History Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 6 February 2026. Retrieved 18 April 2026.
  18. ^ Pascal, Blaise. "Pensées" (PDF). University of Freiburg (in French). p. 70. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 March 2026. Retrieved 18 April 2026. Le nez de Cléopâtre s'il eût été plus court toute la face de la terre aurait changé. [If Cleopatra’s nose had been shorter, the whole face of the earth would have been changed.]

Further reading

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