Face Values

Aphrodite

Venus Cupid Time & Folly

La Source

Supermodel

Wilton Dipditch

Virgin and Child

Grandeuce Madonna

De Vinci

Aesthetics are determined by a complex interplay of biological, cultural, political and social factors. When we look at a woman in the flesh, in a painting or in a photograph, we unconsciously apply complex rules to judge what we see. We have a wide set of signifiers and attitudes that determine the terms of reference by which we judge and respond to beauty.

What we perceive as beautiful goes way beyond the physical. Francis Bacon, summed it up in his 1625 treatise `Of Beauty' - “that is the best part of beauty that a picture cannot express”. Some types of beauty are much more than `skin deep'. Allure, sex appeal, vibrancy, grace and elegance are more than just the result of a beneficial combination of features. But it is the way we look that is the most important factor in determining whether or not we are beautiful in the eyes of others.

The concept of perfect physical beauty is anachronistic. There are no absolutes, no consensus and no universal standard of perfection. What is beautiful is a subjective rather than objective view and is determined by numerous influences. In other societies, beauty has sometimes been defined by such things as heavy weight, huge buttocks, tiny feet or an elongated neck. But in the Western world, and across many other cultures, there are certain physical traits that have been highly valued over the centuries. There are constant themes running through the ideals of beauty. It is easy to recognise the same sort of aesthetics in a Greek statue as in our modern day supermodels.

To understand how we recognise beauty it is worth considering how we as humans deal with images that we see. Humans are master classifiers, constantly comparing new objects and experiences against what they have encountered previously. If we find beauty, it is by comparison to what have met before. Good and bad experiences will also bias individual perception. We may favour red heads if our first sweetheart had Titian hair. Or prefer blondes to brunettes if we were dumped by a dark-haired Romeo. Upbringing and cultural influences also dictate the criteria we use to make comparisons. A racist is likely to exclude other ethnic groups from their perception of beauty. And the notion that `blondes have more fun' may seem ludicrous and irrational but this it is a criteria that is deeply embedded in the unconscious way many of us judge beauty. Blondeness certainly seems to be a prerequisite for today's female television personalities. The enormous popularity of the Barbie doll and the hungry market for bleaches and highlighting products reflect a widespread desire for lighter hair.

This classifying and comparing means that, to quote Desmond Morris, “Beauty is in the brain of the beholder”. The 18th century Scottish philosopher David Hume put it more poetically - “Beauty is no quality in things themselves. It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them”.

Sculptures, painters and more recently photographers have been recorders and often arbiters of tastes in beauty. By creating a flattering portrait, depicting a certain look or capturing their own idealised image of femininity, they have been instrumental in determining what is considered to be beautiful.

The classical Greek ideal of beauty was a strong profile, with nose and forehead running in a line, a short upper lip and smooth features. This was embodied in the sculptures of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and in her Roman counterpart, Venus. Grecian beauty involved symmetry and proportion. Pliny the elder wrote of the sculptor Xeuxis who, unable to find a model who embodied his ideal, chose five women, the sum of whose physical attributes met his idea of perfection.

The classical conventions of beauty have had a huge influence and over the centuries and have been constantly been revisited. There was a major change after the disintegration of the Roman Empire when art became the servant of the spreading religion Christianity. Art was used to inspire devotion. Visions of femininity were found in representations of the Madonna. Icons were painstakingly copied and artists worked using illustrations rather than live models. As a result, there was a tendency for the depiction of beauty to became stylised and artificial. Gothic attitudes to the female form had a strong influence on feminine imagery. The association of women with Eve, temptation and sin meant that by the 15th Century, beauty was only depicted in the context of either the Madonna or the enchantress.

The Italian Renaissance was an important turning point. Stylised and rather artificial ideals were replaced by naturalism. Serious studies of the human body allowed theories of beauty to be developed. Raphael, De Vinci, Titian and Georgione were influential in depicting and thereby spreading the concept of an ideal beauty. To be as `Beautiful as a Raphael Madonna' was the ultimate compliment. Michaelangelo's `Tute Divine' was particularly influential. In De Vinci's drawings and paintings, his subjects are enhanced by enigmatic half smiles and he employed subtle techniques of illumination and misting to create luminous beauty.

Dutch and Flemish artists were particularly influential in the 17th century. Rubens and Rembrandt introduced more realistic and comely ideals of beauty. Rubens portrayed the big, plump women that he adored. Rembrandt was influenced by the Renaissance ideals but he depicted women in a more natural way. Van Dyck painted epic portraits of Europe's aristocracy and captured the opulence of the courts. Dutch born Sir Peter Lely was a successor to Van Dyck in the Restoration court of Charles II. He painted a lush, voluptuous image of femininity, inspired by the French born Queen Henrietta Maria. A full figure, heavy eyelids and a sleepy expression became the vogue. Pale complexions were enhanced by rosy cheeks and a pouting mouth with a small lower lip.

Bigger, more voluptuous women were also celebrated in the paintings of Rococo artist Boucher (1703 – 70). His ravishing paintings captured the extravagance and elegant superficiality of the French court. His subjects included Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV, renowned for her beauty.

Rubens

Boucher

Madame Recamier

Rossetti

The Mirror of Venus

Movie stars

Garbo and Monroe

Supermodels and Venus of Willendorf

Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Henrietta

Berenson at the Borgese Gallery, Rome

Jessica Rabbit and Pamela Anderson

In Victorian society there was a vogue for pale, almost emaciated beauty. Elizabeth Sidall was Rossetti's model for eleven years until her death in 1862. She was the archetypal Pre-Raphaelite beauty. Madox Brown wrote of watching Rossetti draw picture after picture of her, with each one “looking thinner and more deathlike and more beautiful and more ragged than ever”. French writer Octav Marbeau observed that of the mythical ladies of legend depicted by Edward Burne-Jones, he was unable to tell whether their “bruised eyes are the result of onanism, saphism, natural love or tuberculosis”. Was this a Victorian version of the recent `waif' look?

The forerunner of the modern image of femininity was the Gibson girl. Created by the American illustrator Charles Dana Gibson in the 1890's, she was inspired by the privileged and spirited Langhorne sisters (of whom Nancy went on to become Lady Astor). Gibson's drawings captured the mood of the day. His women were tall with long elegant necks, tiny waists. Their corseted S-shaped bodies dominated the iconography of women for nearly two decades. The American influence on conventions of beauty has remained huge. English models may have captured the look in the 1960's and again this decade, but in general the most successful models conform to American stereotypes. Although there does seem to be a wider appreciation of different types of beauty in today's fashion business, white Caucasian women are still in the majority. As B Rudolph wrote in Time magazine's 1991 cover story on supermodels “in every country blond hair and blue eyes sell”.

Hollywood has had an enormous influence in popularising new fashions and producing new female icons. A photogenic face was (and is) an essential requirement of all but the best character actresses. By designating certain physical features as desirable feminine attributes, Hollywood has dictated what every cinema going woman should aspire to in order to be considered beautiful. Even today, top movie stars compete with the super-models as the ultimate icons of beauty. It is no surprise that many film stars began their careers in modelling, and that actresses such as Elizabeth Hurley and Melanie Griffith have contracts to represent major cosmetics companies.

As fashion photography grew in the 20th century, photographers began to assume the role of arbiters of beauty. Determining `the look', setting standards and influencing taste. Designers, fashion editor, make-up artist and photographers all collaborate to determine the fashionable look, but today it is the top photographers who yield the most power. Steven Meisel, Patrick Demarchelier and Mario Testino are renowned for their Svengali like abilities, plucking young models out of obscurity and repackaging them as the latest talent. This constant search for a new look and a new face sometimes means that style and beauty are confused. Although widely adopted on the catwalk and in magazines, emaciated and unkempt `heroin chic' models were hardly attractive, just fashionable. The models themselves may have been beautiful but the representation was one of ugliness and despair.

Some of the changing concepts of beauty are dictated not by artists and photographers but by a dominant cultural influence. This has often been a person or an influential group of people. The monarchy and aristocracy have often led new fashions. Elizabeth I was a great influence on what was considered to be beautiful during her reign. By wearing her red hair without a head-dress, she created an appreciation for both colour and uncovered hair. The ultimate complexion was pale with an appearance of transparency; the desired effect was achieved by painting veins onto a white face paint made from mercury and lead compounds. The eyebrows and forehead were plucked to create a fashionably high forehead. Portraiture was the medium which beauty ideals were spread outside the Royal Court circles and throughout her life, Elizabeth I endeavoured to retain her place as an icon of beauty by ensuring her portraits reflected an image frozen from her youth.

During the Stuart period, Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I, was a leader of fashion and set the trends for contemporary beauty. Idealised portraits by artists such as Van Dyke helped to ensure that a flattering version of her looks set the standards of the day. Her curly hair, fuller figure and rounded face set the measure against which feminine beauty was judged.

Although the classical ideal of beauty involved particular proportions, it has always been recognised that the unusual or quirky can also be beautiful. In `Of Beauty' Francis Bacon wrote “there is no excellent beauty that has not some strangeness in the proportion”. The current trend for different or unusual models reflects a degree of boredom with the perfection of the supermodels and a healthy desire for a wider conception of what is considered beauty. The standard has widened. Make up artist Bobbi Brown confirms “Today, beauty is a much more eclectic collection of features and colours”

Gender signals, that identify the different sexes, play an important role in determining what is considered to be beautiful. In our historically patriarchal society, certain female gender signals have been equated with beauty. Rounded breasts, a large bottom, small feet and pouting lips all signal at a sexual, gender level. Fashions have frequently served to emphasise these female traits and therefore emphasise femininity. Bustles, corsets, wonderbras and lipstick have all been used to exaggerate female features. Because males are more hirsute, smooth hairless skin (whether shaved, plucked, waxed, sugared or depilated) is a powerful female gender signal and is therefore considered an attractive female asset.

Sexual allure is very integral to what men find attractive and is a factor that women have exploited by the use of self-mimicry. Fleshy, reddened lips and large rounded breasts mimic the buttocks and labia (so ponder what you are doing next time you reach for the lipstick!). In 1911 charlotte Perkin Gilman complained that “much of what men consider beautiful in women is not human beauty at all but gross over-development of certain points that appeal to him as a male”.

Sometimes beauty is characterised in an excessively exaggerated gender signal or `supernormal stimuli'. Body moulding (or distorting) clothes and plastic surgery aim to improve on nature and heighten the impact of selected features. Supernormal stimuli are often present in the art of primitive society; the ancient `Venus of Willendorf' exaggerates the breasts and hips in the same way as the corsets and crinolines of Victorian fashions. he current popularity of breast implants and the huge success of siliconised beauties such as Pamela Anderson and Melinda Messenger reflect a modern appreciation of supernormal stimuli. The incredibly long legs of models such as Nadja Auermann and Naomi Campbell (and also of illustrated beauties such as the Vargas girls and Jessica Rabbit) are also a type of exaggerated gender signal. The appreciation of long legs is rooted in sexuality and the rapid leg lengthening that occurs as girls reach maturity.

The pressure to manipulate our bodies in the pursuit of beauty comes from the emphasis of appearance as the hallmark of Western beauty. Cosmetic surgery is perhaps the most drastic way that women try to improve their faces and bodies, to create or retain what is deemed attractive. Although many women claim that cosmetic surgery is something that they are `doing for themselves', the beauty that they aspire to is of male creation. It is the male gaze, looking and appreciating within a sexual context that has been the most influential arbiter of what we deem to be beauty.