Women of any age are always concerned about their beauty - they adjust it to existing standards, endure painful procedures and limit themselves for the sake of their figure. However, if you look at it from a slightly different angle, you will find that each era had its own canons of beauty.
Surely, each of us looked at the works of Renaissance artists and thought - why do all the canvases depict ladies with curvy figures? Throughout the history of mankind there have been completely opposite requirements for female beauty, and they did not always correspond to modern ones.
This article contains the canons of beauty in different eras of ours!
Ancient Egypt
@nbeyin.com.tEgyptian women were among the first to pay great attention to their beauty. They washed with soap in rivers, always used cosmetics and oiled their bodies. Egyptian women were slender, but not thin, but with developed muscles and small breasts. They often wore translucent outfits and waxed their entire bodies.
Much attention was paid to hair - thick dark hair, which was styled in a high hairstyle, was valued. Almond-shaped eyes, a straight nose and large lips were considered ideal facial features. Egyptians painted their eyebrows and lips, enlarged their eyelashes and caused a blush on their cheeks with iris juice.
All cosmetics were made from natural ingredients, including special body paint to give her a bronze tan. Hygiene was a top priority for them; in addition, women often used oils and aromatic mixtures to scent themselves.
Ancient Greece
@edu.glogster.com The ancient Greeks were the first to raise the proportions of the human body to the level of art. They paid great attention to harmony and sought to understand ideal forms. Scientists have found that according to the Greeks, a woman was considered beautiful with a height of 164 cm, and with proportions of 86-69-93. However, they usually depicted goddesses; ordinary women did not inspire their creativity.
The Greeks believed that those who have an ideal body cannot have a sinful soul. They highly valued standards of beauty and expressed them in art. A woman's athletic body and small breasts were valued. The Greek canon meant a straight nose, wide eyes and large lips. Greek women's thick hair was often worn in complex hairstyles. By the way, in Ancient Greece there was no particular respect for cosmetics and flashy clothes - women mostly stayed at home with their children.
Ancient Rome
@brewminate.com IN Ancient Rome The fashion for long baths and aromatic oils has returned. For different parts Roman women used different oils on their bodies, and their baths were filled with rose petals and other fragrant ingredients. Rich Roman women spent a lot of time before going public.
The ideal of female beauty was considered to be a portly and stately figure with prominent hips, which guaranteed her ability to bear children. Facial features should be large - eyes, lips, nose; the hump on the nose was especially valued as a sign of aristocracy. As for the hair of the Romans, it was dark, but they had the fashion to lighten it or wear light wigs. Caring for curls and complex hairstyles were part of the mandatory procedures of ancient Roman women.
Middle Ages
After the fall of the Roman Empire, female beauty gradually began to fade, and religion turned self-care, cosmetics and jewelry into sinful thoughts. The main feature Medieval ladies had asceticism, their hair was hidden under headdresses, their dresses were heavy and closed. The main canon of beauty was considered fragility and miniature, huge eyes and an image of innocence.
@thepinsta.com The image of the ideal woman was the Virgin Mary, who was depicted as full of sorrow and very thin. In the 13th century, people's well-being began to improve, and plump Madonnas and Babies and beautiful ladies came into fashion. The image of a white-skinned and fragile girl who inspired knights to exploits began to be popularized in society. During Gothic times, pregnant ladies were especially beautiful, so everyone put an imitation belly under their dress, even brides.
Hygiene, like cosmetics, was not in the first place, so perfumes were created to repel unpleasant body odors. Facial features were small, valued big eyes and a high forehead. Also, a thin figure with complete absence breasts - girls tightened their busts and hid them in every possible way. Only two centuries later, corsets became popular, which lifted the breasts and highlighted them, and ladies began to emphasize their beauty and decorate themselves.
Renaissance era
It is not for nothing that this period is also called the Renaissance; Europe came to life after several centuries of prohibitions and again showed attention to the body. Beauty began to be considered a gift from God, and women and men were expected to have obvious gender differences. Ladies valued large hips and breasts, and artists praised women's bodies and depicted them in art.
During the Renaissance, great attention was paid to women's breasts; artists often depicted breastfeeding or naked women. The Church stopped zealously monitoring sinfulness, and naked bodies on canvas became fashionable. Outfits have also become more revealing and flattering. During this period there was a real flourishing in European society in all directions.
Baroque
@pinterest.com In the Baroque era, as the 16th-17th centuries were also called, fashion was dictated by France, ruled by Louis XIV. As in the Renaissance, voluminous shapes were valued, but with one difference - women should have a thin waist and a swan neck. The thinness of the waist was achieved with the help of a corset, which at the same time raised the chest and made the bust attractive.
After the lush and rich Baroque came the Rococo era. She is more feminine - women resembled porcelain figurines. Much attention was paid to women's breasts; dress bodices were more revealing and accessible to men. They also pay attention to underwear - decorated stockings and beautiful petticoats are in fashion.
The figure becomes more fragile and graceful, ladies emphasize their thin waist and wide hips. Cosmetics are actively used, girls spend tons of powder and draw spots on their faces. A separate topic is wigs, they have become a real work of art. This era is distinguished by theatricality and flirtation - even in the paintings, women took flirtatious poses.
19th century
@pinterest.com This century is also called the Empire era; corsets and full skirts finally went out of fashion. Dresses in an antique style, made of light fabrics, without a pronounced waist, have become popular. However, historians note that ladies suffered from such fashions and died from pneumonia because the thin fabrics were often dampened to create beautiful frills.
However, corsets also did not completely go out of fashion and reached absurd levels - the waist reached 55 cm. Pampered and sophisticated ladies with an hourglass figure were extremely popular. The dresses were decorated with puffy sleeves, huge hats and long hemlines.
XX century
The last century gave us many canons of beauty - from boyish figures in the 20s to slender models in the 80s. A typical example of a sex symbol for the 20th century is the actress Marilyn Monroe and her body type.
Depending on the decade, the requirements for female beauty also changed. It seems that over the past hundred years they have changed many times, and very dramatically! In the 20s, ladies who received freedom and the right to vote began to experiment with trousers, stylish clothes and short haircuts. The golden era of Hollywood brought curvy hips and breasts with a thin waist, and in the 90s the sallowness and thinness returned.
Our days
IN modern world It is difficult to single out a canon of beauty - fashion inexorably changes every year. Either thin models are popular, then girls with curvy figures, or body positivity. It seems that now it is easier for the fair sex to express their inner “I” with the help of clothes, cosmetics and countless various procedures.
The Middle Ages era was replaced by the next one. The improvement of tools led to an increase in products - a surplus appeared. This gave impetus to the development of trade, and for this purpose, communication routes were established between individual provinces and between different states. Great geographical discoveries thundered. Places that were at the intersection of routes became centers of trade. Culture began to develop in them. General integration gives the right to talk about a generalization of the ideal of beauty for Europe, although we know that these lands developed rather heterogeneously.
In any case, the ideal of beauty of the Renaissance was different from the ideal of beauty of the previous era. The taboo imposed by the church was lifted from the human body. The Soul recedes into the background, and the Body appears before us in all its grandeur.
Beauty is now again inextricably linked with the body. They stopped treating female beauty as a devilish temptation, and the body as a sinful vessel. On the contrary: beauty is now a gift from God, deserving worship, and beautiful female bodies appear in the paintings of all outstanding painters.
People remembered that “they had already seen this once,” and art took the achievements of antiquity as a model. The desire for the polar opposite of the sexes came into fashion, and this set the following rule: perfect beauty is contained in the expression of the sexual differences of a man and a woman. Emphasized female sexual characteristics have become the key to beauty. On the other hand, health fashion dictated that a woman should have all the necessary qualities for motherhood - first of all, large breasts. Wide hips, a strong waist and thick buttocks were considered beautiful. A girl's beauty was inferior to the beauty of a mature woman of 35-40 years old.
“Ah, Owl, I love the laughing wrinkle near your eye, not a creature of juicy youth, but a creature of experience. When my greedy hands embrace your magnificent figure, your daughter’s breasts do not seduce me. I love ripe autumn, and for it I forget spring. Go ! I will rock you until winter covers the grapes with a white veil."
The preference given to a mature mother over a newly blossoming daughter, the idea that the mature charms of the former were more seductive, was expressed directly in the most diverse forms. Breasts, which have already become the source of life, most of all attract and interest men. That is why artists were so willing to depict Mary nursing a baby. That is why also in the 15th and 16th centuries. wells and fountains were so often built in the form of a woman from whose breasts water splashes. She is the best symbol of life splashing in all directions, a symbol of nourishing forces. Suffice it to recall the famous “well of virtue” in Nuremberg. A hundred other examples could be given. All of them are equally precious and wonderful proofs of the creative fervor of the era. Wine often flowed from such fountains, which the city or prince treated the people to on a holiday.
A beautiful woman who has reached maturity can naturally make the highest demands on her husband, which, however, is discussed in more detail in the chapter on love in the Renaissance.
The same point of view explains to us why then, in contrast to other eras, a pregnant woman was considered aesthetically beautiful. And not only in a figurative sense, not only as a symbol of motherhood, no, the very state of pregnancy made an aesthetic impression. The proof, in our opinion, is the fact that art very often depicted a pregnant woman, and, moreover, with all characteristic features pregnancy. The most famous painting in this regard is “La Gravida” (“The Pregnant Woman.” — Ed.), attributed to Raphael. Another proof is that when depicting naked women, they willingly gave them the appearance of being pregnant. Suffice it to recall van Eyck’s Eve and other similar female images.
Clothing has become more open.Dresses now show off shoulders and bust generously, with fake hips and fake bellies used to simulate fullness.During the Renaissance, it was not forbidden to pose nude for paintings. There is even a certain fashion among aristocrats to depict their loved ones in the costume of Eve. New industrial relations, which were gaining momentum, required an increase in the number of workers, that is, the birth of more children, and this determined the fashion for pregnancy.This was reflected in the costume - clothes began to be sewn with ruffles above the waist.
If in the early Renaissance, a pale complexion and long silky strands of blond hair were the canons of beauty for women in Florence, and a slender “swan neck” and a high, clean forehead were considered ideal, to lengthen which women shaved the front of their hair and plucked their eyebrows, then the high Renaissance brings a completely different understanding beauty. Instead of thin, slender, agile figures, curvaceous, powerful bodies with wide hips and luxurious fullness of the neck and shoulders triumph.
The woman was supposed to be Juno and Venus in one person. A woman whose corsage foreshadows luxurious breasts is valued above all else. That is why the girl is already flaunting her magnificent breasts. According to Brantome, a majestically built woman deserves the deepest admiration. She must be tall and impressive, must have lush, beautiful breasts, wide hips, strong buttocks - like Venus Callipyges - full arms and legs, “capable of strangling a giant.” This, according to Brantome, is a beautiful, regal woman. These are the women of Rubens, created by him for immortal life.
The contemplation of such women brings the highest joy, because their possession promises a man the deepest pleasure. Brantôme says regarding the love affair of a woman majestic in her physique: “That is why plump women deserve preference, if only for the sake of their beauty and greatness, for for these latter, as for their other perfections, they are valued. Thus, it is much more pleasant to manage a tall and a beautiful war horse, and the latter gives the rider much more pleasure than a small nag.”
A special golden-red hair color, so beloved by Venetians, is coming into fashion - a color that later came to be called “Titian’s color.”
Poets in different countries write treatises on beauty and try to verify appearance down to the millimeter: “the length of the nose is equal to the length of the lips, both ears are equal in area open mouth, and the height of the body is eight times the height of the head.”
Or the more famous: “A beautiful woman should have: three white things - skin, teeth, hands; three black - eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes; three pink ones - lips, cheeks, nails; three long ones - body, hair, fingers; three short ones - teeth, ears, feet; three thin ones - lips, waist, feet; three full - arms, thighs, calves; three small ones - nipples, nose, head..."
In particular, enthusiastic hymns are sung to the beauty of the bust. Breasts as white as Ivory, they are like Venus’s hills or two sugar loaves, they protrude from the bodice like “two rising spring suns,” they “rise like two spears,” etc. Hymns of praise are heard everywhere in honor of women’s breasts. Wherever a hymn is composed in honor of a woman, the breasts are sung first and loudest. Hans Sachs sings about his beauty: “She has a white neck, and under it two breasts, decorated and streaked with blue veins.”
Perhaps the most enthusiastic hymn in honor of beautiful breasts belongs to Clément Marot, who composed a dithyramb to all its virtues, glorified the spell of voluptuousness it evokes, all the desires that it arouses in a man...
The great Rubens made his contribution by writing his “Treatise on the Human Body,” where he stated: “Speaking of the female figure, it should be noted that the outlines and contours of a woman’s muscles, her manner of standing, walking, sitting down, all her movements and all her actions are represented in such a way in such a way that one cannot discern in them absolutely nothing characteristic of a man. On the contrary, in accordance with its original element, which is the circle, it is all round, tender, flexible and in every way the opposite of a powerful and masculine form.”
The apotheosis achieved by the beautiful female breast in art is not only not inferior, but even surpasses the hymn composed in her honor by poetry. Never in painting has the beauty of the breast been depicted with such ardent rapture as in the Renaissance. Her idealized image is one of the inexhaustible artistic motifs of the era. For her, a woman's breasts are the most amazing miracle of beauty, and therefore artists draw and depict them day after day in order to immortalize them. Whatever episode from the life of a woman the artist depicts, he will always find an opportunity to weave a new stanza into the hymn heard in honor of her breasts. And her healthy natural beauty is always exalted - beauty based on the principle of expediency. This is always a breast that is precisely created in order to drink life force from its source.
This cult of the breast can only be compared with the enthusiastic glorification of a woman’s intimate beauties. The plastic arts also paid tribute to this cult. Let us recall the numerous engravings on this topic by Beham and Aldegrever, the posters of Peter Fletner, Donatello’s Flora, to limit ourselves to at least these few examples.
An obligatory touch for a Renaissance beauty was golden hair: “thin and light, similar sometimes to gold, sometimes like honey, shining like the rays of the sun, curly, thick and long, scattered over the shoulders in waves,” as he wrote in his “Treatise on Beauty and love" by Agostino Nifo in 1539.
The combination of golden hair and black hair was considered absolutely beautiful. eye. The Renaissance manifests itself in the return of femininity. After the ban on makeup by the almighty church in the Middle Ages, representatives of the fairer sex begin to paint their eyes, eyelashes and eyebrows again with red lead. Lips and nails become bright pink. Some girls even tinted their nipples.
The monk of the Vallambrosa order, Agnolo Firenzuola, in his treatise “On the Beauty of Women” gives us his idea of the ideal of beauty in the Renaissance:
“The value of hair is so great that if a beauty decorated herself with gold, pearls and dressed in a luxurious dress, but did not put her hair in order, she would not look beautiful or elegant... a woman’s hair should be delicate, thick, long, wavy, their color should be like gold, or honey, or the burning rays of the sun. The physique should be large, strong, but at the same time noble in shape. An overly tall body cannot be liked, just like a small and thin one. White skin color is not beautiful, because it means that it is too pale: the skin should be slightly reddish from the blood circulation... The shoulders should be broad... Not a single bone should show through on the chest. Perfect breasts rise smoothly, imperceptibly to the eye. The most beautiful legs are long, slender, thin at the bottom, with strong snow-white calves, which end in a small, narrow, but not lean foot. The forearms should be white, muscular...”
It is this type of beauty that is depicted in Titian’s canvases “Earthly and Heavenly Love”, “Portrait of a Lady in White” and portraits of many masters of the Venetian school of the 16th century, in the works of Rubens, Rembrandt, Hals and other artists of that time.
In terms of its changeability, fashion is second only to the weather, although this is a controversial issue. Moreover, fashion is changing not only in clothes, styles or accessories, but also in women's beauty. A recognized beauty of one era, half a century later can be considered ugly (but you and I know that not beautiful women can not be). At all times, artists responded very sensitively to the whims of fashion, since they always strived to depict the most beautiful women of their era.
Ancient Greece and Rome
Unfortunately, the female ideals of Antiquity have to be judged by frescoes and sculptures; no full-fledged paintings have survived. In Ancient Greece, the goddess Aphrodite, a curvaceous lady with long thick red hair, was considered the standard of female beauty. This is exactly how she is depicted in the painting “The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli, although created already in 1485. In Ancient Rome, beauty was most valued female face, and the splendor of forms was in second place. For example, the painting “Proserpina” (1874) by Dante Rossetti was created with this in mind.
Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, one could be sent to the stake for praising female beauty, so there is no artistic evidence left. Showing off a woman's figure was strictly prohibited. Clothing had to completely hide the body, and hair was hidden under hats. The standard of female beauty were holy women who devoted themselves to serving God.
Renaissance
The Renaissance is so named due to the revival of interest in the ideals of Antiquity, including in matters of female beauty. Wide hips, full body, elongated face, healthy complexion - this is how the first beauty of the 15th-16th centuries should have looked. This is exactly how women are depicted in the paintings of Sandro Botticelli, Raphael Santi and Michelangelo. The ideal of beauty of the Renaissance can be called the Italian Simonetta Vespucci, who is depicted in several paintings by Botticelli “Spring” (1478), “Birth of Venus” (1485), “Portrait of a Young Woman” (1485). During the Renaissance, high foreheads were in fashion, and to achieve this effect, fashionistas shaved their eyebrows and hairline. This is clearly visible in the famous painting “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo Da Vinci.
Baroque era
In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the ideal of female beauty was white-skinned women (tanning was considered the lot of peasant women) with small breasts, tiny legs, a pale face, but with curvy hips. In addition, any aristocrat had to have a high, complex hairstyle. These fashion trends are clearly visible in the portrait of Louis XIV's favorite Madame de Montespan (1670) by Pierre Mignard. It is from this period that Jan Vermeer’s famous work “Woman with a Pearl Earring” (1665) dates back.
Rococo era
If in the picture the woman looks more like a porcelain doll, surrounded by fans, umbrellas, muffs and gloves, then we can safely say that we are talking about the Rococo era. At the beginning of the 18th century, “mild anorexia” came into fashion: female beauty became fragile, with narrow hips, small breasts, and sunken cheeks. There is evidence that to achieve the effect of “sunken cheeks”, some ladies removed their side teeth, leaving only the front ones - beauty requires sacrifice. The canons of beauty of the Rococo era are perfectly illustrated by portraits of François Boucher, for example “Portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour” (1756).
Romantic era
Only in the second half of the 19th century did natural blush, healthy freshness and roundness of shape once again become the standards of female beauty. And the most attractive part of the female body is the rounded shoulders, which were simply necessary for any beauty to expose. It is precisely these women that are found in the paintings of Adolphe Bouguereau, such women were depicted by the first impressionists (“The Birth of Venus” by Bouguereau, “The Great Bathers” by Renoir, “The Blue Dancers” by Degas).
Early 20th century
“Russian Venus”, “Merchant's Wife at Tea”, “Girl on the Volga” by Boris Kustodiev perfectly illustrate the canons of beauty of the early 20th century. Everything that romanticism admired in a woman became even more magnificent and weighty. 20-40 years of the twentieth century
Mid-20th century
Marilyn Monroe became the ideal of female beauty in the middle of the last century. A short blonde, without any excesses in the direction of thinness or plumpness. The founder of pop art, Andy Warhol, willingly used her image in his works.
Talk about further development there are no ideals of female beauty, especially in their connection with painting. It is only necessary to note that history is developing in a circle, and thinness and sickness are coming back into fashion.
At all times, humanity has strived for beauty and harmony, but the understanding of this very beauty has undergone significant changes over the centuries. And if the modern “Miss World,” for example, had been in the Renaissance, they would hardly have paid attention to her at all. The ideal of beauty is not the invention of one person, but a creation of time that meets its main needs, the political and social structure of society and even... the climate.
For example, modern tanning fashion arose only in the twenties of the 20th century with the light hand of Coco Chanel, who publicly declared: “Beautiful skin is tanned skin.” Until this moment, for centuries, only working peasants “sunbathed” in the sun, and the aristocracy protected their skin from the scorching rays, trying to maintain their “noble pallor.” So one could judge a person’s social status by skin color.
By the way, in the East there is still no fashion for tanning, and beauty salons, instead of the usual solariums, offer skin whitening services.
History of ideals of female beauty
By the way, fair skin and blond hair were valued even in ancient Rome. Curls were in fashion for women, and Roman hairdressers tirelessly invented new ways to curl their hair.
In the Middle Ages the ideal of beauty there were fair-haired women ( bright that confirmation - paintings by Sandro Botticelli). It was believed that golden curls ennobled the face. Therefore, beauties sat for hours on the roofs of houses when the sun was at its zenith, so that their hair would fade and acquire the desired shade (they were pre-treated with a special composition).
But medieval women hid their bodies under wide clothes, because in that era earthly beauty was considered sinful. The main value was proclaimed to be spiritual beauty, which did not need hairdressing scissors, powder or lipstick.
Renaissance brought with it a change in ideal. “Curvy” shapes have come into fashion - wide hips, rounded faces, full shoulders. Perfect beauty skin Renaissance she should not have been pale (since pallor indicated illness), but slightly pinkish, her hair the color of honey. It was these women who were depicted in their paintings by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and other artists of that time. The celebration of bodily fullness - a symbol of vitality - reached its apogee in the paintings of Titian (High Renaissance) and Rubens (Baroque).
Looked about the same in XV - XVII centuries and a Russian beauty - bursting with health, with blush on her cheeks and thick black eyebrows.
IN XVIII century, in the Rococo era, Lush and tall hairstyles came into fashion using all kinds of frames, wigs and other complex designs. Creating such masterpieces of hairdressing art was expensive and troublesome, and therefore the ladies tried to sleep almost motionless and wash as little as possible in order to maintain their hairstyle.
Vladimir Borovikovsky. Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina. 1797 Style: Rococo.
The more rapidly society developed and the more highly developed it became, the more often approaches to the definition of beauty changed. What was once valued for centuries began to change within a few decades. Yes, in the first half 19th century A thin female figure, emphasized by a light high-waisted dress, was considered beautiful. But already in the 80s, everything natural began to be considered rude and “low”. The ideal of beauty became “wasp” waists and pale skin.
XX century made his own adjustments to the idea of the ideal female image and proposed as a standard a thin, athletic figure with broad shoulders, small breasts, narrow hips and long legs.
What can we say about peoples and eras if ideas about beauty change even during a person’s life!
Richard S. Johnson - contemporary American artist
Richard Stog Johnson - contemporary American artist
Beauty requires sacrifice?..
In some countries there were (and still exist) quite cruel ways to make a woman beautiful (in accordance with local traditions), sometimes without her consent.
Representatives of the Padaung people (living in Myanmar, Burma, Thailand) are called “giraffe women” for a reason. From the age of five, copper rings, or more precisely, spirals made of rods, are placed around their necks. Over the years, the number of revolutions of the spiral increases, reaching its maximum by the time the beauty gets married.
A similar custom exists in the South African Ndbele tribe - women wear rings around their necks from the age of 12 until marriage.
In the Mursi tribe (Ethiopia), a strongly stretched lower lip is considered unusually beautiful, so girls of marriageable age have a special clay plate inserted into it. The larger the plate, the more attractive the girl appears to her fellow tribesmen and the greater her chances of getting married. But the women of the Surma tribe, also living in Ethiopia, decorate their ears, rather than their lips, with similar plates.
In China, until the beginning of the 20th century, a small woman’s foot was considered beautiful, so girls’ feet were bandaged very tightly, trying to stop its growth. The babies endured severe pain. They practically could not walk on their own. But they were considered unusually attractive!
In general, if you put all the first beauties from antiquity to the present day in one row, then we will all be in this row! Tall and petite, brunettes, blondes and redheads, long-haired and short-haired, thin and plump, with a bronze tan and completely white skin... Fashion for appearance is changeable, but at all times femininity, sincerity and kindness remain valuable. And of course, a woman’s love and respect for herself.
And, if you feel like a queen, then they will perceive you as such!