On World Beauty Day, it is customary to remember the legends of the beauties of the past, to be surprised at the strange tastes of "wild" tribes who valued long necks and earlobes, or to resent the "canons of beauty" that the fashion industry imposes. But what about the strong half of humanity? In real men, we do not always appreciate appearance, but let's not dissemble, and the strong half of humanity has its own canons of beauty. And these canons have undergone a number of changes over the centuries.
Apollo
The name of Apollo, the golden-haired son of Zeus, has become a household name for any handsome man in our times. The cult of the beauty of the body, which dominated ancient Hellas, largely determined the canons of beauty in subsequent centuries. Strength, dexterity, beauty. Ancient ideas about beauty are preserved by sculptures that have survived to this day: regular, large facial features, large expressive eyes and a straight nose. Growth was also important. Thus, Aristotle wrote: big body there is beauty, and small ones may be graceful and proportionally built, but not beautiful.
Leohar. Apollo Belvedere. Roman copy
One of the embodiments of perfection was the god of the Sun, the patron of the arts and the leader of the muses. The most famous sculptural image of Apollo was created by the court sculptor of Alexander the Great Leohar in the first century BC - this is Apollo Belvedere. The bronze original of the statue has not survived, and its marble Roman copy is now in the Vatican in the Pius Clement Museum. However, archaeological excavations prove that the real ancient Greeks had little resemblance to the statues that have come down to our times.
Gilgamesh
The peoples of Mesopotamia (the Sumerians and Assyrians, and later the Persians) in a man valued, first of all, courage and physical strength. The bas-reliefs that have come down to us represent gods, kings and warriors as powerful men with inflated muscles, possessing invincible strength and capable of going out alone against a lion. Judging by these images, the inhabitants of Mesopotamia were stocky, overweight men with a hooked nose, dark curly hair styled and the same beard. At the same time, individual strands of the beard were curled into tubes and laid in tight rows.
Noble men, and even more so rulers, wore rich, pompous clothes and jewelry that once struck Alexander the Great. Hair was put into a net, fastened at the back of the head with a hairpin or tied with colored ribbons, and their precious beard was often hidden in a special case. In addition, it was customary for the ancient Persians to blacken their eyebrows and blush, and some men wore false beards and wigs.
The most famous inhabitant of Mesopotamia is the Sumerian king Gilgamesh, whose name has come down to us through the centuries thanks to one of the oldest in the world literary works- The Epic of Gilgamesh.
"He is beautiful, strong, he is wise,
He is a deity by two-thirds, a man by only one,
His body is light, like a big star,
But he knows no equal in the art of torment
Those people who are entrusted to the authorities."
Knight
In medieval Europe, the ideal of a man was a knight - a fine warrior, whose courageous appearance was combined not only with physical strength and courage, but also with good manners and gallantry prescribed by the code of honor. An important part of the ideal male image at that time was clothing and, of course, armor - the most important part of a knight's costume. In the Middle Ages, the men's suit began to get shorter and shorter, at the same time the "prototype" of pants appeared: chausses - tight-fitting stockings made of elastic cloth.
Unknown German artist. Portrait of a knight. Around 1540 (Augsburg)
But the main thing for the knight was beauty not physical, but spiritual. A knight is primarily a servant of his overlord, a protector of the weak, children and women. In this era, the cult of the "beautiful lady" arises, which influenced the attitude towards women of all subsequent generations.
Dandy
English dandies became a kind of counterweight to the military, whose style was later adopted in Europe and Russia. The founder of this style is considered to be George ("Bo") Brummel.
It was he who introduced the fashion for a black men's suit with a tie, from which the modern version of the classic men's suit originated. Brummel proposed a new style to his friend the Prince Regent, the future King George IV, and imitating the monarch, English gentlemen threw powdered wigs and "flies" on the mezzanine.
However, the corpulent Prince of Wales could not compare with Brummel's friend, who was called "Prime Minister of Elegance" behind his back. And he himself brought out the following axiom, which is followed by modern dandies: "If you want to be well dressed, you don't have to wear what catches your eye."
Being a dandy doesn't just mean dressing well. The refined costume was supplemented by certain rules of conduct: for example, the hero of Stendhal's novel "Red and Black" Julien Sorel deduces the main rules of a real dandy - "imperturbable indifference and originality in everything": "... Julien was now a real dandy and completely mastered the art of living in Paris. He behaved with Mademoiselle de La Mole with exquisite coldness ... "
"Like a London dandy dressed" Pushkin wrote about Eugene Onegin. Russian dandies of that time drew inspiration from another dandy - Lord Byron. The latter, in turn, singled out only three great people among his contemporaries: Napoleon, Brummel and himself.
Thomas Phillips. Lord Byron in Albanian costume. 1835
The twentieth century has not changed much the ideal of a man, in which, it seems, they have mixed up: beauty and harmony from the ancient Greeks, strength and power from the Persians and Assyrians, chivalry from medieval heroes, intellect and erudition of the Renaissance, gallantry of court cavaliers, cheerful disposition of hussars and sophistication dandy.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
The Renaissance is manifested in the return of femininity. After the ban on the almighty church in the Middle Ages, the fairer sex began to paint their eyes, eyelashes and eyebrows with red lead again. Lips and nails become bright pink. Some girls even tinted their nipples.
A new ideal of beauty is coming into fashion - a blonde with curvaceous and rounded shapes, a healthy pink skin tone and a fair complexion. An obligatory nuance for the beauties of that time was golden hair: thin, blond, thick, long, loose over the shoulders. Their neat, tidy appearance must be indispensable. To lighten their hair, women soaked it in a mixture of saffron and lemon and spent some time under the scorching sun.
Beauty standards were also considered: the length of the nose is equal to the length of the lips, white teeth, and black eyebrows, eyelashes and eyes. Hair and fingers differed in length, arms, calves and thighs - in fullness, nipples, nose and head - in small sizes. A specific requirement for appearance was a high forehead, not framed by hair. Eyebrows must be plucked.
The first condition for beautiful breasts was their small size and sufficient width. The price included fully formed breasts of a mature lady, preferably knowing the joy of motherhood, but not sagging. The most beautiful legs are long, slender, thin downwards with strong calves. The foot should be small, narrow, but not thin. Broad shoulders were welcomed.
Women of the Renaissance considered it their duty to hide the imperfections of the skin of the face with white lead or surim blush. Arsenic and slaked lime were used to remove hair. These care products caused great health, but then women did not know this.
Face masks were made from oatmeal, lemon juice and egg white. For hair coloring, ingredients were used, mainly fresh walnut peel. During the Renaissance, people started brushing their teeth again. Of course, the products used did not differ in quality and spoiled the enamel, but oral hygiene was noticeably better than in the Middle Ages.
Cosmetics were integral with the female body. Applying makeup was elevated to the rank of art, which almost every woman was fluent in. Entire books about cosmetics and beauty recipes were written for them.
The figure of a woman, her manner of standing, walking, sitting and all other movements had nothing to do with a man. Pregnant girls were especially respected. This was reflected in fashion - clothes began to be sewn in assemblies above the waist.
Renaissance costumes can be conditionally divided into 4 types, corresponding to the elements of four countries: Italy, France, England, Spain. The clothing of an Italian woman was a simaru. Maintained high waist. Huge floor-length sleeves merged with the back, which turned into a mantle. Movable plastic simara gave the woman a majestic appearance.
The silhouette of the Spanish women's dress consisted of two triangles, the tops of which intersected at the waist. From it up (on the bodice) and down (on the skirt) ray-like folds diverged. This visually expanded the shoulders, and the figure seemed slender, tall.
An integral attribute for Spanish women was a number of specific headdresses, characteristic only for this country: transado, coffia de papos, vespaio. The presence of a frame, a high collar and the predominance of shoes with thick wooden soles were also characteristic of the Spanish Renaissance woman.
The French costume consisted of a long-sleeved shirt, a stocking, a swivel with a framed bodice, a cat and a robe. The vertugal had the shape of a truncated cone, into the fabric of which metal hoops were sewn. Kott was on top of the bodice and vertugal. A dress with a swinging skirt in front was considered a native. In the middle of the 16th century, French women stopped wearing cleavage. The neckline of the robe was covered with a thin shirt with a stand-up collar.
Costume English woman the Renaissance consisted of 3 or 4 things worn at the same time. The sleeves are characterized by huge, from the elbow, funnel-shaped cuffs. The bodice and dresses were kept on a hard leather corset. It was worn over a shirt. The dress becomes decollete, the belt of which was a combination of metal and chased plates. From it in front descended the end in the form of a large pendant of jewelry work, imitating a rosary.
The famous beauties of the Renaissance include: Simonema Vespucci - the first beauty of Florence, Lucrezia Borgia - the daughter of Pope Alexander IV and Diana de Poitiers - the beloved of the French King Henry II. The beauty of these women was considered a divine gift.
| Feb 08 2011
Man has always had a desire for beauty. Living in incredibly difficult conditions, the people created genuine masterpieces, trying to decorate simple household items with painting, embroidery, carving. Spinning wheels, supplies, wooden spoons, towels, svetets, baskets, bright decorative clothes and much more inspired more than one generation of artists and today teaches us to understand beauty, the ability to see harmony and beauty in the nature around us, in every blade of grass, leaf and flower, in an endless variety of shapes, colors, lines and rhythms.
However, the concept of beauty, which is very complex, including a whole complex of external and internal qualities of a person, has changed over time. Each historical era gave birth to their own idea of beauty. It took shape in accordance with certain climatic conditions, political, economic and other features of public life, with morality, morality,
Religion, with characteristic signs of life of various peoples, classes and estates.
Many great minds of mankind have pondered the secrets and laws of beauty, the nature of beauty. In particular, Baudelaire wrote that it consists of two elements - one eternal and unchanging, not amenable to precise definition, and the other relative and temporary, consisting of what this era gives - fashion, tastes, passions and dominant morality. The indispensable conditions of "eternal and unchanging" beauty were and remain symmetry; harmony - unity in diversity; mutual correspondence of all features and proportions; complete holistic image; feeling of real life.
A change in the aesthetic ideal does not exclude the main quality that is common to all in the most diverse types of beauty - harmony. No matter how different the unique Egyptian queen Nefertiti from the ancient Venus de Milo, the beautiful Florentine Simonetta from the Tahitian beauties of Gauguin, or the magnificent puffy women praised by Rubens from the trained, athletic type of our contemporary - all of them suggest a certain harmony in their appearance, such a mutual correspondence of all features and proportions that creates a complete and complete image.
Man not only created images of ideal beauty that have come down to us in the works of great poets and writers, masters of painting and sculpture, but in real life he tried to imitate this ideal in all this.
Each generation defined its own ideal of beauty, and this primarily concerned women, since less attention has always been paid to the beauty of men.
Naturally, at all times connoisseurs female beauty were men, and the first of them (according to Greek mythology) was the son of the Trojan king Paris. Zeus instructed him to judge Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, arguing among themselves about beauty. "Apple of discord" with the inscription: "To the most beautiful" - Paris handed over to Aphrodite, who was later convicted of using powder and lipstick.
So, almost simultaneously with the appearance of a person, cosmetics appear, preserving beauty, emphasizing the merits and masking the flaws. Already on the most early stages in his development, a person strives for purity and decoration of the body, for getting rid of visible shortcomings of appearance with the help of various means.
The beauty ideal of ancient Egypt was a slender and graceful woman. Delicate facial features with full lips and huge almond-shaped eyes, the shape of which was emphasized by special contours, the contrast of heavy hairstyles with a graceful elongated figure evoked the idea of an exotic plant on a flexible swaying stem.
To dilate the pupils and give shine to the eyes, the women of Egypt dripped juice from the plant "sleepy dope", which was then called belladonna, into them.
Green was considered the most beautiful eye color, so the eyes were outlined with green paint made of copper carbonate (later it was replaced with black), they were lengthened to the temples and thick long eyebrows were painted on. Green paint (from powdered malachite) was used to paint nails and feet.
The Egyptians invented a special whitewash that gave dark skin a light yellow tint. He symbolized the earth warmed by the sun. The caustic juice of iris was used as a rouge; skin irritation with this juice caused redness that persisted for a long time.
The famous Egyptologist Georg Ebers in his novel Ouarda describes the Egyptian woman as follows: “There was not a drop of foreign blood in her veins, as evidenced by the dark shade of her skin and a warm, fresh and even blush, between golden yellow and brownish-bronze ... About purity her straight nose, noble forehead, smooth but coarse raven hair, and graceful hands and legs adorned with bracelets.
Women and men put on a wig made of vegetable fiber or sheep wool on their shorn head. The nobility wore large wigs, with long curls flowing down the back or with numerous small pigtails. Sometimes, to create even more head volume, two wigs were worn one on top of the other. Slaves and peasants were supposed to wear only small wigs.
The Egyptians were famous for their art of making all kinds of varnishes, ointments, paints and powders, which in their composition are close to modern ones. Elderly women dyed their hair with black bull fat and crow eggs, and lion, tiger, and rhinoceros fat was used to improve hair growth.
Men shaved their faces, but often wore fake beards made of sheep's wool, which were varnished and woven with metal threads.
The Assyrians and Babylonians blackened their eyebrows and eyelashes, thickly whitened and blushed their faces, women covered their faces with special compounds that, when dried, gave the face shine and hardness of the enamel, dyed their hair with henna and basma. Etiquette prescribed the same make-up for men as women, men wore thick wigs, false mustaches and beards.
Representatives of the Maya people, who inhabited the Yucatan Peninsula and other regions of Central America, painted the body with a red ointment, to which they added a very sticky and odorous resin - styran. This mixture was smeared with a special bar, decorated with patterns, and rubbed with it on the chest, arms, shoulders, becoming, as it seemed to them, very elegant and pleasantly perfumed.
IN ancient China the ideal of beauty was a small, fragile woman with tiny legs. In order to keep the foot small, the girls had their feet tightly bandaged shortly after birth, seeking to stop: its growth. Women whitened their faces, blushed their cheeks, lengthened their eyebrows, painted their nails red. Men grew their hair long and braided it.
Men and women were considered especially beautiful long nails, it was a symbol of dignity and wealth. The nails were carefully cared for and special richly decorated “thimbles” made of precious metal or bones.
The beauties of Japan thickly whitened their skin, covering up all the defects on the face and chest, mascara was drawn around the forehead along the edge of hair growth, eyebrows were shaved off and short thick black lines were drawn instead. married women In feudal Japan, teeth were covered with black varnish.
It was considered ideal to collect hair in a high heavy knot, which was supported by a long patterned stick. To sleep with such a hairstyle, special pillows on a wooden stand were placed under the neck. To strengthen the hair and give it shine, the hair was lubricated with special oils and vegetable juices (aloe juice). Men painted or pasted on fake mustaches and sideburns, shaved their foreheads and the back of their heads, and gathered their hair at the crown in a beautiful bun, which they tied with spectacular cords.
The Japanese took great care of their body. They bathed in unusually hot water, lubricated the body with special ointments, and used steam baths.
During excavations on the island of Crete, English archaeologist Arthur John Evan found and explored an ancient city that existed a thousand years before its heyday. Ancient Hellas. Judging by the surviving wall paintings, the fair sex of this island wore dresses with crinoline and low necklines. They loved water procedures, indulged themselves with sea bathing and a hot bath.
IN Ancient Greece huge role physical culture played in the upbringing of a citizen and a person, and the cult of a trained body was natural. The ideal of beauty is based on unity, harmony of spirit and body. The Greeks considered size, order and symmetry to be a symbol of beauty. Ideally beautiful was a man in whom all parts of the body and facial features were in a harmonious combination.
Artists found and left behind a measure of beauty - the so-called canons and modules. The body should have been soft and rounded. The standard of a beautiful body among the Greeks was the sculpture of Aphrodite (Venus). This beauty was expressed in numbers: height 164 cm, chest circumference 86 cm, waist - 69 cm, hips - 93 cm. A face that could be divided into several equal parts (three or four) was considered beautiful. With three, the dividing lines passed through the tip of the nose and the upper superciliary edge, with four - through the edge of the chin, along the border of the upper lip, along the pupils, along the upper edge of the forehead and along the crown of the head.
According to the canons of Greek beauty, a beautiful face combined a straight nose, large eyes with a wide inter-century slit, arched edges of the eyelids; the distance between the eyes had to be at least the size of one eye, and the mouth was one and a half times the size of the eye. Large bulging eyes were emphasized by a rounded line of eyebrows. The beauty of the face was determined by the straight lines of the nose, chin, low forehead, framed by curls of hair with a straight parting. The Greeks paid great attention to the hairstyle. Women, as a rule, did not cut their hair, they put it in a knot or tied it at the back of the head with a ribbon. "Antique knot" entered the history of hairstyles and still finds admirers.
The young men shaved their faces and wore long curled curls intercepted by a hoop. Adult men wore short hair, a round beard and mustache.
The beauty was strict and noble. First of all, blue eyes, golden-haired hair and fair, shiny skin were valued. To give the face whiteness, privileged Greek women used whitewash, light blush was applied with carmine - red paint from cochineal, powder and lipstick were used. For eyeliner - soot from the combustion of a special essence.
Women from the people, for whom cosmetics were inaccessible, put on a mask of barley dough with eggs and spices at night.
IN Ancient Rome there was a cult of light skin and blond hair. Apuleius believed that Vulcan would hardly have married Venus, and Mars had fallen in love with her, if she had not been golden-haired. The wives of Roman patricians for skin care, in addition to bleaching ointments, remedies for dry skin, wrinkles and freckles, used milk, cream and lactic acid products. During their travels, in addition to their retinue, they were accompanied by herds of donkeys, in whose milk they bathed. The Romans already knew the secret to bleaching their hair. The hair was rubbed with a sponge soaked in goat's milk oil and beech wood ash, and then bleached in the sun.
Light curly hair were considered the ideal of beauty, and Roman hairdressers came up with a wide variety of perms. Greek hairstyles came into fashion, then Egyptian a la Cleopatra. During the period of the empire, they were replaced by high hairstyles on fan-shaped frames, with artificial hair overlays. Men have straight, short hair combed over their foreheads, a shaved face or a small curled beard. The “head of Titus” hairstyle made of short curls with sideburns, named after the Roman emperor Titus Vespasian, went down in history. Cosmetics for the everyday toilet of wealthy Roman ladies were made at home, and skin and hair care was carried out by specially trained young slaves under the supervision of older and more experienced women.
The Romans were connoisseurs of hygiene, they widely practiced massage and frequent bathing in baths (therms), where there was cold and hot water, baths, steam rooms, rest rooms and gyms.
With the decline of Rome, the era of chanting beauty was replaced by the cult of asceticism, detachment from the joys of perceiving the world. In the Middle Ages, earthly beauty was considered sinful, and its enjoyment was considered unlawful. They draped with heavy fabrics that hid the figure with a tight bag (the width of the clothes for height is 1:3). Hair was completely hidden under the bonnet, the whole arsenal of means for improving appearance, which were so popular in ancient times, was consigned to oblivion.
Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury has publicly declared hair blocking to be an unholy practice.
The ideal of a woman was personified by the Blessed Virgin Mary - an elongated oval face, an emphasized high forehead, huge eyes and a small mouth.
An important turning point in the perception of beauty is the turn of the 12th-13th centuries, when culture becomes more secular. The accumulation of wealth and the desire for luxury in a knightly environment gave rise to ideals that are very far from asceticism and mortification of the flesh. In the 13th century, the worship of the “beautiful lady” flourished. The troubadours praise the queens of the jousting tournaments; vine, blond hair, an oblong face, a straight, thin nose, lush curls, eyes clear and cheerful, skin like a peach, lips more red than a cherry or a summertime rose. A woman is compared to a rose - she is tender, fragile, graceful.
In the 15th century, during the Gothic period, the S-shaped curvature of the silhouette of the figure was in fashion. To create it, small quilted pads were placed on the stomach - barefoot. The clothes are narrow, restricting movement, elongated, dragging along the floor. Great headwear.
During the early Renaissance, a pale complexion and long silky locks of blond hair became the canons of beauty for women in Florence. The great poets Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch and others glorified snow-white skin. A slender “swan neck” and a high clean forehead were considered ideal. To follow this fashion, to lengthen the oval of the face, women shaved their hair in front and plucked their eyebrows, and in order to make the neck seem longer, they shaved the back of their heads.
The High Renaissance brings a completely different understanding of beauty. Instead of thin, slender moving figures, magnificent forms triumph, powerful bodies with wide hips, with luxurious fullness of the neck and shoulders.
A special golden-red hair color, so beloved by the Venetians, comes into fashion - a color that later became known as the “Titian color”.
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 was adorned with gold, pearls and dressed in a luxurious dress, but did not put her hair, she did not look beautiful or elegant ... a woman's hair should be tender, thick, long, wavy, the color should be like gold, or honey, or burning rays of the sun.
The physique should be large, strong, but at the same time of noble forms. An excessively tall body cannot be liked, just like a small and thin one. White color skin is not beautiful, for that means that it is too pale: the skin should be slightly reddish from blood circulation ... Shoulders should be broad ... No bones should show through on the chest. The perfect chest rises smoothly, imperceptibly to the eye.
The most beautiful legs are long, slender, thin below, 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 on the canvases of Titian's "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 this time.
At the end of the 16th century (the Rococo era), the ideal of beauty as an expression of the tastes of the highest aristocracy departed from strict classical forms: the hairstyle became deliberately enlarged, the hair was whipped with a blunt for this purpose, and, if necessary, supplemented with fake ones. Wigs are in fashion, and not only for women, they are becoming mandatory for men as well. Used to make hair various fixtures- wire frames, hoops, ribbons, hair heavily sprinkled with powder. Such miracles of hairdressing were very expensive, it took a lot of time to create them, so the ladies tried to keep them as long as possible, did not comb their hair or wash their hair for weeks, they only moistened their face and hands with cologne. The Queen of Spain, Isabella of Castile, once admitted that she washed herself only twice in her life - at birth and on her wedding day. It was known about the French king Louis XIV that he washes only in the spring.
The main signs of beauty were considered whiteness of the skin and a gentle blush. However, due to the smallpox epidemic, there were almost no women who did not have any skin defects. In order to hide these defects and further shade the whiteness of the face, the custom has spread to adorn the face with small round patches-flies.
The deliberate complexity of the sinuous forms inherent in the Rococo style was emphasized in everything in the hairstyle, and in decorative cosmetics, and in clothes. Huge, sometimes up to a meter high, hats came into fashion; the neckline boldly opened the chest, which was supported by a corset. Dresses on crinolines were overloaded with furs, ribbons, lace, and long trains. The etiquette of the court of Louis XIV determined the size of the trains: for the queen - 11 yards (1 yard is equal to 119 centimeters), for the daughters of the king - 9 yards, for the granddaughters of the king - 7 yards, for princesses of royal blood - 5 yards, for other princesses and duchesses - only 3 yard.
One of the chroniclers of the 16th century gives his own, rather original and completely non-standard formula of female beauty, a multiple of three.
In his opinion, a beautiful woman should have:
Three white ones - skin, teeth, hands
Three black ones - eyes, eyebrows, eyelashes.
Three red ones - lips, cheeks, nails.
Three long - body, hair and hands.
Three wide - chest, forehead, distance between the eyebrows.
Three narrow ones - mouth, shoulder, foot.
Three thin ones - fingers, hair, lips.
Three rounded - arms, torso, hips
Three small ones - breasts, nose and legs.
The 18th century was the heyday of women's hairstyles and wigs. The court hairdresser of the French Queen Marie Antoinette, the famous Leonard Bolyard, was the creator of hairstyles that make up a single whole with a headdress. They even reflected international events. He invented the hairstyle "a la frigate", dedicated to victory French frigate "La Belle Poule" over the British in 1778.
At the end of the 18th century, a new style was formed, the aesthetic ideals of which were borrowed from the ancient world (Empire style). Clothes and hairstyles repeat the elements of antiquity, wigs, blush, flies go out of fashion. Decorative cosmetics approaches natural tones and does not become an end in itself.
The ideal of beauty changed more than once in the 19th century. At its very beginning, clothes with a very high waist (under the chest), sewn from thin, translucent fabrics, softly enveloping the figure, come into fashion. Then, by the age of 30-40, the waist falls to its usual place, is tightly tightened with a corset, and the skirts become lush and wide. In the 80s, bustles came into fashion - voluminous draperies and bows at the back, to the bottom of the waist. The silhouette of the figure in profile acquires an unusually feminine S-shaped curvature. But in general, the fashion of the XIX century gravitated towards artificiality. Everything natural, natural seemed rough, primitive. Healthy blush and tan, strong, strong body were signs of low birth. Wasp waist, pale faces, delicacy and refinement were considered the ideal of beauty.
Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, was blonde. To prove their devotion to the emperor, the French women imitated her in everything, even in hair color. And then the Parisian hairdresser Hugo found an easy way to bleach hair with hydrogen peroxide. Soon, not a single dark-haired lady remained in high society.
For centuries, certain changes in the ideals of beauty, shape and cut of clothing reflected the aesthetic requirements of the elite - a small privileged part of society. The nature of clothing strictly corresponded to class differences. Nobles, merchants, artisans, peasants - for each class there were certain forms and types of clothing, fabrics and jewelry.
Physical culture and sports developed. In parades, women performed on an equal footing with men. Tennis, cycling, swimming, volleyball have become mass sports. If before the ideal of femininity was grace and refinement, gentle roundness of forms, now the thin, athletic female figure with broad shoulders, not big breasted, narrow hips i long legs, then her figure, similar to a man's. Women's dresses, blouses and jackets became straight. The clothes were shortened so that they only slightly covered the knees. The waist was not emphasized at all. And the most desperate fashionistas bandaged their breasts so that it was as flat as possible.
Of course, such clothes adorned very few. Therefore, it was not surprising that in the 30s fashion returned to fitted forms, which much more corresponded to the natural proportions of the female figure and to some extent returned the familiar female image.
The standard of beauty becomes a romantic woman with a doll face, a small, plump, bright mouth, with a small perm - a permanent. And still in fashion is a tall, thin figure with rather broad shoulders, a thin waist and narrow hips. (This is exactly what the ideal figure of the fashion model has become, and this is how it remains now.)
The Second World War was approaching. Shoulder pads began to appear in women's clothing, thanks to which it acquired a clearer outline, vaguely reminiscent of a military uniform. And then the war began, in which women took an active part. And it is quite natural that fashionable women's clothing began to look even more like a military uniform - wide raised shoulders (now with massive shoulder pads), a tightened waist. Short skirts, as if in contrast, emphasized the feminine roundness of the legs. Such clothes, complemented by high-heeled shoes and thick wedge soles (the name itself was purely military), remained in fashion until 1947.
At this time, women almost do not use makeup, only sometimes they tint their eyelashes with mascara and paint their lips. Men's short haircuts are in fashion.
But the war passed, and there was a natural desire to forget about the horrors and hardships. I wanted a calm, quiet, peaceful life. And fashion proclaimed new look. Its creator was the famous French fashion designer Christian Dior. It was a kind of revolution. Dior has eliminated shoulder padding, which for several years had been an integral part of all women's dresses, blouses, jackets and coats without exception. The shoulders are now smoothly sloping. Set-in sleeves were increasingly replaced with one-piece and raglan sleeves. Graceful little collars framed the neck. The overlap at the waist was replaced by a soft fit, beautifully outlining the camp. The skirts lengthened sharply, covering the calves of the legs, shod in "slippers" (they were also affectionately called "galoshes"). Flat shoes made the walk smoother and freer. Petticoats and transparent nylon blouses appeared.
Women are again beginning to show interest in decorative cosmetics. Special attention they pay attention to the eyes. The upper eyelids are lined with colored shadows, with a clearly lengthening eye contour along the ciliary edge. Voluminous hairstyles (bouffant) are in fashion.
However, by the end of the 50s and the beginning of the 60s, skirts began to be shortened again, in many cases turning into "barrels". And soon there was another revolution. There were "dress-shirts" - straight, loose, not detachable at the waist. It would seem that there is something special? Just another form change. In the 20s they already wore something similar. Who cares?
There was a difference, and a very significant one. Previously, all women wore straight, not fitted clothes. The fashionable silhouette was the same for everyone. And now, straight dresses could be worn in different ways - with a belt that clearly defines the waist, with a belt on the bedpax, or without a belt at all. How does anyone go. That is, it was the first application for freedom of choice. Fashion ceased to dutifully serve the elect. She was forced to listen to the real demands of the majority. And if at first she got rid of only corsets, excessive length and many unnecessary details in order to become comfortable, simple and accessible to everyone, now she has taken a new, albeit timid, step towards the majority. The artists strove to create clothes that corresponded to the spirit of the time - concise, clear, expressive in form, not cluttered with "cuts" and allowing everyone to wear it in their own way. However, true freedom was still far away.
In essence, the same form, the same proportions were offered to everyone in a row and not for one year. The search has begun different forms, silhouettes, proportions, so that every woman can choose what suits her best.
Another decisive step was taken in this direction - women's pants, and as full-fledged clothing, the same as skirts. At the same time, dresses and skirts began to shorten rapidly. With the onset of each new season, they seemed too long, as if last time 5-7 cm had not been cut off from them. A triumphal procession of mini-length began, first, as usual, met with hostility, and then rooted everywhere.
Why did this fashion come about? After all, there was no practical need for such short clothes, especially if you remember that everything was short. Even winter coats were no exception. There was a need to challenge conventional wisdom. It was necessary purely psychologically. The fact is that fashion changes occur under the influence of various circumstances. On the one hand, these are practical social demands associated with changes in living conditions, and on the other hand, the need for renewal, a change of impressions, which is always characteristic of a person. The French fashion designer Paul Poiret said very well about this: “... man, the only one of all animals, invented clothes and, paying for it, is obliged to change it, never stopping at the same form.”
Thus, the possibilities of choice have expanded even more. We could wear straight, fitted or semi-tight. If we didn't want to draw attention to our legs, we could replace the miniskirt with trousers. And yet, complete freedom of choice did not come. The limits of fashion moved apart, but remained quite rigid. Pants were the same cut, skirts were the same length.
Another sharp shift was needed, another overthrow of accepted norms and traditions. It was necessary once and for all to put an end to the elitism of fashion and turn it more resolutely towards the real life of the vast majority of people, the life of labor, intense, with its ever-accelerating rhythm and increasingly complex problems.
This is exactly what happened in the mid-70s, when denim style, the most democratic and popular of all ever coming into fashion, took the key positions in fashion. Its popularity grew exponentially, and this would have led to a dull blue monotony, if not for the same mass enthusiasm for folklore motifs. Bright embroidered bouquets appeared on denim jackets and skirts, worn denim trousers began to be worn with light, cross-embroidered blouses taken from grandmother's chest.
Then for the first time there was an interest in antiquity. From the mezzanine, the young men took out the leather “commissioner” jackets and coats of their grandfathers. We stopped carelessly throwing away old, unique things - furniture, crockery, candlesticks, ink utensils, mortars, and similar cute, cozy trifles. The faster the rhythm of our life became, the faster humanity conquered more and more new frontiers of technological progress, the more natural the desire became not to lose roots, to find moral support in the past, to oppose the standard of the environment, to bring something individual, original into one’s life, to preserve some then objects, even if not too necessary and practical, but warmed by the warmth of living human hands, who once worked on their creation. This partly prepared the subsequent change in fashion. There is one regularity in its development.
The more popular the style of clothing, one or another of its forms, the sooner they should be replaced by something else. And now, pushing jeans into the background, at the turn of 1978-1979, a completely different style of clothing came into fashion.
It was a retro style, the hallmark of which was the appeal to the motives of past years, namely the 40s and 50s. The fact is that denim fashion, with its unpretentiousness, with a decisive rejection of traditional ideas about elegance, has created a lot of conveniences for us. In jeans, you could walk anywhere and everywhere, from morning to evening. Everyone wore them - adults and children, men and women, mainly, of course, young people.
But, having got used to freedom and ease, women began to forget about their femininity, about the grace of gait and posture. Yes, and men very soon got used to treating them as buddies who can easily be patted on the shoulder and who do not have to be let forward, not to mention giving up their seat in transport, and other “prejudices”. Clothing has a far greater influence on our behavior, manners, and relationships than is commonly believed. Of course, all this happens unconsciously, but fashion belongs to the area of the unconscious. It is later, after the lapse of time, that we begin to understand what dictated one or another of its turns. Without explaining anything to us, it strikes us with its novelty, accurately, unmistakably, like migratory birds, guessing the direction of its path. And now, by offering a retro style, she has given us a great opportunity to try to regain the lost femininity.
Moreover, this style, which revived classical forms and the types of clothing, it would seem, were more suitable for adults, respectable people. But he was not interested in them. They wore such clothes, albeit not exactly the same, but very similar, in their youth. Wearing now, after "mini" and "denim", she mercilessly aged them. But for the young, the retro style was fraught with extraordinary charm. A wonderful opportunity for reincarnation opened before them. Girls who had just worn jeans, in which they, one might say, grew up, which became literally a second skin for them, were transformed before their eyes, wearing elongated skirts, classic suits, dresses with feminine, romantic finishes.
However, this is what fashion exists to constantly change and force us to reconsider our attitude to clothing. The retro style, in general, not very practical, turned out to be too obliging, to some extent pretentious, and therefore was not suitable for everyone and not always. This style has been preserved in fashion for elegant, as well as for purely formal wear (in classic options). As for ordinary, everyday, universal clothing, something different was required here.
Therefore, despite all its attractiveness, the retro style lasted only a season and a half. In 1980, resolutely and calmly, as a person who is absolutely confident in his rightness and indispensability, sports style came into fashion. It was then that quilted jackets and coats, the same trousers and overalls, as well as sneakers appeared - in a word, everything that was previously considered purely sports. Cozy, free, practical, devoid of any mannerisms, pretentiousness, these clothes fit perfectly on any figure, creating a feeling of calm self-confidence, cheerfulness, dexterity and, so to speak, physical fullness.
Sports-style clothing immediately found ardent adherents among young people, but then pretty soon migrated to the wardrobe of adults who appreciated its convenience, practicality and the fact that it helped to look younger.
Seemed to be finally found best option, which suits everyone and most accurately meets the harsh realities of our busy lives. But... fashion would cease to be fashion, offering something stable, suitable for all time. Older people know that at first any innovation slightly shocks us with its unexpectedness, and then we get used to it, and it seems to us that only such clothes are beautiful, comfortable, reasonable, practical, and that this is the only way we will dress now. Then the fashion changes, and everything repeats from the beginning.
So, after some time it turned out that a cozy, calm, democratic sports style is surprisingly monotonous in mood. After all, clothes are not just a combination of shapes, lines, folds, buttons, pockets, etc. There is always some kind of mood in it. She can be serious and coquettish, boring and cheerful, strict and careless. The style, details, color and pattern of the fabric are what make up the mood. For example, light frills, flounces, lace, especially in delicate light colors, create a clean, poetic look, while a classic white blouse with a blank fastener, complemented by a tie or a small black bow, creates a feeling of austerity.
In the development of fashion, especially in the last ten years, such concepts as image, mood, style, began to play a much greater role than before. The usual characteristics of fashion - the length of clothing, the shape of the collar or the cut of the sleeve - are important only insofar as they create some kind of image with their help. If there is no image, the clothes are boring, inexpressive.
Sports-style clothing is characterized by a certain schematicity, as if given solutions - a well-known design system for fasteners, pockets, a characteristic cut, accessories (zippers, buttons, etc.), a line that secures the edges of parts, that is, some limitations in the use of fabrics and decorative techniques leading to uniformity.
Naturally, there was a need for new images. However, from a practical point of view, the sporty style was very good and therefore influenced further development fashion. Its characteristic cutting techniques, free forms, clear technology, pockets, zippers and buttons, finishing stitching have become widely used even in traditional classic items, up to elegant evening dresses. We are so accustomed to the convenience and freedom of clothing that the now famous French saying “To be beautiful, you have to suffer” makes us smile.
But in order for our practical, the highest degree functional clothing was filled with new stylistic content, fashion turned to the search for new figurative solutions that could be associated with a historical costume, and not in general, but with the clothes of specific historical, literary characters and movie heroes, with folklore images, etc.
Of course, all this found its most vivid expression in youth fashion. There were musketeers, and the first aviators, and Tom Sawyer, and Chekhov, Dickensian images, and solutions inspired by various styles in art, such as Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and carnival, theatrical images. And at the same time, interest in the classic style reappeared and sharply increased (since the appearance of the “Inflated” sports jackets) volumes, the motifs of the 50s fashion sounded every now and then. In new proportions and thanks to a new way of dressing and wearing both the things themselves and accessories, jewelry, to build the whole ensemble of clothes more boldly and picturesquely, these motifs sounded fresh, modern and very funny. Fashion kept us in touch with the past, guaranteed maximum comfort and ease, and in addition to everything, it provided complete freedom to choose not only shapes and silhouettes, but also the style of clothing in accordance with the individuality of each. And this was another, perhaps the most important conquest. Fashion has finally lost its elitism.
Length, volume, proportions, figurative, stylistic decision - everything now began to depend on the imagination, taste, character, external data of each of us.
Of course, in this or that period of time, some style, some forms become the main, leading ones in fashion. Others, as it were, go into the shadows for a while, but fashion does not refuse them. So, in 1987, after the general enthusiasm for large volumes, fitted, feminine forms began to acquire more and more attractiveness. But that didn't mean that by wearing loose, bulky clothes, we risked looking ridiculous and old-fashioned. Or the “mini” length that came into fashion again did not at all oblige all women to shorten their dresses, skirts and coats the way it once was. Along with short ones, artists offered models of any other length.
If we trace the development of fashion over the last quarter of a century, we will see that not one of the directions that have changed during this time has left without a trace. Each of them left and still has some interesting find, some rational grain, something that allows using this direction in the future. So it was with denim clothing, which during this time, it would seem, could have long been out of use, but nevertheless it is alive to this day. Life itself does not allow it to disappear. And, realizing this, artists are constantly coming up with options for updating the “denim theme”. There was everything - both sports style, and "corset", and bell-bottoms, and "bananas", and with velveteen, and with artificial fur, and with leather, and with embroideries, and with lace. And the colors were different - from thick indigo blue to the notorious "boiled".
Or, despite the fact that sporty style has gone from the forefront, giving way to more interesting and diverse interpretations, we still enjoy wearing comfortable, well-designed quilted jackets and other similar things. And what about the “dress-shirts” that came into fashion in the late 50s and early 60s and are still alive today? And the wide skirts in folklore style, short and long, with frills and petticoats, in the most diverse combinations of fabrics? What about graceful, feminine elegant dresses in retro style from different periods of the 20th century? And what about strict classic suits, jackets, fitted or in the style of a men's jacket, which we do not stop wearing in a variety of ensembles? Finally, the same pants that have become an integral part of the women's wardrobe. Having undergone so many changes, even at some point completely replacing dress skirts from everyday life, they came into fashion so long ago and, presumably, will remain in our everyday life for a long time.
At the same time, a mixture of styles is very characteristic of modern fashion. This can be noticeable not only in the style of a particular product, but also in how we combine individual items of clothing, shoes, jewelry, bags, gloves, hats, etc. In the future, we will dwell on this in more detail. , we will try to bring as much as possible concrete examples, show on them what this or that style of clothing consists of.
Fashion is constantly changing, although much of what it offers today may be used in the future. Nevertheless, we considered ourselves entitled to give only general characteristics modern fashion show the main focus in its development. As for practical advice, recommendations on how to learn how to dress beautifully, how to choose your own clothes, here we proceeded from the fact that there are some approaches, principles that persist for a long time and do not lose their significance, no matter how fashion changes. The food about the hour and the month of astrology folds, shards of reliable information about the early stages of the formation of astrological sciences is not enough. The deyakі doslіdniki bring vindications of astrology until the period of the Mustier era (about 40-100 thousand years ago), if fixations were needed [...] ... A few tips on proper nutrition Women love compliments about their attractiveness, unusualness, new dress and of course age . And what a joy it is to hear that she looks no more ... Women who look good […] ...
The ideals of female beauty are constantly changing and what was considered the standard 100, 50 and even 10 years ago will now seem ugly, not to mention the changeability of views throughout history. Throughout time, women have constantly changed their appearance and often rushed to extremes from excessive fullness to painful thinness in order to correspond to the ideal inherent in a particular period of time. Beauty standards will change endlessly, such is human nature, and what kind of figure will be “fashion” in the next decade, one can only guess.
Ancient Egypt
Let's start with the basics. In ancient Egypt, gender equality reigned, society was liberated and free. But at the same time, there was a very definite ideal of beauty of the era - a slender body with an elongated waist and narrow shoulders, long black hair, classic strict facial features and expressive eyes lined with black paint.
Ancient Greece
We can see the ideal of female beauty in the surviving ancient Greek sculptures, in particular, in the sculpture of Aphrodite. At that time, the idea of physical perfection was actively promoted, the Greeks even calculated the formula for the beauty of the female body, which shows the ratio of the size of the feet, hands and other parts of the body to each other. The face of a Greek beauty should have been symmetrical and even, with large eyes and a straight nose. The ideal body type was considered to be a "pear" with a small chest, but voluminous hips.
Medieval ideal of beauty
In the Middle Ages, the attitude to appearance compared to antiquity has changed a lot. Beauty during this period was considered sinful. But a certain canon still existed. The ideal of beauty of the Middle Ages is a girl with very pale, snow-white skin, thin and emaciated. The oval of the elongated face is framed by blond wavy hair. The mouth is small and modest, the eyes are large and slightly protruding. To achieve pallor, the girls not only rubbed lemon on their faces, but also made bloodletting. In the Middle Ages, many also shaved off their eyebrows. So the portraits of the beauties of those times look rather strange.
Renaissance
Classical examples of the ideal of feminine beauty in the Renaissance are the Mona Lisa and the Venus by Botticelli. Still the same pallor and high forehead, but the facial expression becomes more mysterious, and the hair is now loosely styled. The magnificent figure becomes one of the main values of this period. full hands, wide hips, soft and smooth features - all this was appreciated in the Renaissance. As for the hairstyle, blond wavy hair was ideal.
Baroque and Rococo
The 17th and 18th centuries dictate new rules for female beauty. One of the main ones is a thin waist. The era of corsets is coming, some girls manage to shrink their waist to 33 cm. At the same time, a very deep neckline always goes with a corset. Beauties carefully protect themselves from the sun, because snow-white skin is in fashion. Ladies in lace ruffles resemble beautiful porcelain figurines.
19th century
The time comes for the Empire style, which appreciates natural beauty. The girl should be slender, in a light muslin dress, with large eyes and white skin. At the same time, in the 19th century there was another direction - puffy dresses with tight corsets and complex styling. In both styles, the so-called painful femininity was in fashion: pallor, weakness and fainting.
20th century
This era has given us a lot different ideals female beauty. In the 20s, an androgynous appearance came into fashion - the corset was forgotten, boyish figures with small breasts were valued, and for the first time in many centuries, women began to wear short haircuts. In the 30s-50s, in the era of golden Hollywood, femininity returned to fashion . An hourglass figure with a thin waist, large breasts and voluminous hips, lush styling with curls, long eyelashes, blush and scarlet lips - Marilyn Monroe and other actresses were the ideal beauty of the era.
In the 60s, the most popular model was Twiggy with her slender body, long legs and small breasts. In the 80s, the ideal changed again: aerobics came into fashion, as well as supermodels - tall, athletic and fit. By the 90s, the ideal had shifted a little to the other side, painful thinness and pallor came into fashion.
21 century
The modern ideal of beauty is a rather complicated concept. Today, health and harmony are valued, but not anorexic thinness, as in the 90s. A flat stomach, large breasts and a firm butt are considered ideal. Which, as we know, is practically unattainable. Fortunately, more and more people are leaning towards the idea of natural beauty in all its diversity. But it will take a long time for this idea to really become popular.
Since the Renaissance was based on the development of world trade and served as the beginning of the Great geographical discoveries, it wrested man from the other world, to which he had belonged until now, and made him master of himself. As buyer or seller, everyone became a valuable object of interest to her.
The Renaissance era proclaimed, in the end, the ideal type of a sensual person, one who, better than anyone else, is able to evoke love in the other sex, moreover, in a strictly animal sense, therefore, a strong sexual feeling.
In this sense, expedient beauty triumphed, and, moreover, extremely brightly, in the Renaissance, since it was a revolutionary era. After the fall of the ancient world, beauty was now celebrating its highest triumphs. A man is considered perfect, that is, beautiful, if he has developed signs that characterize his sexual activity: strength and energy. A woman is declared beautiful if her body has all the data necessary to fulfill her destined motherhood. First of all, the breast, the nourishing source of life. chest gets it all more value the further the Renaissance develops. In contrast to the Middle Ages, which preferred women with narrow hips and a slender figure, preference was now given to wide hips, a strong waist, and thick buttocks.
Women's fashion. 16th century
In a woman, they loved magnificent forms, which did not fit with prettiness and grace. The woman was supposed to be Juno and Venus in one person. A woman whose corsage portends luxurious flesh is valued above all. That is why the girl is already flaunting her magnificent breasts. A majestically built woman deserves the deepest admiration. She must be tall, imposing in stature, must have magnificent, beautiful breasts, wide hips, strong buttocks, full legs and arms "capable of strangling a giant." Such are the women of Rubens, created by him for immortal life in the person of the three Graces. The contemplation of such women gives the highest joy, for the possession of them promises a man the deepest pleasure.
The most detailed, detailed and numerous descriptions are devoted to female beauty. And this is understandable. Not only because the creative tendency is the result of male activity, the constructions of female beauty created by a man are more common than the ideals of male beauty created by a woman, but mainly because a man is in principle an aggressive, and a woman is a passive principle. True, a woman also seeks the love of a man, and even in an even more concentrated form than a man seeks a woman's love, but she never does this clearly and distinctly, like a man. A man, therefore, clothes his demands for the physical beauty of a woman in the clearest and most precise descriptions. Thirty-six virtues - according to other estimates, only eighteen, twenty-three or twenty-seven - "a woman should have if she wants to be known as a beauty and be desired." These separate beauties are indicated either by form or color, etc. To give this ideal even more tangible, concrete outlines, they usually pointed to women certain countries and cities. Natives of Cologne are famous for their beautiful hands, natives of Brabant - with beautiful backs, French women - with beautifully bulging bellies, wreaths - with magnificent breasts, natives of Swabia - with beautiful buttocks, Bavarians - with the beauty of the most intimate parts of the female body. The people of the Renaissance did not want to forget anything and were distinguished by greater accuracy, and the rising classes, moreover, are never distinguished by hypocritical modesty. Sometimes they were not limited even to these data, going into an even more intimate description. A woman who wants to be known as a beauty must have not one of these virtues, but all together.
Dutch prostitute costume. 17th century
This code of beauty has been couched everywhere in the form of poetic aphorisms and has come down to us in a number of variants, sometimes with illustrations. It suffices to give one example.
A very common wedding song lists "thirty-five virtues beautiful girl” as follows: “Three should be white, three black, three red, three long, three short, three thick, three large, three small, three narrow, and in general a woman should be tall and full addition, should have a head like a native of Prague, legs like a native of the Rhine, a chest like a wreath, a stomach like a Frenchwoman, a back like a native of Brabant, hands like a resident of Cologne.
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 motives of the era. For her, the female breast is the most amazing miracle of beauty, and therefore artists paint and paint it day after day to perpetuate it. Whatever episode from the life of a woman the artist portrays, he will always find an opportunity to weave a new stanza into the hymn resounding in honor of her breast.
Since only gender was always seen in a man and a woman, in connection with the contempt for old age, we notice in both sexes a passionate desire to “become younger again”, especially in a woman, since her flowering is less long, and the traces of old age come out more quickly and more clearly. This made her social position in the struggle for a man terribly difficult, since in most cases she had no other means of struggle, except for a beautiful body. It is her main capital, her rate. Hence her passionate desire to remain young as long as possible. Out of this understandable longing grew to a large extent the idea of the fountain of youth, which in the 15th and 16th centuries represented such a common motive.
The Rape of the Sabine Women. The ideal of male and female beauty. Italian engraving. 17th century
Morning toilet of a young woman. 16th century
It goes without saying that "science" was in a hurry to offer dozens of funds to those who wanted to look younger. Charlatans, gypsies, old women sell them to gullible people in the streets and fairs, partly secretly, partly openly. This theme is also often touched upon in Shrovetide plays.
No less striking evidence in favor of the main sensual trend of the Renaissance is its attitude towards nudity.
It is known that then in all countries nudity was treated quite simply. Even back in the 16th century. for the coming sleep, they completely undressed, slept naked. And besides, both sexes of all ages; usually husband, wife, children and servants slept in a common room, not even separated by partitions. Such was the custom not only among the peasantry and the lower classes, but also among the higher burghers and the aristocracy. They were not shy even in front of the guest, and he usually slept in a dormitory with his family. The wife goes to bed without a dress in the presence of a guest whom she has seen for the first time in her life. The requirements of modesty were considered fulfilled if she did it "chastely." If the guest refused to undress, then his refusal aroused bewilderment. How long this custom lasted is evident from a document dating back to 1587, in which this custom is condemned, therefore, it still existed.
A beautiful body, however, was put on display not only through idealizing and exaggerating art, elevating objects above the world of reality, no, in this respect they went much further, boldly flaunting nudity in front of the whole world - on the street, where she was surrounded and felt with the eyes of tens of thousands of curious people. There was a custom of meeting in front of the city walls the prince visiting the city with completely naked beautiful women. History has recorded a number of such meetings: for example, the entry of Louis XI to Paris in 1461, Charles the Bold to Lille in 1468, Charles V to Antwerp in 1520. latest event we have more details thanks to Dürer, who was present with him and admitted that he looked at naked beauties with particular interest.
The entry of Louis XI into Paris is reported as follows. At the Fountain du Panceau stood wild men and women fighting with each other, and beside them were three naked beautiful girls, imitating sirens, with such wonderful breasts and such beautiful forms that it was impossible to see enough.
One more feature needs to be touched upon. privacy, which serves as no less classical proof of the cult of physical beauty characteristic of the Renaissance and belongs to the circle of ideas touched upon so far. We have in mind the description and glorification of the intimate bodily beauty of a beloved or wife by a husband or lover in conversation with friends, their readiness to even give a friend a chance to see this vaunted beauty with their own eyes. This is one of the favorite conversational topics of the era.
Señor Branthom reports: "I knew several seigneurs who praised their wives before their friends and described to them in the most detailed way all their charms."
One praises the color of his wife's skin, like ivory, with a pink coating, like a peach, soft to the touch, like silk or velvet, the other - the pomp of her forms, the elasticity of her breasts, similar to "large apples with graceful points" or " pretty balls with pink berries", hard as marble, while her hips are "hemispheres promising the highest bliss". Others boast of their wives' "like carved white legs," like "proud columns topped with a beautiful pediment." At the same time, even the most intimate details are not forgotten ...
Spouses or women talk about the spiritual qualities only at the very end. main role plays a beautiful body that is described from head to toe and back. The description is often supported by evidence. A friend is given the opportunity to peep at his wife while bathing or toileting, or even more willingly, he is led into the bedroom, where the sleeping wife, not suspecting that she has extraneous witnesses, exposes all her nakedness to his eyes. Sometimes even the husband himself throws back the covers that hide her, so that all her charms are exposed before the eyes of the curious. The bodily beauty of the wife is ostentatiously displayed like a treasure or treasure, which should arouse envy, and there should be no room for doubt. At the same time, the owner of these treasures boasts of them to emphasize that he owns them. He does this not secretly, and the wife must now and then put up with the fact that her husband will bring his friends to her bed, even when she sleeps, and that he will tear off her blanket, partly hiding her body from view.
The era of the Renaissance was distinguished not only by sensuality. Since we are talking about the victory of the rising class, she knew neither hypocritical modesty nor fear, but boldly and fearlessly brought all her intentions to the extreme limit. This straightforwardness, in turn, led to those features that sometimes make the fashions of the Renaissance seem so monstrous to us, and these features characterize both men's and women's fashions alike. “I am most excellently made for love,” the man told the woman with the help of his suit. “I am a worthy object of your power,” she answered him no less clearly with the help of her clothes. And both the offer and the answer were distinguished in the Renaissance by the same boldness. Let's start with women's fashion.
The problem of erotic influence was resolved here, as already mentioned, by the bold exposure of the chest. The Renaissance held the view that "a naked woman is more beautiful than one dressed in purple." Since it was impossible to always be naked, they showed at least as much as possible that part that has always been considered the highest beauty of a woman and has therefore always been revealed by fashion, namely the chest. Exposing the chest was not only not considered a vice, but, on the contrary, was part of the general cult of beauty, as it served as an expression of the sensual impulses of the era. All women gifted beautiful breasts, more or less decollete her. Even middle-aged ladies strove to evoke the illusion of full and lush breasts for as long as possible. The more naturally gifted a woman was in this respect, the more extravagant she was. Unlike other eras, during the Renaissance, women decollete not only in the ballroom, but also at home, on the street and even in church. They were especially generous in this regard on holidays. The epoch of the Renaissance clearly shows that it is not the climate but social being that determines fashions, that the climate creates, in any case, only quantitative and not qualitative differences, in the sense that, for example, hotter countries prefer lighter fabrics. Since the same economic reasons, as in the south, the northerners decollete as much as the southerners. The Flemish and the Swiss bared their breasts no less than the French, the Venetian and the Roman.
In order to better draw attention to the beauty of the breast, to its most valuable virtues - elasticity and splendor - women sometimes decorated their halos with diamond rings and caps, and both breasts were connected by gold chains, weighted with crosses and jewels. Catherine de Medici came up with a fashion for her court ladies that drew attention to the breasts by the fact that two round cutouts were made on the right and left of the dress, revealing bare breasts, or by the fact that the breasts were artificially reproduced externally. A similar fashion, by virtue of which only the chest and face were revealed, reigned in other places. Where custom demanded that noble ladies cross the street only under a shawl or mask, as in Venice, they, it is true, hid their faces, but they showed off their breasts all the more generously.
Whatever frankness and courage women's fashion in bare breasts achieved, it was in no way inferior to that feature of men's fashion that distinguishes the Renaissance from all other eras. Here we are talking about what the Germans call Latz, and the French call braquette. This detail gives men's fashion The revival in our eyes is truly a monstrous character...
The sensual character of the Renaissance was perfectly answered by the trait that both woman and man openly discovered what their century attached the greatest value to. No one found it strange that a man and a woman should act on the feelings of each other with such crude means. Men and women did not at all remain indifferent to these pathogens, but were brought into constant agitation by them. The literature of the Renaissance is rich in evidence that the feelings of a man were kindled by the deeply bare breasts of a woman, that this part of the body always captivates and seduces him first of all.
