Beauty ideals evolved a lot through the course of history. For instance, a woman considered "beautiful" nowadays would have been deemed as "ugly" according to the 17th century standards when being "plump" was a sign of good health and "pale", a sign of nobility and wealth.
I don't pretend to write a very elaborate entry about the evolution beauty ideals through the ages as whole books have been written on the subject already. But I just wanted to share some of my discoveries concerning make-up and generally "crazy" and unealthy things women would do for the sake of being considered "beautiful".
Light skin has almost always been considered beautiful as it was a sign of your rank in society (only the ones who had to work to earn their living had tanned kin) and it was indeed the case in Greek/Roman/Egyptian times. To make their skin look whiter/paler, women used foundation made of a mix of fat, oil and white lead or Venetian ceruse.
The problem is that lead and ceruse are highly toxic and can cause very heavy damage to your body, causing among other health hazards: scars, damage to your nervous system, brain disorders and plain blood poisoning due to the accumulation of lead in your body through your skin.
Pale skin was a must for noble ladies (just as it was before). Showing your hair and applying makeup were considered "sinful" and associated with prostitutes and actresses. But noble and wealthy women sometimes used foundation mixed with mercury (another highly poisonous metal). And some went so far as to bleed themselves to appear paler! Medieval women would also pluck or shave their forehead and eyebrows to widen their brow as it was considered beautiful.
Agnès Sorel, mistress of French king Charles VII, was considered as the most beautiful lady of her times (see below, bottom right picture) and she died of Mercury poisoning after giving birth. Some considered she had been vonluntarily poisoned but it rather seems that she ingested a lot of heavy metals during her life such as mercury or gold which were considered to be good for health and beauty (which was indeed not the case).
Pale skin is still a must. As you can see in the Victorian ads below, most of the foundation used during the Victorian era was highly poisonous, mixing arsenic, mercury with lead. The use of these poisonous mix raised concern among the medical community as it caused some women's death!
Dilated pupils were also considered as beautiful and attractive, so women used belladonna drops to make their pupils bigger but it caused visual distortion, increased heart rate and even blindness if used regularly.
and its impact on health.
- Killer cosmetics through the ages.
.
review of Umberto Ecco's book.
Victorians and the aesthetic myth of children's purity.
After a very long hiatus, I'm back with a new article. This time, I would like to address a very controversial subject which is how most Victorians upper-class poets, artists, men (mostly) regarded children. I'm no specialist on the subject and I only did a pretty light research, moreover it seems that scholars are still questioning the ambiguous relationship many Victorian artists had with young children. To put it in a nutshell, just consider this article as a summary of what I could gather on the subject by reading some essays on the subject.
"Heaven lies about us in our infancy!"
Most of you might have heard of Victorian children either through Lewis Carroll's
Alice's adventures in Wonderland, James Barrie's
Peter Pan or Charles Dickens' numerous novels. You might also know that during queen Victoria's long long reign over the British Empire, the number of children among the global UK population increased a lot, so queen Victoria was actually ruling over an average population composed of more than 1/3 of children under the age of 15. Many children had to work in factories or coal mines, which resulted in an increased child mortality rate (check Dickens' novels about working children, he knows what he's writing about as he, himself was sent to work in an infamous workhouse when he was a child).
But as many Victorians did not seem to mind the fact that children, sometimes under the age of 5, were working in factories, an increasing number of men and women seemed to consider childhood as a "sacred" or "golden" age. It seems that many Victorians revered children as innocent and pure and "unspoiled" beings who should be preserved and whom you enjoyed the company as a distraction from the ugly practical world and the stress, the quick industrialization of the country was putting on the Victorians' shoulders.
But even if Victorians seem to consider children as free from the constraints of their "materialistic" society as one can be, it seems that anything and everything (ranging from teacups to calendars, clothing and magazines) featuring children used to sell out very quickly. And stage plays featuring children used to be very popular as well even if in most of them, children were mostly used as "props" in the background and not acting properly.
Millais' "Cherry Ripe" (1879) and "Bubbles" (1886) were used by the Pears Soap Company on their boxes
"The cult of the Child"
The most controversial Victorian adult/child relationship to this day surely is Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll) and little Alice Liddell's one. After visiting an exhibition of Dodgson's photographic works in New-York, Vladimir Nabokov is reported to have said there was “a pathetic affinity” between the photographer and the pedophilic narrator of his novel
Lolita... So was Lewis Carroll somebody you would not want children to get close to?
Some of the photos Dodgson took of the Liddell sisters (Lorina, Edith and Alice).
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was a photography hobbyist. He took many photos throughout his life many of them seem to feature young children, especially girls, mostly his friends' or colleagues' children. The nature/subject of these photos coupled with writings taken from his diary and letters apparently became a subject of concern among some scholars.
The fact that Mrs Liddell, mother of Edith, Lorina and Alice coldly asked Dodgson to stop seing her children without supervision further fuels the idea that Dodgson must have had "impure" thoughts regarding the Liddell girls. The fact that a large part of his diary and many of his photos seem to have been voluntarily destroyed and that his family always declined interviews and to say anything about him even after his death rose a flag of suspicion over Dodgson's relationships with little girls, especially Alice Liddell, his favorite.
Other photos taken by Dodgson of the young girls he used to call his "child friends".
If we consider what I wrote above, it was not unusual for Victorian grown men and women to enjoy the view and company of children. And contrary to some of his contemporary fellow artists, Dodgson never acted on his aestetic tendency to enjoy the company and the view of little girls even if some of his writings might make our 21st century selves a bit "unconfortable". But it seems that most Victorians considered children as "asexual" beings, experiencing neither lust nor carnal desire. So even if Dodgson's feelings towards little girls might have been "impure" from our point of view, they were not especially considered as such in his times and he never seemed to have actually molested any child.
Ernest Dowson for instance wrote many sonnets about little girls and even proposed to one of them when she was barely 14...
Further reading -
The Victorian child c.1837-1901 by Marah Gubar from the University of Pittsburgh.
-
Lewis Carroll's shifting reputation by Jenny Woolf.
-
The Victorian cult of the child from Plan Elfenbeinturm
-
Lewis Carroll a myth in the making from the victorianweb.
-
Victorian Children, a look into the life and times of Victorian children.
-
Photographs of Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland.
Libellés : art and litterature, history
Quel rêve, ô pauvre Folle !
Among Shakespearian ladies, Ophelia has always been my favourite. Mostly because Ophelia who first appears as the human incarnation of goodness and purity, so childlike and naïve, slowly falls into what the other characters of Hamlet consider as insanity : handling flowers she had gatherd in the folds of her dress to the courtesans and singing songs ; which eventually leads to her doubtful death by drwoning.
- Ophelia by Cot, Dicksee, Cabanel + not very Ophelia but much alike Paul Delaroche's "The young martyr" -
"Et l'Infini terrible éffara ton oeil bleu !"
The title I used is taken from Arthur Rimbaud's poem "Ophélie" that you can read below :
"Sur l'onde calme et noire où dorment les étoiles
La blanche Ophélia flotte comme un grand lys,
Flotte très lentement, couchée en ses longs voiles...
- On entend dans les bois lointains des hallalis.
Voici plus de mille ans que la triste Ophélie
Passe, fantôme blanc, sur le long fleuve noir
Voici plus de mille ans que sa douce folie
Murmure sa romance à la brise du soir
Le vent baise ses seins et déploie en corolle
Ses grands voiles bercés mollement par les eaux ;
Les saules frissonnants pleurent sur son épaule,
Sur son grand front rêveur s'inclinent les roseaux.
Les nénuphars froissés soupirent autour d'elle ;
Elle éveille parfois, dans un aune qui dort,
Quelque nid, d'où s'échappe un petit frisson d'aile :
- Un chant mystérieux tombe des astres d'or"
- Arthur Rimbaud, "Ophélie", Le Reliquaire, 1891.
Was Ophelia really insane ?! For some scholars, Hamlet, by his actions and words slowly drive Ophelia, the one he once loved, into madness as in his twisted mind, women are all bound to be harlots, hiding behind the guise of purity, repressed sexual desire and dark intentions.
On that account, Ophelia would be a perfect illustration of hysterical fits in Freud's psychiatric explanation of hysteria as a mental disease caused by repressed sexual desire. Shedding the psychiatric light on Ophelia, 19th century psychiatrists used her as a perfect illustration of hysteria or mental breakdown many young girls experience during adolescence.
Or does Ophelia use her so-called "madness" as a way to express her true feelings and sorrow, saying things she could not have been allowed to say, as a respectable woman in a patriarcal society ? Hence escaping the role the men who surround her: her father, Hamlet and her brother seem to confine her in : a "tool" for her father, both a loved-one and a subject of hate and disgust for Hamlet and the epitome of purity for her brother. All of them using her, having ulterior motives and an agenda of their own.
Insane or not, Ophelia seems to be meaningful for
Pre-raphaelites painters. Ophelia's madness and tragic death seems to be a source of inspiration for many 19th century painters.
- Ophelia by Waterhouse, Millais and Arthur Hughes -
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal, the Pre-raphaelites' Ophelia :
The most famous Pre-Raphaelite Ophelia definitely is
Millais' Ophelia. Despite mixed reviews when it was first displayed in 1852 at the Royal Academy in London, Millais' Ophelia is his most famous painting.
Millais used then 19 years old
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal as a model for his Ophelia. He painted the landscape first and then had miss Siddal pose for long hours in a bathtub filled with water. Miss Siddal caught a cold and her father threatened to sue Millais as he held him responsible for her daughter's disease. Millais agreed to pay the doctor's bill and as miss Siddal recovered from her cold, everything was amiably settled.
Let me tell you more about Lizzie Siddal. She was born in 1829 and died in 1862. Her life story is both captivating and sad. She was born in an "upper class" labourer's family. Lizzie started to work for a milliner and she was spotted by the painter
Deverell who used her as a model and introduced her to the Pre-Raphaelites. So she became one of the most famous Pre-Raphaelite model.
She especially caught
Dante Gabriel Rosetti's interest in 1849 and she started modelling exclusively for Rosetti. They started then started a pretty complicated : Lizzie spent long hours at Rosetti's place, which, in 19th century Great-Britain meant that she could not marry a respectable man as she was considered as Rosetti's mistress. The problem is that Rosetti could not make his mind and it took him 10 years to finally propose to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth was very anxious over this relationship which was the cause of her ill-health. She fell into severe depression, being often very ill and using her ill-health as a mean to keep Rosetti close. Having many fits of melancholy and refusing to eat anything when she was afraid he might leave her and fall for a younger and prettier muse.
Lizzie was also addicted to
laudanum, a mix of alchohol and opium which was prescribed by doctors to cure everything back then. She died of an overdose of laudanum in 1862. Her death was ruled as accidental but it actually was a suicide. Rosetti who discoverd her dying wife found a suicide note he burned before calling the doctors. As suicide was considered as shameful and would have bared Lizzie from a Christian burial.
Elizabeth was an artist herself. She wrote
poems and
painted and did several sketches. Ruskin, a Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood supporter, encouraged Lizzie to pursue a carreer in art. But her undecisive husband Dante Gabriel Rosetti's works unfortunately overshadow Lizzie's artistic productions.
- Steven Meisel, "The cult of beauty" for Vogue US (2011) -
Libellés : art and litterature, history
La Belle et la Bête, a true story?
I bet you've already heard of this famous fairytale, at least you might have watched Disney's rendition of this French fairytale. The tale was firstly published in 1740, written by Madame Barbot de Villeneuve, but the most know rendition of the tale was written by Madame Leprince de Beaumont in 1757, she actually abriged and rewrote Barbot de Villeneuve's tale.
Let me tell you more about "La Bête", In most illustrations, he's represented as a lion-like creature, grotesque in appearance, half animal, half human. In Madame de Villeneuve's tale, the Beast appears stupid to Beauty due to the enchantment that has been cast on him by an evil fairy. But in most versions of the tale, the Beast is actually wise and gentle, a true gentleman despite his horrible appearance. It seems like the fairytale was inspired by a "real story".
- Illustrations by Edmund Dulac, Mercer Mayer, Scott Gustafson, H.M. Brock -
Petrus Gonsalvus, the "wildman of the woods" (1537-1618)
Petrus Gonsalvus, or rather Pedro Gonzales, was born in the Canary islands in 1537. He was born with
hypertrichosis or "werewolf syndrome" which resulted in an abnormal amount of hair growing all over his body.
Due to this rare genetic disease, he was soon sold to a circus, being brought from one place to another, where he was considered as a mmonstruosity provoking both disgust and fascination. He was finally sent to the court of the French king Henri II (1519-1559) when he was about 10 years old. At that time, many philosophers and writters were fascinated by the "myth" of the "
Wild man" and Henri II was also very interested in this "monster" looking like half a man and half a monkey.
King Henri II decided to keep this "creature" whose name he had latinized as "Petrus Gonsalvus" and made him his "protégé". Most courtesans were afraid the wildman might turn into a werewolf and tear the castle appart, but much to their "disappointment", Petrus did not act wild at all! Au contraire, he was so gentle and nice, that Henri II decided to make an "experiment": he decided to "civilize" Petrus, he had the best masters teach him everything a French gentleman from the Renaissance era should know: latin, history, geography... And to his masters' greatest surprise, Petrus was very good at everything he was taught despite his bestial appearance.
When king Henri II died, as his sons were too young to rule by themselves, his widow, Catherine de Medicis was then designed regent of the young king François II. Catherine decided to carry on the "experiment" her late husband had started. She wanted to find a wife for Petrus. Around 1572, Petrus is married to Catherine Raffelin, daughter of a lesser noble man serving at the court. They had 7 children, 4 of them inherited their father's condition. They made the regent queen very proud and many princes from all over Europe wanted to see the family or have one of the children given to them, as the Gonsalvus were still not considered as human beings but as animals or some kind of educated monsters who had no human feelings.
- The Gonsalvus family by Ulisse Aldrovandi, Lavinia Fontana, Joris Hoefnagel and an anonymous German artist -
In 1589, when Catherine de Medicis died, the Gonsalvus fell into disgrace and they exiled themselves in Italy where they found "shelter" at the Farnese court in Parma. There, the were studied by Ulisse Aldrovandi and some of their children were given away as gifts to the Farnese's friends. Despite this pretty cruel destiny, it seems that the couple formed by Petrus and Catherine was happy. Catherine had apparently learned to love Petrus despite his appearance, achieving to see the beauty of this educated and gentle man hidden by this large amount of hair.
It's highly possible that this real story actually was the origin of the tale "Beauty and the Beast". In the end, the Beast did not transform into an actual handsome prince, but kept the same appearance but his true nature and inner beauty made Beauty fall in love with him (not to mention that in most versions of the tale, Beauty seems almost disappointed by the appearance of the handsome prince her love freed from the enchantment).
Other intresting interpretations of the tale
- "The courtship of Mr Lyon" in
The bloody chamber by Angela Carter (the beast also has the appearance of a humanoid lion and he doesn't turn into a prince at the end of the tale)
- "
La Belle et la Bête" 1946 film by Jean Cocteau (my favourite "Beauty and the Beast" movie ever).
- "
La Belle et la Bête" 2014 film by Christophe Gans (not as eerie and fascinating than Cocteau's film but beautiful sets and mostly a retelling of the tale, loosely based on Madame de Villeneuve's tale).
- "
Gonsalvus : Ou la véritable histoire de la Belle et la Bête" by Julian Pösler for ARTE (in French).
Libellés : fairytales, history
La Barbe bleue and the Blood Countess
Let's talk about 2 controversial historic figures whose very special life story inspired many tales and horror stories: Gilles de Rais and Báthory Erzsébet. The only thing those two have in common, save from their fictional legacy, is that they're both said to be serial killers. You must have heard of Báthory Erzsébet already as she's mostly known today for supposedly being a "vampire" but you may not have heard of Gilles de Rais if you're not French or don't really know about Medieval history. Gilles de Rais is said to be the man who inspired Perrault's "Barbe bleue".
Gilles de Rais (1404-1440)
Gilles de Rais was a Breton knight, he was a companion in arms of Joan of Arc and a commander of the French army during the 100 years' war. Gilles de Rais was fierce in battle but according to many contemporary sources he seemed to be well liked by the king Charles VII and by Joan of Arc. He was devout and generous but seemed to be pretty uncontrollable sometimes, spending very large amounts of money in fine clothing and jewellery.
Gilles de Rais by Eloi Firmin (19th century) - Vincent Cassel as Gilles de Rais in "The Messenger"
In 1440, Gilles de Rais was arrested and found guilty of a count of about 60 gruesome murders of children whose age was ranging from 6 to 18. Both of his bodyservants and said accompliced confessed the crimes, adding very gruesome details, and peasants from the neigbouring villages said that they had seen many children going through the gates of Gilles' castle and were never seen again. He was also charged with sodomy and heresy and was sentenced to death by hanging and burning.
Nowadays the veracity of Gilles de Rais' guiltiness is subject to controversy. The bodyservants' confessions were indeed obtained through torture, and both the Church and the duke of Britany, who was the secular judge at Gilles' trial, really wanted him dead as they both had much to gain from it (the bishop of Nantes did not like Gilles and they were often fighting and the duke of Britany wanted Gilles' territory for his own). So much for the so-called serial killer...
Erzsébet Báthory (1560-1614)
Erzsébet was an educated woman who could read and speak 4 languages. She was married to Ferenc Nadasdy when she was only 14. While her husband was at war (fighting against the Ottomans), Erzsébet had to manage her husband's huge estate by herself and she was apparently very good at it. After her husband's passing, in 1604, Erzsébet found herself to be the most powerful widow of Hungary.
Anna Friel in "Báthory"
Between 1602 and 1604, rumors reached the court in Vienna, these rumors said that several young girls living near the countess' castle had been reported missing. King Mathias II assigned György Thurzo to investigate. Several witnesses were questionned and most of them said that many young girls had been lured to Csejte castle by offers of well-paid work. Some witnesses added that the young girls were tortured in several ways and killed or left to starve to death. It seemed that the count of her victims was more than 600, Erzsébet would then be the most prolific serial killers of history. The countess was never put on trial for her "crimes" tbough as her powerful family had her imprisonned in her own castle, immured in a set of rooms while her accomplices were put to death and burned.
Later, Erzsébet's story inspired many legends and tales. Some say she used to bleed her victims and bath in their blood to retain her beauty and youth. She was then associated with the vampire myths. Nowadays it seems that Erzsébet was most likely not as sadistic or as prolific as she was said to be. Some historians tend to consider she was "evicted" by the king Mathias II mostly because he owed her a great amount of money he could not pay back. Moreover, Erzsébeth was a powerful and educated woman in a country and society ruled by men so she was not really kindly considered by her male counterparts.
Libellés : fairytales, history
Beauty is only skin deep
Beauty ideals evolved a lot through the course of history. For instance, a woman considered "beautiful" nowadays would have been deemed as "ugly" according to the 17th century standards when being "plump" was a sign of good health and "pale", a sign of nobility and wealth.
I don't pretend to write a very elaborate entry about the evolution beauty ideals through the ages as whole books have been written on the subject already. But I just wanted to share some of my discoveries concerning make-up and generally "crazy" and unealthy things women would do for the sake of being considered "beautiful".
Antiquity beauty ideals
Light skin has almost always been considered beautiful as it was a sign of your rank in society (only the ones who had to work to earn their living had tanned kin) and it was indeed the case in Greek/Roman/Egyptian times. To make their skin look whiter/paler, women used foundation made of a mix of fat, oil and white lead or Venetian ceruse.
The problem is that lead and ceruse are highly toxic and can cause very heavy damage to your body, causing among other health hazards: scars, damage to your nervous system, brain disorders and plain blood poisoning due to the accumulation of lead in your body through your skin.
Middle Ages & Renaissance beauty ideals
Pale skin was a must for noble ladies (just as it was before). Showing your hair and applying makeup were considered "sinful" and associated with prostitutes and actresses. But noble and wealthy women sometimes used foundation mixed with mercury (another highly poisonous metal). And some went so far as to bleed themselves to appear paler! Medieval women would also pluck or shave their forehead and eyebrows to widen their brow as it was considered beautiful.
Agnès Sorel, mistress of French king Charles VII, was considered as the most beautiful lady of her times (see below, bottom right picture) and she died of Mercury poisoning after giving birth. Some considered she had been vonluntarily poisoned but it rather seems that she ingested a lot of heavy metals during her life such as mercury or gold which were considered to be good for health and beauty (which was indeed not the case).
Beauty ideals during Renaissance (Primavera), Middle Ages (Agnès Sorel) and Victorian era (queen Victoria)
Pale skin is still a must. As you can see in the Victorian ads below, most of the foundation used during the Victorian era was highly poisonous, mixing arsenic, mercury with lead. The use of these poisonous mix raised concern among the medical community as it caused some women's death!
Dilated pupils were also considered as beautiful and attractive, so women used belladonna drops to make their pupils bigger but it caused visual distortion, increased heart rate and even blindness if used regularly.
Interesting links to learn more about beauty ideals
-
Evolution of corsetry and its impact on health.
-
Suffering for beauty - Killer cosmetics through the ages.
-
Regency cosmetics.
-
History of beauty review of Umberto Ecco's book.
-
Victorian era beauty tips for the lolita.
So, what's your opinion about all of this. Nowadays, women still do pretty "crazy" and unealthy things to appear beautiful (examples:
1 -
2 -
3 and many more...). Any thoughts about this?
Libellés : fashion, history
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