Fashion is capricious and changeable, keeping track of it is very difficult. What was fashionable yesterday, today is considered an antitrend. What was considered the ideal of female beauty in ancient centuries, in the Middle Ages would be considered a disease. A modern girl would simply be laughed at in the Renaissance. If you pay attention to medieval art, you can see that the girls in those days did not differ in curvaceous forms. And in the Golden Age, the standards of beauty were already completely different. And how did the idea of female beauty change in different regions?
The standards of female beauty in ancient Egypt
The ideal of female beauty to some extent depended on male desires and whims, but other factors had a greater influence on it: the environment, the economy, and the politics of society. Most of the frescoes and statuettes of the goddess Venus came to us from Ancient Egypt. Here, the ideal of female beauty was considered a tall slender woman with a flat chest and broad shoulders. If you compare the ancient cave paintings of Egyptians and art in the Middle Ages, you can notice a significant difference in the appearance of the girls.
For the Egyptians, smooth skin was a symbol of beauty and well-being. They fanatically got rid of any vegetation on the body (that was when waxing was born), and with the help of special tinctures the skin was given a fashionable yellowish tint. In the Middle Ages , aristocratic pallor and a high shaved forehead were in fashion. The female figure became more rounded with a large belly, and the face acquired noble outlines: huge eyes, a small mouth.
As for the ancient Egyptians, they could notice one characteristic feature - the manifestation of children's traits in an adult woman. This type of beauty is determined by the fact that the need for childbearing in the country was extremely low.
The ideal of female beauty in ancient Greece
In ancient Greece, beauty was considered almost the main criterion for the recognition of women. It was here that complex calculations were first used to determine the ideal standard. Not surprisingly, there appears a type of female figure with the correct proportions in accordance with the principle of the golden ratio.
This was due to the living conditions and development of society. The ancient Greeks lived in overpopulated cities in unsanitary conditions, there was not enough food for everyone, and constant wars demanded more and more soldiers. The population of ancient Greece was about 100 million people, but the plague and numerous wars claimed the lives of entire cities.
What medieval art is talking about
By the Middle Ages, the idea of female beauty had changed. From portraits of that time, sad pale-faced ladies look at us, which became the standard of beauty of that time. The magnificent art “The Girl of the Middle Ages” can be seen in the works of the artist Jan van Eyck. And to this day, his portraits of beautiful ladies are of great value and are sold at auction.