THE EVOLUTION OF BEAUTY THROUGHOUT HISTORY

1. THE EVOLUTION OF BEAUTY THROUGHOUT HISTORY

2. INTRODUCTION • There are five concepts of beauty throughout History: beauty, aesthetic experience, art, artistic creation and a reality copy. • The sense which Greeks gave to these concepts were very different from the concepts of nowadays. Even if the words are similar, their meaning is different. • Part of these concepts were developed before they were used by philosophers later on. • We must not forget the tastes of the time and work of arts belong to aesthetic history.

3. EGYPT

4. Nowadays scientists have different opinions about how the concept of beauty has developed over the years. • Ancient Egypt: Cleopatra and other kings of Egypt were improving their cosmetic over the years. They used different kind of products such as oils, perfumes…. Many oils were also used as sun protectors for the inhabitants. • Egyptians also had diets. Egyptian women such as dancers, handmaids… also shaved their hair off their arms, legs and other parts of their body. Their bodies shone because they used lots of oils and creams which also protected them from insects. To have their skin soft and supple, workers of the empire were sometimes paid with cosmetics. (Oils, creams …) They ate more vegetables, fruits and less meat than we do today. They watched their weight carefully. • Many people think that Egyptians’ concept of beauty was better than it is now. • The king representations were enormous, the king was very important for the Egyptians.

5. THE CLASSICAL GREEK AND ROMAN WORLD • Ideal aesthetics in the Classical period were based on the sculpture. Beauty was conceived as a result of mathematical calculus, measured proportions and symmetry. • The pioneer of the Greek theory about b eauty was Polyclitus, who made the “Cannon”, nowadays lost. The male beauty and the female beauty were based on symmetry, which says that the body is beautiful when all the parts are proportional to the whole figure. But there are small differences between male beauty and female beauty.

6. POLYCLITUS : Polyclitus, was a Greek sculptor who formulated an artistic cannon, a collection of rules, elaborated with mathematical calculus whose aim was the perfect representation of human body.The main objective of the book was to study the proportion of the different parts which form the anatomy.The most well-known proportions are the measure of the head, this must be seven times smaller than the one of the body. In the Doríforo, Polyclitus showed the idealized image of a naked athlete • LISIPO: THE CANON’S VARIATION • The Greek sculptor Lisipo (IV bC) was the sculptor of Filipo II and Alexander the great. His sculpture the “Apoxiomeno”, (the one who takes off the oil) represents a young athlete who is naked and standing, who after the competition takes the dust with the “strigilis”(a type of plant). Doríforo, Polyclitus

7. PRAXITELES: THE FEMALE IDEAL OF BEAUTY The most estimated piece of art of Praxiteles is his nude sculpture of Aphrodite, which was in the city of Cnidus. The goodness of Love had been always represented with clothes, like this appears at the Parthenon's frieze. Praxiteles surprised her, when she was getting out of the bathroom, she has on a side the jar of the perfumes and the sheet folded to wrap. Cnidus Aphrodite by Praxiteles

8. THE MIDDLE AGES

9. In The Middle Ages we find a beauty icon set in the barbarian invasions, which showed the Nordic beauty of nymphs and knights. • Christian faith and morality imposed a strict model in clothing and it nearly led to the disappearance of make up, which was against God’s creation. The ideal medieval woman painted by Jan van Eyck, showed paleness in the skin, blond hair, small and rosy lips, thin torso and the bone structure like the Nordic women. As for men, they were represented as the way of the authentic fighter knights: long hair, which indicates strength, freedom and virility; tall and thin men, strong and vigorous, slender and graceful, wide chest and shoulders.

10. MODERN AGE RENAISSANCE • The renaissance culture represents the return to rationalism and the study of the nature. The nationalist feeling re-arises. • The renaissance spirit is sometimes contradictory: the beauty is between a realistic conception of imitation of the nature and an ideal vision of supernatural perfection. Making the visible world the way for ascend to a very sensitive dimension. • According to Leonardo Da Vinci, the gloom is the body and the light is the spirit, they are together.

11. MANNERISM • Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy. • Mannerism started the modern art: things were represented as the artist saw them. The beauty is relative, it passes from the only beauty of the renaissance, and which is stocked in science, many concepts of beauty in the mannerism, derive from nature. • For the mannerists the classic beauty is empty, without spirit, opposing a spiritual, subjective and not regulated beauty. • Ii is a period of scepticism, relativism where the human is not the centre of the universe. La tempestad(Giorgione

12. BAROQUE The baroque is the heir of the mannerism scepticism which is reflected in the authors of the time. The beauty searches new ways of expression and emerging new aesthetics concepts like acuity, ingenuity, and insight. • They emphasise on personal conduct, appearance, reflecting an active, elegant, refined, exaggerated to take the name of “préciosité”. • Rubens was one of the most important painters in his time. In “The Three Graces” (1638) he showed three women who were dancing and naked. LAS MENINAS By Diego Velázquez

13. EMPIRCISM • The empiricism was developed in the United Kingdom. It is the opposite of the French rationalism putting emphasis in the feelings. The empiricists defend the subjectivity of taste which has to get free of the external rules to be perceived by the human who is the one who interprets the aesthetic judgments with his own standards of opinion. According to their argument, beauty is not inherent in things but it is in the mind of the viewer, so they lay the foundations of aesthetic relativism. • Beauty is not a quality of the things: It only exists in the mind of the beholder and each mind perceives a different beauty. The Madonna with the long Neck by Parmigiano

14. ILLUSTRATION • The 16th century is based on a dual trend: the French Cartesian rationalism, which gives a regulated aesthetics rules, and the empiricism, which offers an imaginative aesthetic. • The illustrated aesthetic focuses on issues of human physiology, making aesthetic feelings. Felipe 5th´s family. By Van Loo

15. 20th and 21st CENTURY 1900´s: • The shape was previously established because of the use of corset; tight skirts on hips to bell-shaped widening up to the ground. • The work world is beginning to incorporate tailored suits with an influence of male cut for women. • Lace and feathers were all the rage in dresses, highlighting big hats very decorated.

16. 1910´s: • The silhouette of women was completely smooth on top, so the unisex or androgynous look became widespread. It completely eliminates the long skirt of the previous decade and the overskirt that was alone, lost his flight. They wore dresses with fringe and whole small purses. It shortened the clothes above the ankle, and the decade ends with the haircut ETON. 1920´s: • Clothing was becoming much more practical. Again, you change the shape of the waist down in anatomical position, marking the waist and widening the shoulders. He popularized the suit jacket to go out and party dresses were chosen with great cleavage on the back and alone coat with fur. In the decade shorts skirts are included. Hats disappear and turn to let your hair grow.

17. 1930´s: • This was a decade of war and it damaged fashion. The look is militarized, tissues became poor because of these girls are wearing the uniform of a city, ie business suit. The long stood below the knees popularizing the tights, although they were scarce. They wore Toppling shoes, cork and tiny hats that were very simple, or simply head scarves.

18. 1940´s: • It was the splendour, triumph of the new look of Christian Dior. Once again the shape pushed back with a narrow waist and it took their shoulders and chest volumes. It increases the flight of their skirts but it remained below their knees. It started the cult of beauty, women were tired of masculine style and that is why we turned the corners. The shoes are styled making them more pointed, women wore cloth coats, purses to the elbow and the most elegant hats. 1950´s: • This decade is out for the revolution. They used resulting and youthful clothes. Fashionable clothes become extravagant. The prints were of butterflies and flowers. The silhouettes make it smooth again and began to quickly impose worldwide

19. 1960´s: • The concept of different clothes emerged original, funny and bizarre. The hair is short and used geometric cuts. Both men and women began to wear bellbottoms and imposing cotton blouses 1970´s: • There was a fury towards the retro. Flowers were the main symbol in clothes and hair, and represented illusory ideology that guided the called Revolution of Flowers. Stocks were the suits and dresses that showed off in tight pants. Cotton was replaced by lucre, heeled boots or shoes were worn, as the Swedish type.

20. 1980´s: • Fashion brought very positive changes. The new style was characterized by the use of visible underwear, with lace straps as it has never been seen in the past. This was synonymous of liberation for women. Thanks to this trend, today women can wear comfortable shirts without worrying about the slides or the straps of bras. Women feel free but slimness is still fashionable 1990´s: • This time was based on the variety of trends, that tried to get them feel more comfortable without giving much importance to the views of others. It is the time of the Free Expression. They wore the shirt of The Clash or they could let their hair loose. The big change was the appearance of these piercing, tattoos and hair dye.

21. Nowadays: • Today fashion has changed according to different urban tribes, that distinguish each other clothing as exclusive brands, namely to keep certain logo or symbol pattern for a dress accessory or different colours. Men and women both take the jeans for all types of work or occasion. Fortunately, being extremely thin is not fashionable any more.

22. ESTETIC IDEALS IN 20th CENTURY • The twentieth century shows different tendencies which depend on the economic motivations and what they mean: they have voluminous bodies because they don’t want to make people think that they’re starving. In fact, they try to transmit their status of life which allows them to choose their food; they worried about their image and went to the gym. • In the 60’s the trends changed: thin and tall bodies, flat stomachs, voluminous hair, big eyes, small nose, beefy lips, symmetrical and solid bosoms, long and thin legs, marked but not excessive hips and tanned and young bodies were popular.

23. ESTETIC IDEALS IN 21st CENTURY • Today the media don’t show just one model of beauty. They can recover all the different styles of the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s in publicity just for a short period of time. Nowadays the tolerance and the polytheism in beauty are all the rage. • The evolution of body image in the 21st century is wandering and uncertain, the wish to stand out has brought about the punk fashion. • Anti-aging products are fashionable. Today people live more than in the past. All of us want to become old but with a good health and a good physical appearance too.